By FilmInk Staff
“The film was a huge challenge but also a ton of fun to make,” says director Jonathan Wilhelmsson of his new short film Spooky Encounters Of The Sad Kind. “I hope it shows how accessible filmmaking has become, that there’s so much that’s possible even if you don’t have a huge crew or budget, and without letting AI have all the fun.”
Though Swedish, Jonathan Wilhelmsson has strong connection to Australia: he studied at The Sydney Film School and made Spooky Encounters Of The Sad Kind with Australian producer Holly Fraser, who he met while studying there, along with fellow producer Ellen Johansson. A comedy-mystery mockumentary, set during a rainy London autumn (but shot over a few stunning summer days in Gothenburg, Sweden), Spooky Encounters Of The Sad Kind follows amateur filmmaker Liz (British/Icelandic actress Karen Olrich-White) as she documents strange disturbances in her new flat, eventually uncovering the culprit in the shy and gentle ghost, Toast (voiced by British actor Tom Lorcan, from Coronation Street, House Of The Dragon and Bridgerton). An unexpected friendship begins to form, but as Liz digs deeper into Toast’s past, she discovers there’s more to his story than either of them is ready for.
Earlier this year the film screened at the Academy Award-qualifying Cinequest Film Festival in San José, where it won the award for Best Narrative Short Film (Comedy), and is now eligible for an Oscar. “Even though we have absolutely no expectations to actually be a part of that race, it’s still a lot more than our tiny little team could have hoped for when we started this silly project,” says Jonathan Wilhelmsson. “The biggest challenge was to with limited resources try to create a type of film that’s usually reserved for much larger productions. One of the keys to pulling it off was that the entire post-production, including the many visual effects, was finished by myself on my laptop (without use of AI). And so, the film slowly came together over many nights and weekends, using any spare time I could find.”
Check out the full film below!
