FLiCKERFEST 2021 AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT

6th February 2021

WINNERS OF THE 30th ANNUAL FLiCKERFEST AWARDS ANNOUNCED

After a highly successful 10 day COVID safe festival at Bondi Beach the 30th annual FLiCKERFEST International and Australian awards were announced this evening at a star-studded ceremony in The Famous Spiegeltent, Bondi Beach. Attended by celebrated guests from the Australian and the International film industry, the Closing Night ceremony honored the esteemed entrants in this year’s competition. FLiCKERFEST’s Academy® Qualifying Awards, including Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film, Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation, Panasonic Lumix Award for Best Australian Short Film & Flickerfest Award for Best Documentary. The Flickerfest Short Film Awards continue to cement the festival’s global position as a leading International Short film festival on the world stage. Following the ceremony, a selection of award-winning films screened before the Closing Night Party took place.

Flickerfest will now hit the road on a 45 venue national tour to all states and territories across Australia.

INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNERS

Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film (Academy® Accredited)
Winner: ‘The Present’ (Palestine)
Writer/Director: Farah Nabulsi | Writer: Hind Shoufani, Farah Nabulsi | Producer: Ossama Bawardi
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his daughter, Yasmine, set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between the soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?

Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film – Special Jury Prize
Winner: ‘Girl With A Thermal Gun’ (China)
Dir/Wri. Rongfei Guo | Prod. Du Yating
During the pandemic, a grocery delivery man is busier than ever. He receives orders, fills shopping carts, and delivers packages. As he grows tired, a feeling of loneliness washes over him and he begins to feel defeated—until he suddenly finds a thermal gun pressed to his forehead.

Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation (Academy® Accredited)
Winner: ‘Normal’ (France)
Dir/Wri. Julie Caty | Prod. Ron Dyens
When Dany, a rich heir, who cheats his existential emptiness through hectic consumption of Magic’Powder – a drug with psychedelic and annihilated effects, randomly meets Karl Marx while he was feeling withdrawal symptoms, the socialist asks him to destroy capitalism in order to save the humankind. Reluctantly, Dany accepts his request and turns into a superhero. But quickly, he is overwhelmed by his task.

Flickerfest Award for Best Short Documentary (Academy® Accredited)
Winner: ’57 Days’ (Spain)
Dir/Wri. Mario Lumbreras, Laura Brasero | Prod. Hernán Zin, Nerea Barros
Julio Lumbreras was one of the first patients to enter an ICU in Spain with Covid-19. Through the phone messages of his family, we follow his 57 days of fighting the coronavirus.

Flickerfest Award for Best Short Documentary – Special Mention
Winner: ‘We Have One Heart’ (Poland)
Dir/Wri. Katarzyna Warzecha | Prod. Ewa Jastrzebska
After his mother dies, Adam comes across some letters his parents exchanged years ago. This is an opportunity for him to find out more about his father, who he never knew. The juxtaposition of animated drawings and archival material takes us back forty years and enables us to uncover an extraordinary family secret.

Flickerfest Award for Best Short Documentary – Special Mention
Winner: ‘Huntsville Station’ (USA)
Dir/Wri/Prod. Jamie Meltzer, Chris Filippone
Every weekday, inmates are released from Huntsville State Penitentiary, taking in their first moments of freedom with phone calls, cigarettes, and quiet reflection at the Greyhound station up the block.

SAE Creative Media Institute Award for Best use of Digital Technology in a Short Film
Winner: ‘Masel Tov Cocktail’ (Germany)
Dir. Arkadij Khaet, Mickey Paatzsch | Wri. Arkadij Khaet, Marle Kirchhoff | Prod. Ludwig Meck, Lotta Schmelzer, Christine Duttlinger
Ingredients: 1 Jew, 12 Germans, 50 ml Culture of Remembrance, 30 ml stereotypes, 2 teaspoons of patriotism, 1 teaspoon of Israel, 1 falafel, 5 Stumbling Stones, a dash of antisemitism. Directions: put all ingredients into a film, bring to boil and shake vigorously. Then garnish with Klezmer music.

AZURE Productions Award for Best Rainbow Short Film
Winner: ‘Dustin’ (France)
Dir/Wri. Naïla Guiguet | Prod. Jean-Etienne Brat, Lou Chicoteau
In an abandoned warehouse, a crowd is dancing as one on 145 BPM techno music. Among them is Dustin, a young transgender and crew: Felix, Raya and Juan. As the night draws on, collective hysteria morphs into sweet melancholy, and euphoria into yearning for tenderness.

AZURE Productions Award for Best Rainbow Short Film (Special Mention)
‘Cwch Deilen’ (UK)
Dir/Wri. Efa Blosse-mason | Prod. Amy Morris
A Welsh animated short about queer love, fear, and a boat made of leaves.

AUSTRALIAN AWARD WINNERS

Panasonic Lumix Award for Best Australian Short Film (Academy® Accredited)
Winner: ‘The Flame’
Dir. Nick Waterman in collaboration with Dayannah Baker Barlow, Tyrese Fernando & Lance Whitton Jr. |Prod. Beyond Empathy | Wri. Nick Waterman, Megan Washington, Dayannah Baker Barlow, Tyrese Fernando, Paul Spearim, Connie Taylor, Lance Whitton Jr.
In the Australian Outback, the stories of the past are reframed through a series of interwoven portraits. The Flame beautifully explores the powerful and shifting properties of fire and wind, bringing the stories of ancestors – and the upheaval that the white fella bought to the community – into the present.

Yoram Gross Award for Best Australian Animation
Winner: ‘Roborovski’
Dir. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Dev Patel | Wri. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Dev Patel, John Collee | Prod. Jomon Tomas, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Dev Patel
Roborovski follows an eponymous thimble sized hamster, who spends his days in Marvin’s Pet Shop, hoping to find a family. However, when he is constantly overlooked by the people and animals around him, his seething resentment and intense jealousy soon takes hold and the murderous side of little Roborovski is released.

Spectrum Films Award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film
Winner: ‘This River’
Directed by: Naomi Fryer
During an Australian 1990’s summer, Jacquie celebrates graduating high school with her friends and family. But when a boy she likes breaks her trust at a party, it shatters her sense of self. As Jacquie begins her process of healing, she connects with loved ones and natures, finding the strength to move on.

AVID Award for Best Editing in an Australian Short Film
Winner: ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’
Edited by D.C. Fairhurst
Two rival pickpockets clash in an increasingly risky game of cat-& mouse.

AVID Award for Best Original Music in an Australian Short Film
Winner: ‘The End, The Beginning’
Music by Jorde Heys
In the picture-book town of Collector, a young girl and her gang of rogue environmentalists are trying to save the planet as the world goes into lockdown. The main target of the rebellion? The girl’s very own father.

John Barry Sales Award for Best Cinematography in an Australian Short Film Soulmate
Winner: ‘Soulmate’
Cinematography by Kieran Fowler

Set in the near future, a thirteen-year-old girl plays a deadly game of cat and mouse in a world where overpopulation has caused for a desperate law that forces citizens to kill their designated “Soulmate”.

Rebel8 Award For Outstanding Emerging Female Director In Honour of Samantha Rebillet (Special Mention)
‘Alba’
Directed by Senie Priti
The fragile relationship between a father and daughter is tested when an unexpected call jeopardises their time together.

Rebel8 Award For Outstanding Emerging Female Director In Honour of Samantha Rebillet
Winner: ‘Jean’
Directed by Alisha Hnatjuk
A woman’s crumbling relationship bleeds into her work day.

FLICKERUP AWARD WINNERS

SAE Creative Media Institute FlickerUp Award Best High School Short Film
Winner: ‘Round To It’
Dir/Wri. Grace Mincherton | Prod. Steve McLeod
Encapsulating the psychological journey of an Australian farmer, Jack, as his failing relationship with his family is mirrored by tedious farming implications.

SAE Creative Media Institute FlickerUp Award Best High School Short Film (Special Mention)
‘Material Girl’
Dir/Wri/Prod. Lillian Dight
In the inner-west of Sydney, the fashionable and luxurious lifestyle of Sunny Sunshine all starts in the Fabric City Fabric Shop.

AVID FlickerUp Award Best Editing in a High School Short Film
Winner: ‘La Torta’
Dir/Wri. Gabrielle Gregoire, Olivia Lawson
A woman who embarks on a delightful journey to simply give thanks to Mother Earth.

AVID FlickerUp Award Best Editing in a High School Short Film (Special Mention)
‘The Diet’
Dir/Wri/Prod. Beau Ritchie
A man’s psychological demise as he struggles to stick to his diet.

PS Organics FlickerUp Award Best Primary School Short Film (Special Mention)
‘The Chase’
Dir/Wri: Riley McIlveen Webb | Prod. Riley McIlveen Webb, Siobhan McIlveen Webb
A boy chases a monkey wearing a suit and red shoes.

PS Organics FlickerUp Award Best Primary School Short Film (Special Mention)
‘The Candy Rappers’
Dir/Wri. Agam | Prod. Eliza Johnson
A joyful and heartbreaking film about a boy with cancer, his bond with his music therapist, and the uplifting rap group they formed.

Yoram Gross FlickerUp Award Best High School Animated Short Film
Winner: ‘Mind Of My Own’
Dir/Wri/Prod. Natalie Leroy
I take the viewer on a journey through my world. I use animation to distort the everyday and challenge the audience’s conceptualisation of their surroundings. By juxtaposing realistic aspects with the imaginative, I show the interaction of objects and ideas that are beyond the ordinary.

Download: Flickerfest 2021 Awards Announcement here.

Categories: News, Press Releases