The Soldier winning Best Film
Jack T lads with awards
Maggraffiti accepting award
Alfie Bowley winning Best Fancy Dress
The Soldier winning Best Film
Jack T lads with awards
Maggraffiti accepting award
Alfie Bowley winning Best Fancy Dress
Under the ghastly light of the full moon, The Theatre Royal, Margate reverberated with an audience of over 300 to the sounds of pounding hearts and heavy breathing. Strange, forbidding strains of music could be heard by curious passers-by, perhaps punctuated by fearsome shrieks… as the night drew on towards its grisly climax.
The night was the latest annual film screening of what has become Kent’s biggest Film Festival, with over 40 entries from budding filmmakers; half were from Kent, and the rest from all over the UK and Northern Ireland.
The event is organised and run, in association with Close-Up Film, by Beeping Bush Productions, a Thanet-based digital media company, which spends the rest of the year making documentary films for clients, but at Halloween airs their darker side, as the founder members, Chris Cordwell, Mick Etherton, and Jean Lynch share their passion for the horror genre with an audience of well over 300 thrill seekers.
There were so many film entries, the event was shown in two screenings: a Matinee Screening with all entries showing on the big screen, and the evening ‘devil’s dozen’ of Shortlisted films which made it to the final judges’ selection panel.
This year was even more difficult for the Industry Panel of judges because of the wide range of styles and media: we even had a part-animated sci-fi horror set in a dark, oppressive world in the future. Some films had strokes of comedic genius, like a moment in Jack T when the antagonist discovers something about the musical score.
“I never cease to be amazed at what people can come up with in 48 hours. I've seen professionally made short films at festivals that didn't come close to several of these entries - and they had several days to shoot, and a decent budget! Usually, in amateur shorts, the acting can suffer if it's just you and your mates, but there was a very high standard in the entries. But it was the ones that had been written and thought out properly that were my winners - I know it's only 2 days, but you need to spend some time writing and working out your story, and I'm glad to see that many people did. The best ones, and my favourites, were ones where the participants had clearly sat down and worked out what they had to work with - even, in some cases, just an empty house, one or two people, and maybe one special effect, and so on. When you know what you have, then you can write your story around those, and use them cleverly. And it shows where people have taken care in the post, too, with some really great editing and sound work. Hopefully the filmmakers will keep at it, and submit work to even more festivals, as their shorts deserve to be seen by as many people as possible.”
Panellist Judge James Moran
The films were of such a high standard that judge panellist John Offord has offered to show all the Shortlisted films on the cable and internet TV channel Propeller TV.
The awards ceremony was held after all the audience votes had been counted. The top prize for Best Film went to The Soldier; a horror war epic made by a team from Nottingham, who won a week’s hire of Broadcast High Definition Camera Kit from sponsor VMI. Other top prizes included film workshops at Raindance Film Festival.
For the first time there were special HorrOscars, made and donated for the event by students from Canterbury Christchurch University. The prize for the Audience Most Popular Film went to the film, Jack T.
Best Female Actor went to Vicki Hobbs for her lead role in Presence, by Herne Bay filmmaker Russell Gomm
Canterbury animator Nikolas Silk was in the nominations for Best Visual Effects for their film - Do Cyborgs Fantasize Over Anchovy Double Pepperoni
The 2 Days Later Special Mention Award went to young experimental filmmaker Alex MacDonald from Dane Court School (Thanet) for his avant-garde film piece called Helen Forsdale.
Students from the Broadstairs Campus of Canterbury Christchurch University clinched both Best Student Film and the matinee audience vote for Most Popular Film - Matinee Screening for their film Maggraffiti directed by Sharri Harper from Deal.Press contact:
Jean Lynch
jean.lynch@2dayslater.co.uk / jeanl@close-upfilm.com
BACK TO TOP
BACK TO NEWS
BACK TO HOME
 |
 |
 |
