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6/10/2012

Worldwide Short Film Festival Award Winners

Edmond was a Donkey - winner for Best Canadian Film
The winners were announced today for the 2012 Worldwide Short Film Festival. The awards were handed out at the annual awards picnic at the Canadian Film Centre, with over $65 000 in cash and prizes awarded to filmmakers. The award winners were chosen from the films screened in the Official Selection programmes and they were deliberated by the festival jury, which comprised of director Jean-Marc Vallée (Café de flore), Shane Smith (Director of Public Programming at TIFF Bell Lightbox), director Iain Gardner (whose film The Tannery won Best Animated Short at last year’s WSFF), Susanne Folkesson (acquisition exec. For UR), and Ian Marnarine (2012 Genie winner for Doubles with Slight Pepper).

The winners are:
Bravo!FACT Award for Best Canadian Short:
Edmond was a Donkey (Dir. Franck Dion)
Deluxe Award for Best Live Action Short:
The Factory/A Fábrica (Dir. Aly Muritaba, Brazil)
Best Animated Short:
           The Maker (Dir. Christopher Kezelos, Australia)
Panasonic Award for Best Documentary Short:
           Eighty Eight (Dir. Sebastian Feehan, UK)
            Honourable mention: Remember Me My Ghost (Dir. Ross McDonnell, Ireland)
Deluxe Award for Best Performance in a Live Action Short:
           Miss Ming in My Sweetheart
Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short:
           Christophe Collette, Gravity of Centre
Best Experimental Short:
Gravity of Centre (Dir. Thibaut Duverneix, Canada)
Honourable mention: Moving Stories (Dir. Nicolas Prevost, Belgium)

As winners for Best Live Action and Best Animated film respectively, The Factory and The Maker are now eligible for Academy Award nominations. Best of luck to them – they’re worthy choices (see my Top Ten soon!) and I think that they have the goods to make it through the next few hurdles. You’ll remember that The Tannery made it quite far last year, so let’s keep some fingers crossed. Edmond was a Donkey is now eligible for a Genie nomination because it won Best Canadian Short, and I’m sure it will bring The NFB the same kind of attention they got last year for Wild Life and Dimanche. The award choices are good overall, although I would have bumped Remember Me My Ghost up for the win and I would have considered other actresses over Miss Ming, but the subject matter and sentimentality of her film make her an easy choice.Out of 91 possible films to choose from, though, I think the jury did well.

The award winners screen tonight at the Bloor Cinema at 7:15.