'Side Dish’ of the day at Cinematic 2007
The animated film, ‘Side Dish’, by Director Leigh Hodgkinson, was voted the ‘most innovative film’ at the Cinematic 2007 short film festival. Leigh also claimed the ‘best animation’ award for her second entry, ‘Flighty’.
Cinematic was the fifth annual short film festival organised by Birmingham City University’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC). The event was supported by IMAX Cinema Birmingham and Birmingham’s New Technology Institute (NTI). Established to encourage innovation in short film-making, this year’s event showcased 34 films, short-listed from a record 130 entries.
The winning film, ‘Side Dish’, was created as an accompaniment to the song of the same name by the group ‘Psapp’. The enchanting animation tangles interior and exterior decor, as a girl prepares a romantic meal in a garden. Leigh’s animation category winner ‘Flighty’ is a witty take on speed-dating, featuring butterflies with just two weeks to live!
As Apple’s Accredited Training Centre in Birmingham, NTI is providing a training place on the ‘FCP101: Introduction to Final Cut Pro 6’ course to Cinematic’s winning director.
The ‘best student film’ prize was won by co-directors Debbie Steer and Lucy Elliot. Their offbeat drama, ‘Grandma and the Monster’, was inspired by Japanese ‘Kajiu’ monster films, Manga animation, linguistics, sculpture and fashion photography. Debbie and producer, Jonathan Addy, were presented with a selection of Apple training books from TIC and prize sponsor NTI Birmingham.
Three further category winners also received awards. The drama category was won by Flemming Jetmar’s film ‘Drop’. His action-adventure film deftly depicts one man’s survival from a tornado as just the beginning of a perilous ride. Luke Dosey’s film ‘i’ won the category for experimental films, with a snapshot of a human eye during a terrifying moment.
The documentary film category went to Edward Brooke-Hitching’s film ‘The Watchman’, which follows the deeply moving story of Eastbourne window cleaner, Keith Lane. After his wife committed suicide, Keith started twice daily patrols of the Beachy Head cliffs in order to talk-down would be jumpers.
A text voting system enabled the festival’s audience to vote for the ‘People’s Choice’ awards. The winner on night one was the animated film ‘The Monster, the Penguin and the Giraffe’. Directed by Lou Wilde, the film explores the vivid imagination of children by bringing their drawings to life. The best student film winner ‘Grandma and the Monster’ also won the audience vote on night two.
Summing up Cinematic 2007, Festival Director, TIC’s Stephen Gordon said: “It was a tough task for our judges to pick winners. The production values of entries gets ever-higher and film-makers are constantly finding new and intriguing ways to interpret our desire to encourage innovation in short film-making. A noticeable trend in this year’s selection is the director’s decision to eschew dialogue in favour of compelling visually-led narratives – the kinds of stories that only film can tell!“
Further information on Cinematic can be found at www.tic.ac.uk/cinematic or www.myspace.com/cinematicfestival