NEXTWAVE HONOUREES ANNOUNCED AT SWIFF GALA CEREMONY

The culmination of a year-long search for Australia’s freshest filmmaking minds unfolded yesterday at the Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF), with the award ceremony for the Nextwave Youth Film Festival taking place in the heart of Coffs Harbour, hosted by actor and Toormina High alumni, Nick Hardcastle.

Drawn from over 60 short films submitted by regional student filmmakers aged 10-25, a final roster of 22 finalists were screened at the C.Ex Auditorium for the nominees and their families, as well as representatives from the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the running for the highly-coveted trophies. (Pictured, above; a still from Nextwave finalist What's Next, directed by Francoise Dik) 

In the 10-14 age bracket, Best Film honours went to The Beach, a eerie, monochromatic moodpiece directed by and starring Lachlan Beck and Michaela Forbes and produced at St Columba Anglican College, Port Macquarie. Honours in the 15-17 years category went to Brain Storm, a meta-rich take on the filmmaking process, which took out Best Film and Best Script trophies for creatives Ben Rosenberg and Lawson Booth of Toowoomba Grammar School. In the 18-25 groups, the home invasion thriller Come Downstairs (pictured, right), directed by Brayden Cureton of Toowoomba Christian College, earned the Best Film nod.

The People’s Choice award, voted for by those attending the screening ceremony, went to the joyous celebration of seaside teen life, The Perfect Day in Isolation, directed by Jonah Werner and Toby Hill out of Macksville High School. The coastal odyssey also earned a SWIFF Commendation, as did director Sophie Bagstar of Oxley High School for her dramatic supernatural thriller, Devour.   

In other key categories, the Matrix-like actioner Rural Quest (pictured, right), produced by the trio of William Butler, Jack Morgan and Dylan Mann of St Paul’s College Kempsey, scored Best Cinematography and Best Editing gongs; Kaelyn Ward won Best Director for her haunted-home mystery, The Switch; Best Actor honours went to Felix Kneebone for Willow Driver’s man-child comedy, I Don’t Want to Play Anymore; and, Aaron Bruggeman won Best Sound for his workplace fantasy, Day Dreamer.

The Young Regional Filmmaker Award is one of the most sought-after Nextwave honours, recognised throughout the film industry as a key stepping-stone towards sector acceptance. In 2020, that honour went to Rylee Parry, an 18-25 category nominee, for her directorial effort Remember The Waltzing, Matilda. Runner-up in the category was Jordan Frith, represented by the dreamlike drama, Feeling Lost.

In 2020, the Nextwave mentoring and training program shifted from in-person workshops to a dedicated online film education portal, hosted at nextwavefilm.com.au. The 2021 competition was officially opened by SWIFF Festival Directors Kate Howat and Dave Horsley, with the competition once again to be overseen by Program Director Saige Brown. Heads up, filmmakers - this year’s condition-of-entry component is ‘pineapple’, dictating the tropical fruit or some variation thereof must appear in your submission.

In a first for the Nextwave finalists, it was announced that 11 films, each exhibiting a key genre thematic element - sci-fi, horror, thriller or fantasy - would be granted automatic entry into the 2021 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival. A full list of the films selected to screen November 4-13 in Sydney can be found at the festival's Facebook page here.   

WOMEN DIRECTORS FLY OZ FLAG AT SUNDANCE 2021

The feature documentary Playing with Sharks, virtual reality project Prison X - Chapter 1: The Devil & The Sun and short film GNT will fly the Australian sector flag at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The iconic event has responded to the COVID pandemic by scheduling both online and theatrical sessions across the US from 28 January to 3 February.

Playing with Sharks, a documentary about iconic Australian diver and filmmaker Valerie Taylor, will make its world premiere in the World Documentary Competition.

“To launch this film at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival is a dream come true,” enthused director Sally Aitken. “Valerie’s daredevil exploits and her astounding underwater archive are a potent mix for any director. That she is still diving and fighting for sharks at the age of 85 shows Valerie’s incredible passion and thirst for adventure remains undiminished. Her life-affirming journey as an unlikely conservationist proves what is possible with our interconnectedness to the natural world, if we allow it.”

PLAYING WITH SHARKS (Dir: Sally Aitken; Prod: Bettina Dalton) Synopsis: Valerie Taylor is a shark fanatic and an Australian icon. A marine maverick who forged her way as a fearless diver, cinematographer and conservationist. She filmed the real sharks for Jaws and famously wore a chain mail suit, using herself as shark bait, in experiments that changed scientific understanding of sharks forever.

Virtual reality animation Prison X – Chapter 1: The Devil & The Sun will make its world premiere in the New Frontier section which showcases emerging media storytelling, multimedia installations, performances, and films across fiction, nonfiction and hybrid projects. The project takes viewers on a mythological journey inside a Neo-Andean underworld, where The Jaguaress greets you at the gateway between theater and reality and casts you as Inti, a young man imprisoned after his first job as a drug mule..

“As a storyteller, Virtual Reality gave me the tools and technological capacity to push my imagination to a further degree,” said Quechua filmmaker Violeta Ayala. “But it takes a community to make a film, and I'm very proud that the team behind Prison X represents the Australia that we see on the streets.” The production utilised the talents of Bolivian-Australian, Ghanaian-Australian and Filipino-Australian creatives.

PRISON X – THE DEVIL & THE SUN (Writ/Dir: Violeta Ayala; Prods: Violeta Ayala, Dan Fallshaw, Roly Elias) Synopsis: A virtual reality project where heavy doors open up and suck you in as a world of magical realism swirls around you, where you have to hang onto your soul so the devil doesn't take it away.

Animated short film GNT (pictured, top), which won the Yoram Gross Animation prize at Sydney Film Festival 2020, follows one woman’s outrageous mission to conquer social media and upstage her friends. Creators Sara Hirner and Rosemary Vasquez-Brown said, “We put so much love into this chaotic four minutes, and feel especially humbled that it will be shown at Sundance. We hope it makes you giggle, or at the very least, question your choices on social media.”

GNT (Writ/Dirs: Sara Hirner, Rosemary Vasquez-Brown; Prods: Sara Hirner, Rosemary Vasquez-Brown) Synopsis: An animation that follows Glenn, a woman on an unwholesome mission to conquer her clique and social media at large.

“Congratulations to these teams, this selection is an incredible accomplishment,” said Screen Australia’s CEO Graeme Mason. “These projects each have a distinctive Australian voice and demonstrate the breadth and ingenuity of our industry on the world stage. It’s fantastic to have three projects representing Australia all helmed by female directors in this year’s program.” Screen Australia were principal production investors on Playing with Sharks and Prison X – Chapter 1: The Devil & The Sun, in association with Screen NSW. GNT was created as a graduation project out of University of Technology Sydney.

AUDIO GUIDE FOLLOW-UP SOUNDS GOOD BUT SHORTS NEED CASH

From its World Premiere at the SciFi Film Festival last September, Chris Elena’s award-winning short film Audio Guide was set to take the world by storm. When the young director shipped it around, programmers responded; it was booked for slots at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and California’s Cinequest.

But COVID-19 nixed those festivals, as well as the 2020 run of the Aussie arts bash, Short + Sweet. Elena connected with the creative team behind the planned production of Refused Classification, a darkly comedic anti-censorship play that was to have debuted at Short + Sweet. Together, they have reworked the concept and the project has re-emerged as Elena’s highly anticipated follow-up.

"It is a fictional story about the M.P.A.A. and how they've been negatively geared towards queer relationships and sex in general,” says Elena (pictured, right). “Polyamorous, bisexual and queer audiences have been robbed of seeing themselves on screen without restrictions. And lovers of film have had to put up with condensed and watered down stories and depictions due to a flawed and dated ratings system.”

Elena has adapted the play’s text with co-writer Bradford Elmore, who co-hosts the podcast By The Bi with his wife, Angela (pictured, below). The popular chat show explores bisexuality, the swinger lifestyle and open relationships, most notably their own. “Refused Classification is a love letter to them and the community," promises Elena, who will reteam for the shoot with his Audio Guide DOP Kym Vaitiekus and leading lady Emma Wright, who is on board as associate producer.

Faced with an arts sector in financial turmoil and an industry funding model that has abandoned the short film format, Elena is banking on private backers. “We’re crowdfunding this project because it won't exist otherwise,” states Elena, bluntly. “It's a short story but it's an important one and we want to share it with you.” 

The production is utilising the Australian Cultural Fund website to collate it’s production budget and launches in line with an online screening of Audio Guide on the St Kilda Short Film Festival; the campaign will be active until August 1.

TEEN SCREEN TALENT SHINES AT 2019 NEXTWAVE AWARDS NIGHT

Films tackling such weighty thematic elements as grief, alcoholism, kidnapping and disco have topped the winner’s list at the 2019 Nextwave Youth Film Awards. Hosted by local starlet Bonnie Ferguson (Book Week, 2018), the culmination of a year-long submissions process was held before a packed audience at the C.ex Coffs Auditorium in Coffs Harbour on Friday night. The student filmmaking strand of the Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF) welcomed a record number of submissions from over 50 school and community workshops held in 11 regions across rural New South Wales in 2018.

“It is fantastic to see so many people becoming engaged with it,” said Dave Horsley, SWIFF Festival Director and founder of the REC Ya Shorts Youth Film Festival, the popular student filmmaking competition that this year was rebranded and folded into Screenwave’s broader program. “Filmmaking is an activity that helps you make friends, cultivate relationships and all that good stuff which leads to positive mental health.” Nextwave is presented in conjunction with Headspace, a youth-focussed mental and emotional health care provider located in Coffs Harbour. (Pictured, below; Horsley and Screenwave Artistic Director Kate Howat attending a Nextwave/REC Ya Shorts workshop)

To qualify for the official competition, student filmmakers adhered to guidelines that stated their films must be no longer than six minutes, explore the theme of ‘Escape’ and include a ‘Sign’. Best Film winners were awarded in three age-specific categories – 12-14 years, 15-19 years and 20-25 years. Separate technical and creative categories were open to all age groups and were judged by a panel of industry professionals, including Alice Foulcher and Greg Erdstein, the creative team behind the 2017 comedy hit That’s Not Me.

The Best Film (12-14) went to Poe Black’s Kidnapped, a masterfully-paced black comedy about two young lads who don’t follow the ‘stranger danger’ creed yet emerge not only unscathed but also one-up on their would-be abductor. The Best Film (15-19) trophy was awarded to the remarkably accomplished 104 (pictured, top), a heartbreaking account of how living with an alcoholic parent impacts a young girl’s life; its director, Benjamin Bowles, also earned the Best Cinematography honour. The Best Film (20-25) award went to Willow Driver’s scifi-themed disco homage It’s Time to Dance, a loving ode to an era of music and fashion that ground to a halt three decades before the young filmmaker was born.

Though it was denied a Best Film award, Tallulah Rémond-Stephen’s We Are You, a stylish, dreamlike study of disenfranchisement, grief and confusion, was the night’s big winner, taking home three Nextwave honours. Lead actress and local girl Indigho Gray (pictured, below) took out the Best Actor award, earning herself a NIDA Acting Short Course, while Remond-Stephen earned both Best Director and Rising New Talent honours, an acknowledgement that comes with a one year Emerging Director Membership of the Australian Director’s Guild. The young Bellingen-based auteur is a REC Ya Shorts favourite, having earned top honours last year with her film Perdu, and in 2016 for The Inventor.

Director Benjamin McPhillips was also identified as an Emerging Talent honouree for his direction of the twin-sister drama, Prison Escape. Runners-up in the Acting category were Crystal Reichert, as the student caught living an exam day nightmare, in Jessica Burton’s Trials; and, Noah Mackie for his lovelorn graveyard worker in Skull, Jacob Shrimpton’s dark fantasy spin on the Cyrano de Bergerac tale. Shrimpton (pictured, below) had a good night, with his crowd-pleasing ‘watch-out-what-you-wish-for’ comedy Clone earning him Best Editor. Best Script went to David Smith for his confronting and personal examination of the euthanasia debate, Escape.          

A special Judges Commendation Award was bestowed upon Maeve Forest for her hilarious account of being trapped inside a bathroom during a wedding, entitled Water-loo: An Epic Battle for Freedom. Members of the judging panel recognised a unique voice and talent in nominating the director, whose film was in the youngest 12-14 category.

Also recognized on the night for their contribution to the Nextwave initiative were five regional high schools responsible for the most number of submissions in 2018/19 - Woolgoolga High School, Chatham High School, Oxley High School, Macksville High School, Nambucca Heads High School. Each of these schools had more than 5 students submit films, and helped them develop their talent and ambition through feedback, resources and time.

Nextwave was co-presented by SWIFF and Headspace Coffs Harbour and supported by Southern Cross University, Screen NSW, Arts Mid North Coast, C.ex Group, local Councils and the Regional Arts Fund. The winning films will be presented to regional communities in April as part of the 2019 National Youth Week celebrations.