Jury Confirmed for NZ’s Best Short Films Competition

Esteemed Jury Confirmed for NZ’s Best Short Films Competition

The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today announced that New Zealand producer Fiona Copland and Australian photographer and performer William Yang are confirmed for the jury of NZIFF’s New Zealand’s Best Short Film Competition.

William Yang, award-winning photographer and performer, will join filmmaker Fiona Copland (Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, The Strength of Water) and Michael Eldred, representative for Madman Entertainment, to judge the six short films, selected by Christine Jeffs, at a public screening of New Zealand’s Best 2015 in Auckland on Saturday 25 July.

“Though it’s a jury of only three, we like the line-up of judges to be as diverse as the line-up of films contending for their attention. We aim to embrace the wider culture beyond film on the panel too, so we are very happy with the mix of perspectives – local and international, production and distribution - this threesome bring to their task,” says NZIFF Director Bill Gosden.

For our fourth New Zealand’s Best programme, the jury will select the winners of two of the four awards – the $5,000 Madman Entertainment Jury Prize for Best Film and the $3,000 Wallace Friends of the Civic Award.

A special jury appointed by the New Zealand Cinematographers Society (NZCS) will select the winner of the $2,000 Allen Guilford Cinematography Award. New Zealand audiences will also be asked to vote for their favourite short film. The 2015 Audience Award winner in Auckland and Wellington takes away 25 percent of the box office from the NZIFF screenings in the four main centres.

The winners will be announced at the closing night event of the Auckland leg of NZIFF. The six finalists are Madam Black (dir: Ivan Barge), Tits on a Bull (dir: Tim Worrall), Ow What! (dir: Michael Jonathan), Not Like Her (dir: Hash Perambalam), The Tide Keeper (dir: Alyx Duncan) and Feeder (dir: Christian Rivers).

Guest selector and filmmaker Christine Jeffs selected the six finalists from a shortlist of 12. NZIFF programmers Bill Gosden and Michael McDonnell viewed 75 entries to prepare the shortlist.

About Fiona Copland
Known for producing innovative, original work and for identifying and developing talent, Fiona’s award winning feature films include the cult classic Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, The Price of Milk, The Strength of Water and Matariki. Fiona has recently joined the new New Zealand production company Field Theory.

About William Yang
William was born in 1943 in North Queensland. A prolific photographer and performer of monologues, he has won numerous awards and accolades and his works are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, State Library of New South Wales and National Library of Australia. William Yang: Blood Links is the last of a trilogy of performances that have been adapted for screen, and will screen as part of NZIFF 2015.

About Michael Eldred
Michael Eldred, Madman Entertainment, is Madman NZ’s Theatrical Sales Manager. Michael is responsible for the New Zealand theatrical release of such successful local films as Out of the Blue, Boy, and The Orator. Most recently he assisted the New Zealand release of What We Do in The Shadows. His career highlights include roles at Dendy Films & Cinemas, Polygram, Hoyts Distribution and Madman Entertainment.

NZIFF will begin in Auckland next Thursday (16 July – 2 August), open in Wellington one week later (24 July – 9 August), then Dunedin (30 July – 16 August), Nelson (6 – 24 August) and Christchurch (7 – 23 August) before continuing to travel around New Zealand screening in Gore, Timaru, Tauranga, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Masterton, New Plymouth, and Hawke’s Bay.

Tickets are on sale now in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin. The Christchurch programme will be available online from 7pm Monday 13 July and around town the following day. For NZIFF updates visit www.nziff.co.nz and register to receive e-newsletters.

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