AUDIENCE AWARDS
2021/2022
From left: Genevieve Clay-Smith, John Batchelor and Emily Dash
GENEVIEVE CLAY-SMITH'S & RAWLEY REYNOLDS' 'GROUNDHOG NIGHT' WINS IN SAINT TROPEZ, AUSTIN, NEW YORK, PARIS & LONDON
The comedy 'Goundhog Night' won the Australia Short Film Audience Award in London in November 2022. adding to its Audience Award wins at Australian Short Film Today in Paris & New York in May 2022 and in Austin, Texas in November 2021, and its Runner Up award in Saint Tropez in October 2021.
'Groundhog Night' is a comedy/drama staring a woman with intellectual disabilities. in the film, Gary (John Batchelor) is so used to caring for his disabled daughter, Jess (Emily Dash), he can do it in his sleep. But when the in-laws come to stay, everyone gets a wake-up call.
The film was directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith and Rawley Reynolds, and was written by Emily Dash. This is Clay-Smith's second film to be screened by Australian Short Film Today. Her comedy 'Kill Off' was in our 2018 program and won Runner Up awards at Australian Short Film Today in Saint Tropez and Paris.
'AYAAN' IS THE RUNNER UP IN NEW YORK AND PARIS
The Runner Up award in Paris, as well as in New York, was 'Aayan', a drama written and direted by Ailes Sluiter about an African refugee coming ashore in Australia. The first person she sees is an Indigenous Australian, and she has to decide whether to trust him or not. Ailes received her M.F.A. from Columbia University in New York, which she attended as a John Monash Scholar. She is an accomplished composer and violinist.
'THE EGG' IS THE RUNNER UP IN AUSTIN
The Runner Up award in Austin went to 'The Egg', a comedy/drama written and directed by Jane Cho. In the film. a young girl is dropped off with an elderly Korean woman babysitter. Bored, lonely and mistreated, the girl looks for anything to break the monotony. She becomes infatuated with an Easter egg out of reach on top of the refrigerator. Jane is a first generation Korean-Australian who was a professional violinist for 15 years.
TILDA COBHAM-HERVEY'S & DEV PATEL'S ‘ROBOROVSKI’ WINS IN SAINT TROPEZ AT THE PREMIERE OF OUR 2021/2022 PROGRAM
The stylish animated comedy 'Roborovski' won the 2021 Australian Short Film Today Audience Award in Saint Tropez on October 12, 2021. This was the premiere of our 2021 program - our 29th annual edition - and our return to live screenings in the US and Europe.
The infectious short was co-directed by Tilda Cobham-Hervey who starred in the Helen Reddy biopic, 'I Am Woman', and actor Dev Patel who starred in 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'Hotel Mumbai' and other films. It was written by Tilda Cobham-Hervey, John Collee and Dev Patel.
The film mixes animation styles from 3-D realism to simple 2-D. It opens with the feeling of a children's cartoon but takes a series of dark turns. In it, an innocent-looking hamster who is over-looked by children in a pet store decides to take matters into his own claws.
Our hosting partner in Saint Tropez is Rencontres Internationales du Cinema des Antipodes which screens Australian and New Zealand feature films and short films annually in Saint Tropez. 'Roborovski' also won the festival's Nicolas Baudin prize for best short film, awarded by a jury.