OUR FIVE FAVOURITE SHORTS FROM NOHO CINEFEST 2020

Like many of the world’s leading film festivals, the 2020 North Hollywood ‘NoHo’ Cinefest was bumped from its home at the Laemmle NoHo 7 theaters in April when COVID-19 took hold. Determined not to let their cinephile fanbase down, the festival organisers have reworked the event into a virtual edition, offering 14 features and a whopping 102 shorts for holders of an All-Access pass (the festival season's best buy at US$39.00).

With three days left of NoHo CineFest, SCREEN-SPACE are offering a ‘starter plate’ of five superb short films for lovers of seriously fine cinema (and of the features, make time for Jacob Burn’s sci-fi shocker Shifter and Dan Asma’s bighearted doco Cinematographer…)

MALOU (Dir: Adi Wojaczek; Cast - Romina Küper, Veronica Ferres, Charles Rettinghaus, Matilda Herzog; Germany, 15 mins) From the Program: The young dancer Malou is irresistibly fighting for her dream of a career on the big stage. After years of struggle and rejection, she suddenly receives her once-in-a-lifetime chance - leading up to an unexpected reveal.
I’m watching this, why? Frankly, we saw the ending coming, but that in no way lessened the wrenching emotion of Adi Wojaczek’s beautifully rendered dance drama. In 15 short minutes, the wonderful Romina Küper (pictured, right) generates enough investment in the title character’s plight, the end of the film feels very much like the beginning of a wonderful story.

THE MARK OF THE BANSHEE (Dirs: Nicol Eilers; Cast - Chloë Caro, Maddy Rathbun, Pina Sbrocca, Melissa Wiehl; U.S.A., 14 mins ) From the Program: A single mother struggles to defend her pregnant teenage daughter from the ancestral curse of a Banshee who's come back to claim her.
I’m watching this, why? The contemporising of ages-old demonic lore by placing it in the context of a modern ‘teen pregnancy’ narrative (helped immeasurably by lead performers Chloë Caro and Maddy Rathbun). Oh, and it’s bloody scary! There’s a certain Raimi-esque quality to the screeching she-demon that conjures legit chills.  

WOMXN (Dirs: Tara Lynn Rye, Magen Ashley Young; Cast - Tara Lynn Rye, Nzinga Moore, Jenalyn Culhane; U.S.A., 4 mins) From the Program: Womxn is a powerful visual poem about sexual assault. 28 women of all different backgrounds gathered to perform the same text. Not only does this piece bring awareness to the staggering frequency of sexual assault against women, it explores why so many of us remain silent. Womxn illustrates how together we can begin to heal one another with our voices.
I’m watching this, why? It is as potent a declaration of unity and strength as you are likely to see on any 2020 screen, big or small. In stark black-&-white, directly to camera, the participants lay bare the pain and sorrow of sexual violence, but also the defiance and will to recover and fight it has stirred in them. A remarkable statement. 

ANACRONTE (Dirs: Raúl Koler, Emiliano Sette; Argentina | Mexico, 15 mins) From the Program: Anacronte and the Sorcerers of Evil, without any emotion and fulfilling their destiny, put to the test humanity's happiness in a struggle that, in short, has each of us as winners and losers.
I’m watching this, why? The passage of the human soul through a vast netherworld dictated by the random impact of fate is brought to stunning life in this animated masterpiece. Riffing on how our spirit can often overcome real world pain by unshakeable faith in one’s own will to survive, co-directors Raúl Koler and Emiliano Sette have crafted a vision of the afterlife as breathtakingly captivating as Vincent Ward’s similarly-themed 1998 feature, What Dreams May Come.  

MANHUNT (Dir: Jack Martin; Cast - Casey Lynn, Derek Russo, Stasha Surdyk; U.S.A., 9 mins) From the Program: In the middle of the night, a dangerous fugitive on the run seeks shelter just as an adventurous young girl breaks out of her bedroom. Their two worlds collide.
I’m watching this, why? Superb production values and visual style, the likes of which announce Jack Martin as a young director ready for feature-length genre work. But also a terrific lead performance by Casey Lynn, whose chemistry with tough guy Derek Russo and character arc through such stages as fear, compassion and understanding mark her as an actor to watch.

NOHO CINEFEST 2020 began its current season on December 4 and runs to December 12. To purchase tickets to all online sessions go to the Official Website. 

2020 SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL: PREVIEW

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The inaugural Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival (SSFFF) has announced a line-up which makes its mission goal very clear. The aim is to debut with a truly international event, with a program that presents Sydney genre fans with 10 features and 41 shorts from 20 countries.

Under the patronage of director Alex Proyas (Dark City; I, Robot; Knowing) and Festival Director Simon Foster, the SSFFF is set to run from November 19 to 21 at the state-of-the-art Actors Centre Australia complex in the inner-west suburb of Leichhardt. The 2020 schedule boasts the World Premiere of four Australian works, notably Mark Toia’s MONSTERS OF MAN (pictured, below). Independently shot in Cambodia and best described as ‘Predator-meets-Robocop’, the fierce action/thriller will open the festival, with fan anticipation high in the wake of its trailer going viral on YouTube.

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE 

Then, on Saturday 21st from 1.00pm, a strand called NORTHERN LIGHTS: QUEENSLAND SCIFI SHOWCASE will feature the first global screenings of Travis Bain’s mini-feature, STARSPAWN: OVERTURE, starring genre icon Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2), and Stephen Osborne’s debut feature, the UFO-themed comedy/thriller, STRANGEVILLE.

The fourth debut will be Richard de Carvalho’s Star Wars fan-fiction actioner, A BLASTER IN THE RIGHT HANDS (trailer, bottom), which will kick-off the AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM SHOWCASE on Saturday 21st from 10.30am. This homegrown parade of 11 shorts runs the gamut from student pics (Ilana Finocchario’s EXTRA(TERRESTRIAL) and micro-budget indies (Kyle Lacey-Janettzki’s MILK) to cutting edge effects showpieces (Megan Bromberg’s STORAGE) and international festival hits (Adrian Powers’ BROLGA).

The features representing the world of speculative cinema come from Italy (Emanuela Rossi’s DARKNESS); France (Olivier Babinet’s FISH LOVE); Japan (Kousuke Hishinuma’s HIDE & SNIFF); Spain (Juan Gonzalez & Nando Martinez’s THE QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS); and, Russia (Nikita Argunov’s epic fantasy, COMA, the festival’s Closing Night film). 

Also from France is Baptiste Rouveure’s ANONYMOUS ANIMALS (pictured, right), a truly shocking reverse-world look at mankind at the mercy of animals, which will screen as the centrepiece of HORRIFIC FUTURES: SCIFI’S DARKEST VISIONS on Friday November 20 from 9.00pm. Also in this challenging, MA-rated roster is THE HOST (Poland, Dir: Pawel Song No); MIDNIGHT MOVIE: MAGNUM OPUS (Tunisia, Dir: Myriam Khammassi); TRANSFERT (France, Dir: Jonathan Degrelle) and EVENFALL (Australia, Dir: Dean Butler).

A highlight of the first Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival will be the prime Saturday evening session, which has been allocated to two remarkable films from a region rarely represented in genre events. From 6.30pm, the strand SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE MIDDLE EAST will present the psychological thriller THE FABRICATED, the astonishingly assured debut of Iranian brothers Ali and Emad Katmiri, followed by the breathtaking beauty of SCALES, female director Shahad Ameen’s sea-monster/female-empowerment vision, from the U.A.E.

Repping the global short film community will be such acclaimed works as Yuichi Kondo’s RYOKO’S QUBIT SUMMER, an LGBTIQ-themed A.I. romance from Japan that earned Outstanding Film honours at the Berlin Sci-Fi Film Fest; French directors Loris Lamunière and Charles Mercier DAR(k)WIN PROJECT, a mesmerising mock-doc revealing the plastic sea-creatures of the future; U.K. filmmaker Stephen Bookas' lockdown love story, IT'S NOT SAFE OUTSIDE (pictured, top) and, Polish student Dominika Ożarowska’s cerebral thinkpiece SPACE PROBE PASSENGER, a fictional character study of how humans would interpret poetry sent from a free-thinking, deep-space craft.

Women directors are represented by 12 films (23%) in the SSFFF 2020 line-up. In addition to those already mentioned (Shaheed Ammen’s SCALES; Tunisian director Myriam Khammassi’s MAGNUM OPUS; Emanuela Rossi’s DARKNESS, pictured, right), female visions include Canadian Chelsea Jade McEvoy’s PALLIDUS; Spaniards Silvia Conesa’s POLVOTRON 500 and Eva Daoud’s THE LIGHT THIEF; and, American Trish Harnetiaux’s head-scratcher YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND.

FACEBOOK: @SydneyScienceFictionFilmFestival
TWITTER: @SydSciFiFest
INSTAGRAM: @SydSciFiFest
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CjNbBJl6ymUJC-dsZBl4A/

All ticketing and session information can be found at the event's FilmFreeway page here. The 2020 SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL will run November 19-21 at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt.

PREVIEW: 2018 SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL

Tickets available from the Event Cinemas George Street box office and online here. 

Australia’s leading celebration of science-fiction cinema, the SciFi Film Festival, has a wondrous line-up of breathtaking works from the planet’s most visionary filmmakers as part of their fifth anniversary edition.

From 18^th to 21^st October, Sydney audiences seeking an adventurous movie-going experience will converge on the Event Cinemas George St complex to view 25 groundbreaking genre works from 11 countries, including two world premieres, 18 Australian premieres and 3 New South Wales premieres. (Pictured, above; Dan Prince's short Invaders) 

Nine features and 16 short films will play across the four days of the SciFi Film Festival. Countries represented include Australia (6 films), the United Kingdom (5), the U.S.A. (4), Germany (2), Canada (2), Hong Kong (1), France (1), The Netherlands (1), Lebanon (1), Austria (1) and the Dominican Republic (1).   

Opening Night audiences will be treated to a thrilling, unique cinematic experience with the Australian premiere of Johann Lurf’s ★ (pictured, right). This towering achievement examines how the night sky and the deep void that lies beyond, has been portrayed on screen in 100 years of cinema. The Austrian ‘constructuralist’ has compiled starscapes from over 550 films, from the silent era to 2018, resulting in a captivating work of the imagination; a montage-doc that celebrates humanity’s drive to explore the galaxy and how filmmakers have conjured that experience for us all.

Screening on Friday October 19 are films that will explore the ‘alien’ sub-genre. To commemorate the 25^th anniversary of her iconic TV show ‘The X-Files’, Gillian Anderson will re-engage with her loyal fanbase with the Australian premiere of the conspiracy-theory thriller, UFO. Close out your Friday evening of extra-terrestrial interaction with CANARIES, a ‘Shaun-of-the-Dead’-style comedy/sci-fi romp in which Welsh New Year’s Eve partygoers must face off against an invading intergalactic force.

Across the weekend, the eclectic program will present films that have played such festivals as Karlovy Vary, FrightFest, Sitges and Sundance: Direct from its award-winning World Premiere at SXSW, PROSPECT stars the remarkable Sophie Thatcher in an interplanetary survival thriller; Dominican director Héctor Valdez remakes the Australian time-travel/rom-com ‘The Infinite Man’ as the delightfully off-kilter romp PEACHES; and, the rise of A.I. and the impact of sentient robotics is explored in the quietly-frightening documentary, MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN.

Two Australian features are highlights of the 2018 features roster. Director Adam Harris will present his heart-warming ‘Star Wars’-themed documentary, MY SAGA, followed by a Q&A session with his friend and co-host of SBS’s ‘The Feed’ program, Marc Fennell; and, direct from its World Premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the confronting dramatic feature REFLECTIONS IN THE DUST (pictured, right) will be presented by writer/director Luke Sullivan for a session that is sure to inspire a passionate post-screening panel discussion, to be hosted by Fiona Williams, host of the hit podcast Eyes on Gilead and managing editor of SBS Movies.

Closing Night will be a celebration of ‘80s nuclear paranoia, with final-session honours bestowed upon the cult classic MIRACLE MILE. Writer/director Steve De Jarnatt’s 1989 romantic thriller, starring Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham and featuring a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, will see the inside of a Sydney cinema for the first time in three decades. Ahead of the feature presentation, director Johann Earl will screen the World Premiere of his alien warzone actioner SHIFT, starring Bianca Bradey (‘Wyrmwood: Road of The Dead’).

Soaring visions and complex themes are central to the 2018 short films selection. The 16 shorts feature a selection of truly inspired cinematic works from such fields as animation (Alex Fung’s EKO); steampunk-influenced animatronics (Fadi Baki Fdz’s MANIVELLE: THE LAST DAYS OF THE MAN OF TOMORROW); music video aesthetics (Marc Adamson’s AFTER WE HAVE LEFT OUR HOMES); experimental (Xavier Brydges’ WESTALL); and, effects-heavy deep-space drama (Bobby Bala’s THE SHIPMENT). One of Australia’s most respected film journalists, Travis Johnson, will host a Q&A with attending directors on the passion for genre storytelling that drives their short film projects.

All features will be in Official Competition for festival honours in the categories Best Film, Actor, Actress, Music/Sound and Effects. Short films will vie for awards in Best Australian and Best International categories. The Jury Members will be announced closer to the festival dates.

The Sci-Fi Film Festival supports positive gender representation in its 2018 selection; 16 of the 25 productions (or 64%) feature a woman in one of the four key production positions. Five female directors have their works represented in the program - JESSICA CHAMPNEYS (‘Star Wars: Dresca’, US); SOPHIA SCHONBORN (‘Spacedogs’, Germany), KAT WOOD (‘Stine’, U.K.), FEMKE WOLTING (co-director, ‘More Human Than Human’, The Netherlands) and EMILY LIMYUN DEAN (‘Andromeda’, Australia/U.S./Germany; pictured, above).

Making its debut in 2018 is The SciFi Film Festival Vanguard Award, presented to an individual whose unique creative endeavours display a determination and fearlessness in the face of adversity. The inaugural honouree will be 2000 Sydney Paralympian-turned-actress, Sarah Houbolt, star of REFLECTIONS IN THE DUST.

SCREEN-SPACE is an Official Media Partner of the 2018 SciFi Film Festival.

(A RE-POST OF THE PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR AND SCREEN-SPACE EDITOR, SIMON FOSTER)

IFFR HONOURS SHORT FILM STORYTELLERS WITH COVETED TIGER TROPHY

IFFR 2018: Works from all corners of the international short film community earned plaudits when the judging panel at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the Ammodo Tiger Short Film competition winners on Sunday January 28.

The jury consisted of Chinese filmmaker Ying Liang, who won a Tiger Short trophy in 2009 for Condolences; Dutch graphic designer Mieke Gerritzen; and, Kenyan filmmaker Jim Chuchu, founder of Nairobi-based arts initiative The Nest Collective. The winners were chosen from a field of 22 entrants, including 14 world premieres.

The three films to each earn the €5,000 cash prize were Mountain Plain Mountain, a co-production from Spain, Japan and The Netherlands co-directed by Araki Yu and Daniel Jacoby; director Sara Cwynar’s iPhone teen odyssey Rose Gold (pictured, right), from The USA; and, the latest installment of Thai artist Korakrit Arunanondchai’s meditative and sombre consideration of death, With History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 4, which draws upon the cultures of The USA, Thailand, South Africa and The United Kingdom. (Pictured, top; IFFR directors Bero Beyer, left, and Janneke Staarink, right, with Daniel Jacoby, Araki Yu, Sara Cwynar, and European Film Award nominee Heather Phillipson).

The jury commended the diversity of the narratives while recognising the humanism that binds the winning films. On Mountain Plain Mountain, they stated  “the directors find the microcosmos into which all the loneliness and the isolation of human beings is to be found.” In discussing Rose Gold, the jury said, “The film has been chosen because of the innocent imagery that also makes us feel uncomfortable, because we know that our world isn’t sweet and soft only.”

Arunanondchai’s work (pictured, left) earned particularly high praise, the jury remarking, “There are moments of breathtaking beauty in this ambitious, sprawling, yet deeply moving film. This film reminds us that for all our tech-enabled and capital-fuelled hubris, we remain lonely as we reach for greater meaning, staying inevitably mortal.”

Also honoured was Heather Phillipson’s WHAT’S THE DAMAGE from the U.K. (pictured, right), a timely reaction to the patriarchal white power cabals that govern world. The film was nominated by the IFFR judging panel to compete in the short film category at European Film Awards, to be held in Seville on December 15. "An amazing and original work with unexpected imagery composed as a new aesthetic,” noted the Tiger Short jury, noting, "There is infinite room in the world for cultural works that dissect, critique and rebuke the ghastly political phenomenon that is Trump, and WHAT’S THE DAMAGE is a worthy addition to that canon."

Amongst those competing for the IFFR Tiger Short awards were Australian-born, Paris-based Mel O’Callaghan with Dangerous on the Way, a shared production between Australia and Borneo.

All the nominated films will be screened over the remaining days of the IFFR, which runs until Sunday February 4 at various venues across Rotterdam.

AUSSIE AUTEUR PUTS 'FILM' BACK INTO SHORT FILM PRODUCTION.

For a moment, imagine that the arduous slog undertaken by the next-no-budget short film auteur is not already daunting enough. How could a filmmaker make the thankless journey exponentially more difficult? For Chris Elena, the answer was clear – forego all the burden-easing advancements made in digital camera tech and embrace every production problem presented by shooting on film. The result - a 15-minute contemporary drama called The Limited – is a testament to the drive and commitment synonymous with the origins of the art form…

“Film's aesthetic is warm and cinematic, which we wanted and needed for a film mostly set in small places with cold individuals,” says Elena, a respected voice and popular personality amongst the young turks of Sydney’s film-writing community. His vocal passion for the works of Paul Thomas Anderson fuels his own directorial flair for ‘pure cinema’; The Limited is a small-scale examination of the impact of schoolyard stories and macho posturing that soars emotionally and thematically through the use of Kodak 16mm stock. (Pictured, top; Elena, centre, with crew during the shoot).

“We needed to tell this story on 16mm, which has its own unique cinematic language,” say Elena, his script drawing upon his own experiences at an all-boy Catholic high school in the 2000s. “We shot on one location, with very little coverage, a narrative that is essentially four people telling each other lies that will impact their lives. We knew film (would) elevate that simplicity.”

With a ready-to-go script, Elena also knew that timing was crucial if he was to realise his ambitious production; once-giant film supplier Fujifilm had shuttered its film stock division in March 2013, with rumours circulating that Kodak were poised to do the same. “This was the medium I had learned about, had believed in the magic of since deciding to be a director at the age of 9,” he confides. “I wanted The Limited to be greater than the script I had written and for that, for me to be a better director and do this story and everyone who believed in it some justice, I needed film.” (Pictured, right; the young cast of The Limited)

Mentored into production by industry veteran, the late J. Harkness and employing an experienced DOP in Kym Vaitiekus, Elena realised a dream when he called ‘action’ on a tight 2-day shoot in 2014. “We had eight 400-foot reels, 3,200 feet of 16mm film,” he recalls. “As soon as you start rolling, you have 9½ minutes, or one standard roll of film, to get it perfect. We would shoot each take, change reels, place the film in a black bag and have it sent to be processed at the lab, all at once.” The process made for a focussed, energised set, with cast and crew fully aware of the limitations of film. “Each take has to be better,” says Elena. “When you're shooting on film, you allow yourself to trust whoever is looking at that monitor; they trust your word as they know this footage is precious.” 

Throughout the shoot and well into post-production, the young filmmaker was reminded of why film had fallen out of favour in the face of the digital revolution. “It’s horribly expensive,” Elena bemoans, despite an end-to-end budget of just in excess of A$5000 and made without any grant assistance. “Then the lab could get it wrong, the dallies don't look like what you saw in the monitor, sound editing and mixing is a nightmare with the noise from the camera making an appearance in every take.”

Having spent the best part of 2015 in the edit suite with Vaitiekus and cutter Leslie Heldzingen crafting his vision, Chris Elena is now in a position to consider the end product of his obsession with traditional celluloid. “We didn’t get the amount of coverage we wanted, but we made it work in the end,” he concludes. “We could've created this on digital but it never would have looked and felt this way. The raw dallies - without a colour grade, with minor scratches and dust on the frame - looked like what I always imagined films to look like. Every take we got, the work and effort was on display.” (Pictured, left; the director preparing a shot on the set of The Limited)

And, no, the director is not finished crusading for the existence of film stock. “I'll try to shoot on film until there's not a single reel left that Kodak can give me,” he declares. “The effort and potential for magic that comes with it is worth it in every way imaginable.”