Award Nominees Announced For Show Me Shorts Film Festival

Award Nominees Announced For Show Me Shorts Film Festival 2019

Winners announced Saturday 5 October, 2019

New Zealand’s Oscar-qualifying short film festival, Show Me Shorts, has announced the nominees for their 2019 awards. The winners will be announced at the Auckland Opening Night and Awards Ceremony on Saturday 5 October.

There are 16 films nominated for across eight award categories. Three Kiwi films received the most nominations: Ani directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu (picture above) is the most-nominated film, competing for five awards; with Armağan Ballantyne’s Hush and Awanui Simich-Pene’s Rū are each nominated for four awards.

Female filmmakers have taken out all of the nominations in four of the eight award categories. Four women are nominated for the DEGNZ Best Director award. Three female writers are nominated for the Final Draft Best Screenplay award, while four actresses are being highlighted for their outstanding performances in competition for the Toi Whakaari Best Actor award.

Show Me Shorts has always been a champion of diversity, and supportive of showcasing the work of female filmmakers. It’s an uphill battle though, with festivals globally programming only around 16 per cent of films which are directed by women.

“We can only choose from what’s available to us,” says Show Me Shorts Festival Director Gina Dellabarca. “Happily, this year nearly half of the 63 films selected for this year’s Show Me Shorts are directed by women. So we are moving in the right direction.

“Short films are the embryo of the screen industry, so this is often where change is seen first. We hope our result points to a trend towards more short films directed by women. Let’s hope Hollywood takes note. They still have a long way to go, with their gender ratio closer to 6 per cent of films directed by women. Simply put, we need more women and people with diverse points of view to get behind the camera,” Dellabarca says.

Five films are nominated for the Best International Film award: The Cocaine Famine from filmmakers Sam McMullen and Brian Martin (Ireland); (My Little Goat) from Yuichi Ito and Tomoki Misato (Japan); The Chef made by Ithaca Yixian Deng and Hao Zheng (USA); La Couleur de Tes Lèvres (The Colour of Your Lips) by Annick Blanc and Maria Gracia Turgeon (Canada); and Korte Kuitspier (Short Calf Muscle) from Victoria Warmerdam and Trent (Netherlands). These are all strong films that have played at high profile festivals around the world.

The full list of 2019 nominees is:

Department of Post Best NZ Film
Elspeth Grant & Paloma Schneideman for Memory Foam
Larisa Tiffin for Hush
Sarah Cook & Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu for Ani

Best International Film
Sam McMullen & Brian Martin for The Cocaine Famine – Ireland
Yuichi Ito & Tomoki Misato for (My Little Goat) – Japan
Ithaca Yixian Deng & Hao Zheng for The Chef – USA
Annick Blanc & Maria Gracia Turgeon for La Couleur de Tes Lèvres (The Colour of Your Lips) – Canada
Victoria Warmerdam & Trent for Korte Kuitspier (Short Calf Muscle) – Netherlands

DEGNZ Best Director
Awanui Simich-Pene for Rū
Armağan Ballantyne for Hush
Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu for Ani
Paloma Schneideman for Memory Foam

Final Draft Best Screenplay
Judith Cowley for Walk a Mile
Rachel Ross for Number Two
Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu for Ani

DEGNZ Best Editor
Annie Collins for Rū
Alexander Gandar for One By the Venom – Finn Andrews
Anastasia Doniants for Ani

Panavision Best Cinematographer
Donald Duncan NZCS for Kino Ratten
Maria Inés Manchego for Ani
Maria Inés Manchego for Hush
Waka Attewell NZCS for Walk a Mile

Toi Whakaari Best Actor
Ana Tuisila for Liliu
Miriama McDowell for Rū
Alison Bruce for Memory Foam
Margaret Sydenham for Hush

NZ on Air Best Music Video
Jeremy Dillon, Ben Sinclair & Ned Wenlock for Tony the Tiny Pony
Alexander Gandar, Tom Augustine & Amanda Jane Robinson for One By the Venom – Finn Andrews
Vision Thing & Winnie Dumell for Rock Bottom - Randa

The jury panels assembled for the 2019 Show Me Shorts awards included highly regarded screen industry practitioners: Japanese short film programmer Eiji Shimada from Sapporo Short Film Festival; celebrated cinematographer Simon Raby; renowned film critic Francesca Rudkin; successful screenwriter Nick Ward; award-winning editor Betsy Bauer; Estonian filmmaker/programmer/distributor Peter Murdmaa; and the NZFC’s Head of Talent Development Dale Corlett.

Raby enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the national jury panel.

“Short films are like a little pocket of absolute purity that hasn’t been messed around with by commercial imperative! The standard of films is so high overall this year it became very difficult to judge. There is a certain grief that judges experience when narrowing down the finalists and I certainly felt there were many films that were equally deserving of accolades. It’s going to be a great festival,” he says.

Eiji Shimada spoke highly of the Kiwi films in competition: “New Zealand short films are diverse, unique, and marvellous. I am thrilled to see talented filmmakers here and learn about your culture and historical background from all the nominated films. I think they are original but universal,” Shimada says.

Show Me Shorts is an Oscar-accredited film festival, meaning the winners of the top two awards, Department of Post Best New Zealand Film and Best International Film, will become qualified to enter the Academy Awards. Other prizes include $7,500 cash, $12,000 worth of camera gear rental from Panavision, $5,000 of gear rental from Rubber Monkey, copies of Final Draft writing software, membership to DEGNZ, flowers from Enchanted Rose, certificates and engraved bronze winners’ brooches. The total prize pool is valued at more than $40,000.

In addition to the awards listed above, audience members can vote for the SAE People’s Choice Award during the festival, by completing the survey in cinemas or at www.showmeshorts.co.nz.

There are 63 short films and music videos in the Show Me Shorts Film Festival programme. The films will screen at cinemas nationwide from 5 to 24 October. Screening dates and cinema locations are available here.

ENDS

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