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Going Postal
Australia Post and the Australian Film Institute (AFI) have announced the winners of the inaugural 200 seconds short film competition.
It called on budding filmmakers to make a film, no more than 200 seconds in length and featuring a parcel, as part of Australia Post's bicentenary celebrations.
Walter Ratcliffe of Redfern, NSW won best film for the Open category which is 19 years and older. His film A Delivery for Mr. Droste [pictured] featured a giant piece of cereal in a post-modern take on the ‘Droste-effect', which is an image depicting a smaller version of itself, then showing an even smaller version of itself and so on.
It also featured a miniature model of his house and garden, built to scale, which he says was quite a task. "It took me days to build, but I'm glad it paid off," he said.
The Youth category, which is 15 to 18 years, was taken out by Mitchell Johnson-Green from Castle Hill, Emily Smyth-King from Berowra, and Cassandra Floriano from Epping.
They created the short film Parcel Pal, in which they made their main character wear a giant box - a metaphor for the character's shy nature.
Ms Floriano says it took them two weeks of filming and a week of editing to create their film. "It was very much a collaborative effort. We're so excited about going to the AFIs, especially so early in our careers," she said.
A Lament for Ludwig was a short film created by Kara Jane Parow from Glen Iris in Victoria and she won the People's Choice Award.
The judging panel included noted film identities Robert Connolly (Balibo), Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood), Sarah Watt (My Year Without Sex), Melanie Coombs (Mary and Max) and Tahnee McGuire (Still Life).
Mr Connolly said they were encouraged by the quality of entries and they were excited to see such talent emerging. "This competition is a great way for people interested in filmmaking to experiment and see what they can achieve," he said.
Mr Ratcliffe was excited that Robert Connolly was judging the competition. "He [Robert Connolly] is one of my favourite directors and to know that he has seen my film is great!"
The 200 seconds short film competition was developed by Australia Post in its bicentenary year as an extension of its sponsorship of the AFI awards.
AFI Chief Executive Officer Damian Trewhella said the competition provided a new generation of filmmakers with valuable exposure and access to the industry through prizes. "Australia has a proud history of producing world class directors and actors and the competition creates an opportunity through which emerging content creators can shine," he said.
The winners will have their film screened in front of Australia's film industry elite at the 2009 Samsung Mobile AFI Industry Awards on Friday, December 11 at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne.