AUDIENCE AWARDS
'JUDAS COLLAR' SCORES ITS FOURTH WIN
Oscar-eligible ‘Judas Collar’ won the Australian Short Film Today Audience Award for Austin, Texas at a screening hosted by Austin Film Society on January 15, 2020.
This followed the film's three 2019 Audience Awards in a row in Los Angeles, Berlin and St Tropez, and its Runner Up Award in Paris.
The Founder of Austin Film Society, iconic American indie director Richard Linklater, was present for the screening.
In the film, set in outback Australia, a feral camel is fitted with a tracking device known as a Judas collar that brings with it betrayal of the rest of the herd with which it travels.
'Judas Collar' won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Short Film at the Austin Film Festival (unrelated to Austin Film Society) in 2018 and won Best Film and Best Director at the St Kilda Film Festival in 2019. Each of these wins made 'Judas Collar' eligible for the Academy Awards in 2020.
The film was written and directed by Alison James of Perth, Western Australia and produced by Brooke Tia Silcox, also from Perth. After ten years in documentary filmmaking for Australian television, Alison has transitioned to narrative filmmaking. This is her third narrative film.
At the Q&A at the Los Angeles screening in October 2019, Ali and Brooke said they were "just two girls from Perth." Somehow we don't think so.
From left: Alison James (writer/director) and Brooke Tia Silcox (producer) from JUDAS COLLAR, Chris Beale from Australian Short Film Today, and Brenden Dannaher (writer/director) and Nicole Shostak (lead actress) from A QUICK LOVE STORY at the Los Angeles screening of AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM TODAY hosted by AUSTRALIANS IN FILM
'A QUICK LOVE STORY' WINS IN PARIS
The 2019 Australian Short Film Today Audience Award for Paris went to ‘A Quick Love Story’, a comedy written and directed by Brenden Dannaher of Sydney. He was in attendance at the screening on November 20, 2109 along with Dominique Fusy, the film's editor, who lives in Paris. This win follows the film’s 2019 Runner Up Awards in Los Angeles and New York, where the film had its global premiere at Australian Short Film Today.
Dannaher is from Sydney where he works at SBS (the public Special Broadcasting Service) and has a background in educational films. It is clear from the subject matter of his comedy that he has experienced one online survey too many. This short seems to be his revenge.
In the cleverly written film, a young man, who has been rejected by the woman to whom he has proposed, finally meets a woman who is facsimiled by him and wants to know his opinions. The only problem? She is an online survey.
'FIRE IN CARDBOARD CITY' CATCHES FIRE IN NEW YORK, AND HAS AUSTIN GUFFAWING
The animated comedy/drama 'Fire in Cardboard City' by a ringer from New Zealand, Phil Brough, won the 2019 Australian Short Film Today audience Award at the Asia Society in New York on May 14, 2019. We focus on Australian films and don't often screen films from other countries, but after we saw 'Fire in Cardboard City' we liked it so much we felt we had to screen it. Solidarity with our Kiwi mates! Except in Rugby.
The film also won the Runner Up Award in Austin on January 15, 2020.
The city in the animated film looks an awful lot like New York. This "free-wheeling disaster movie ... feels like a joy ride," said The New Yorker magazine after the film had its U.S. debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Brough confirmed to us that the city portrayed in the short is based on New York City, and says it also includes some iconic New Zealand buildings.
'NURSERY RHYMES' SERENADED IN ST TROPEZ
The 2019 Runner Up Award in Saint Tropez went to 'Nursery Rhymes', directed by Tom Noakes, a graduate of AFTRS, who is based in Sydney. It opens with a continuous 4 minute shot with a metalhead standing in a field singing a nursery rhyme, with a 10 second shot to finish.
The film "disorientates its audience initially via a surreal, contextless opening. Confusion gives way to a slowly unfolding puzzle however, serving up revelations all the way through to its emotional close, when it delivers." - Celine Roustan, Short of the Week.
THEY LOVED 'HIGH SCHOOL LOVER' IN BERLIN
The 2019 Runner Up Audience Award in Berlin went to 'High School Lover', a poignant drama about a young man composing a text message to his former high school girlfriend. The film is directed by Cielo Croci from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
Cielo is studying for his masters of film and television at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. It is remarkable that a film by a young filmmaker, himself only recently at high school, could touch so many audience members, some of whom are long removed from their high school love.
'THE ELEVEN O'CLOCK' SWEEPS THE AUDIENCE AWARDS FOR THE 2018 TRAVELING PROGRAM.
From left: Damon Herriman and Josh Lawson
This Academy Award nominated film swept the Australian Short Film Today Audience Awards in each of the 8 cities globally where we screened the 2018 traveling program. It was directed by Derin Seale, and starred Damon Herriman and John Lawson, who also wrote the film.
In the cleverly written comedy with complex wordplay, a delusional patient of a psychiatrist believes he is actually the psychiatrist.
The versatile Daniel Herriman attended the Australian International Screen Forum in Lincoln Center, New York, in May 2019 for the New York premiere of 'The Nightingale' by Jennifer Kent in which he plays a brutal soldier. Also in 2019, he appeared as mass murderer Charles Manson in two films.
AND THE WINNER IS ....
AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM TODAY AUDIENCE AWARDS HAVE GONE TO ...
AUSTIN Judas Collar directed by Alison James
(Jan 2020) Runner up: Fire in Cardboard City directed by Phil Brough
PARIS A Quick Love Story directed by Brenden Dannaher
(Nov 2019) Runner up: Judas Collar directed by Alison James
LOS ANGELES Judas Collar directed by Alison James
(Oct 2019) Runner up: A Quick Love Story directed by Brenden Dannaher
ST TROPEZ Judas Collar directed by Alison James
(Oct 2019) Runner up: Nursery Rhymes directed by Tom Noakes
BERLIN Judas Collar directed by Alison James
(Sep 2019) Runner up: High School Lover directed by Cielo Croci
NEW YORK Fire in Cardboard City directed by Phil Brough
(May 2019) Runner up: A Quick Love Story directed by Brendan Dannaher
LONDON The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Jan 2019) Runner up: Adele directed by Mirene Igwabi
AUSTIN The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Oct 2018) Runner up: a tie between Kill Off directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith and Lost Property Office directed by Daniel Agdad
HOUSTON The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Oct 2018) Runner up: Adele directed by Mirene Igwabi
Clockwise from top left: LOST PROPERTY OFFICE, ADELE, KILL OFF and LIBRARY OF LOVE
ST TROPEZ The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Oct 2018) Runner up: a tie between Kill Off directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith and Lost Property Office directed by Daniel Agdad
BOSTON The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Oct 2018) Runner up: a tie between Adele directed by Mirene Igwabi and Lost Property Office directed by Daniel Agdad
ST TROPEZ The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Oct 2018) Runner up: Adele directed by Mirene Igwabi
BERLIN The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(Sept 2018) Runner up: Adele directed by Mirene Igwabi
PARIS The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(June 2018) Runner up: Kill Off directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith
NEW YORK The Eleven O'clock directed by Derin Seale
(May 2018) Runner up: Library of Love directed by Khrob and Miranda Edmonds
THE DAM
AUSTIN Bluey directed by Darlene Johnson
(Apr 2018)
LONDON The Dam directed by Brendon McDonall
(Jan 2018)
HOUSTON Deighties directed by Mason Fleming
(Nov 2017)
ST TROPEZ Meat and Potatoes directed by Ellenor Argyropoulous and Arielle Thomas
(Oct 2017)
BOSTON Bluey directed by Darlene Johnson
(Sept 2017)
PARIS The Mother Situation directed by Matt Day
(June 2017)
NEW YORK Deighties directed by Mason Fleming
(May 2017)
Clockwise from top left: MEAT AND POTATOES, BLUEY, THE MOTHER SITUATION and DEIGHTIES