New Shortsnonstop $1500 Prize Winner and New Jury Members Announced
Toronto, August 19, 2010 — CFC (Canadian Film Centre) and SHORTSNONSTOP Mobile Movie Festival announced today the 14th SHORTSNONSTOP prize winner along with the creation of a new Audience Award. Currently celebrating its fourth anniversary, SHORTSNONSTOP is the year-round international short film competition showcasing short films produced for mobile and online platforms. The festival awards a cash prize of $1500 each quarter to the best short film selected by an international jury of experts. The next prize date is October 15, 2010.
Chosen from 10 finalists, the $1500 prize winner for this first round is Annie Yia Tien Tu from the USA for Irasshai, a humorous, animated short which depicts the epic journey of a group of sushi escaping from a restaurant after nearly being eaten, and who must confront a giant octopus guarding the exit in order to make their way to freedom.
Tu will be awarded $1500 and her film will be made available to TELUS’ wireless, ADSL and TELUS TV Video-On-Demand clients and at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival awards pre-show in June 2011. Also, beginning with our next prize period, SHORTSNONSTOP will be launching a new Audience Award. Sponsored by iThentic, viewers can go online and vote for their favourite winning short. Audience Choice award winners will receive an iPad.
Presented by TELUS, the SHORTSNONSTOP Mobile Movie Festival is a year-round film festival that viewers can experience anytime or anyplace. An initiative of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, SHORTSNONSTOP accepts entries on an ongoing basis directly at its website – www.shortsnonstop.com.
The nine other finalists who will also benefit from TELUS’ promotion and distribution are:
- Peter Shevlin of the UK for his film Columnist
- Holly Mariah Pavlik from CANADA for her film The Day I Caught Crabs
- Michael Onder of the UK for his film Dormant
- Serguei Kouchnerov of the USA for his film Duel
- Ben Falk and Josiah Newbolt of the UK for their film Heroes of the UAE
- Randolph Lizarda of CANADA for his film Lucian
- Richard B. Pierre of CANADA for his film Mr. Chimes
- David Baril, Simon Beaupré and Rémi Garneau of CANADA for their film Theoreme & Pythagore
- Andrew David Watson of the USA for his film Unfair
All submissions can be viewed on SHORTSNONSTOP.com as well as a select few that will be streamed on iThentic.com and distributed through its network of partners.
In addition, CFC is pleased to announce four new jury members for SHORTSNONSTOP. They include:
Ian Birnie, Director of the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Ian Birnie’s previous positions include Director of Distribution for Janus Films in New York and Director of Script Development for Telefilm Canada in Toronto. From 1998 to 2006, Birnie worked on special projects for the Hamburg-based European Film Promotion. He is also an experienced film festival programmer, having worked for the Toronto International Film Festival (Gala film programmer, 1992-96), the Palm Springs International Film Festival (2002-03) and the Bangkok International Film Festival (2004-06). He has served on the jury at the Hampton, the Berlin and the Abu Dhabi film festivals, and will be on the feature jury at the Cinema tous ecrans Festival in Geneva this coming November. In 2003, the French government named him a ‘Chevalier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.’
Jonathan Ford, Executive Vice President, Digital Acquisitions and Distribution for Content Film
Jonathan Ford is responsible for licensing all of Fireworks International and ContentFilm International’s new and library properties to digital media channels worldwide, including on-demand, broadband and mobile platforms. He also acquires and manages the company’s ever-growing catalogue of original digital content for the global multi-platform marketplace.
Cynthia Kane, Programming Manager, ITVS and ITVS International
Cynthia Kane oversees the ITVS initiative and the International Call for funding. ITVS International promotes an international exchange of documentary films made by independent producers, bringing international voices to U.S. audiences and stories from the U.S. to audiences abroad. ITVS International has co-produced 107 international documentaries since its inception in 2005, including the multi-award winning Waltz With Bashir, The English Surgeon and Last Train Home.
Damon Smith, Head of Programming for Film and Animation, Babelgum, USA.
In addition to his position at Babelgum Networks, Damon Smith is also a producer at Reverse Shot Video, a biweekly columnist at Filmmaker Magazine, and the editor of Michael Winterbottom: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2010). Prior to joining Babelgum, Smith was Editor-in-Chief of the indie-film Web portal FilmCatcher, where he co-produced 200+ video interviews with acclaimed international directors at major film festivals. Still active as a critic and journalist, he has written for Time Out New York, The Boston Globe, Cinema Scope, and many other publications.
The new jury members represent a wide range of experience and provide a broad knowledge base in the area of web and mobile content production and distribution.
