Video of the week
Budding student film maker triumphs at Film Blitz awards
Friday 16 March 2012
A film charting the disintegration of a relationship last night won two awards, and prizes totalling £120, at the finale of the University of St Andrews’ 60 Hour Film Blitz Challenge, organised as part of the University’s 600th anniversary celebrations.
Maia Krall Fry’s film Sunder triumphed at the final screening in the Byre Theatre, seeing off competition from more than 30 other entries to win-over the 200-strong audience and take the Audience Award, as well as the Award for best Blockbuster (the category for experienced film-makers).
The challenge had been for teams of up to eight people to shoot short, three minute films set in St Andrews as part of a filmmaking competition organised by the Centre for Film Studies. Films were then judged by a panel of respected judges led by Chris Fujiwara, the new Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, at last night’s public screening event in the Byre Theatre.
The winners in the ‘Home Movie’ category for first time filmmakers were 22 year-old students Oliver Carr (Philosophy), Jenna Al Ansari (English), Emily Allen (French and Spanish) and Inez Gordon (English and Philosophy). Their witty film about the filmmaking process, The Director, cleverly utilised a single long take of one street and a hilarious voice-over.
The jury was split on the ‘Indie’ Award for filmmakers of limited experience, and the award was ultimately shared between two films: Lords of Poshtown, produced by Ancient History student Dylan James (aged 22), which put a new spin on the skateboard documentary by focussing on port swilling toffs in tweed and Tessa, produced by 20 year-old Film Studies student Alex Budman, a film about her friend’s globe-trotting life, imaginatively shot partly as a cooking show.