Kiwi shorts feature in international film fest
Talented Kiwi filmmakers have been showcasing the beauty of New Zealand this week, at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (4 - 12 February 2011).
In its 33rd year, the festival chose New Zealand as the country to spotlight, and viewers were taken on a uniquely New Zealand experience.
Nearly 50 15-minute films screened, representing the extraordinary depth and breadth of short films made in New Zealand since 1970.
NZ cinematic works
Steeped in Māori culture and known for its beautiful landscape, New Zealand - a small nation marooned in the South Pacific - produces critically acclaimed short cinematic works.
New Zealand short films provide a temporary escape from reality into the beautiful and humorous Kiwi psyche, and also feature the country’ isolation and rugged beauty.
The New Zealand Retrospective at Clermont-Ferrand includes one of New Zealand’s oldest and most successful short films - Kitchen Sink by Alison MacLean which originally screened there in 1990 - and The Six Dollar Fifty Man, which was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination.
Out of all the films - Choice Night - will now compete for top honours against 78 of the world’s best short films.
Set in Wellington, the short film is about a 15-year-old-boy who has everything before him. The catch is that he has to choose between the two things he wants the most.
Choice Night screened in 2010 at A-list festivals Melbourne, London and Valladolid, receiving Best Short Film at Cinema Tous Ecran in Switzerland.
Successful Kiwi filmmakers
Filmmakers Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland last year took the international film festival scene by storm with The Six Dollar Fifty Man, their beautifully crafted tale of a tenacious victim of schoolyard bullying who retreats into a make-believe world.
They have already won the top prize at Sundance Film Festival, and received special distinctions at Festival de Cannes and the Berlin International Film Festival.
Writer and director Taika Waititi’s groundbreaking 2003 short film Two Cars and One Night received an Oscar nomination, and he went on to make the popular feature film Boy (2010).
Filmmaker Katie Wolfe’s short film Redemption is set to screen at the next Sundance Film Festival. This is the second time Wolfe has had a film make the festival.
Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival
In its 33rd year, the Clermont- Ferrand International Short Film Festival is considered the world's premier cinema event dedicated to short film.
Each year the festival selects a country to showcase, and this year six sessions screened a selection of New Zealand short films stretching back to 1970.
The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival is organised by Sauve qui peut le court métrage (roughly translatable as ‘short film SOS’.
More information