This coming Saturday evening, Canberra short film makers will be honoured at the 2019 edition of the Blue Shift Sci-fi and Fantasy Short Film Festival at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC).
Now in its fifth year as a regular program item of the annual Gamma.con pop culture convention, the short film competition encouraged filmmakers to produce a science fiction or fantasy genre film using a signature line of dialogue. 2019’s line filmmakers had to use was; ‘This is really the end.’
Festival Director Dan Sanguineti comments, “The professional quality of the films submitted this year, continue to show the rise of filmmaking talent in the Canberra region. But even more impressively, we saw first-time filmmakers stepping up and giving it a go too.”
Sanguineti continues, “Ganiyu Amusan’s film, ‘The Clone’ is one such example of not being afraid to challenge yourself, with Amusan, not only starring as both characters, but filming and editing everything himself. Other highlights from this year’s program includes Declan Shrubb’s ‘Remarkable’ about a young boy who learns a devastating truth about his existence and Liam Ellis’ student film ‘The Narrative Devices’ with an action adventure in the tomb raiding style of Indiana Jones.”
The judging panel met last week to decide the official festival lineup including selecting the prize winners. The best film will receive $1000, with other prizes for best student film, best performance, best writing and best cinematography and best visual effects.
The 10 selected films for 2019 are:
Splash - Produced and Directed by George Tsotsos
The Narrative Devices - Produced and Directed by Liam Ellis
The Clone - Produced and Directed by Ganiyu Amusan
Trials of Akamor - Produced and Directed by Ewout Rohling
Unrequited Fear - Produced by Masoud Varjavandi, Directed by George Tsotsos
Djinn - Produced and Directed by Brendan Kelly
First Born - Produced by Melinda May and James Foulds, Directed by James Foulds
Remarkable - Produced by Sebastian Chan & Declan Shrubb, Directed by Declan Shrubb & David Trajanoski
D-Grade Delivery - Produced by Lyndsey Turnbull, Anthea Staats, Directed by Luke Marriott
Bonkus - Produced by Masoud Varjavandi, Directed by Amelia Forsyth-Smith
The 2019 judging panel comprised of:
Screen Canberra’s Senior Manager, Sophie Harper;
Film reviewer and Artsound FM’s ‘The Movie Club’ host, Luke McWilliams;
And, one of Gamma.con’s creators, and Blue Shift founder, Matthew Owen.
Filmmakers will be notified which films are in the running for prizes with category nominations on July 31st, with the final winners announced after the festival screening at the Awards ceremony.
The screening starts at 8.30pm, Saturday 3rd August at the EPIC conference centre, as part of the Gamma@Night program.
Full program and Tickets are available here: https://gammacon.org.au/gammanight/
Tickets available at the door.
The screening is presented this year by The Academy of the Interactive Entertainment, who is the festival's major sponsor. Other prize sponsors include, EOR Media, Perform Australia, Film Plus and Sanguineti Media.
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