6/10/2012

WSFF 2012: Best of the Fest

Withering Love is my pick for 'Best of the Fest'
Another year of WSFF has come to a close. I really enjoyed attending/covering the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival again. I know that I complained a few times that the programming was a bit too dark, but I realize that is not necessarily a bad thing, since the films were generally strong overall and they offered a good snapshot of a collective sense of what’s going on in the world of filmmaking. I did not *quite* make my goal of seeing everything in the festival, but I did manage to see 148 films. Pretty darn good, I think. Although it was hard to limit my list of the best of the fest to ten, it was an obvious choice for my top spot: Withering Love by Samanou Sahlstrøm. Perhaps the only disadvantage to the darkness of the programmes was that nothing could match the beautiful, gratifying bleakness and grittiness of this film. To be fair, Margo Lily and Kali the Little Vampire were also heavy favourites and I found myself recommending them throughout the festival.

Without further ado, here are my picks for the Top Ten films of the 2012 CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in alphabetical order:

(Dir. Philipp Kaessbohrer, Germany)

(Dir. Aly Muritaba, Brazil)

(Dir. Regina Pessoa, Canada/France/Switzerland/Portugal)

(Dir. Jillian Mayer, Lucas Levya; USA)

(Dir. Christopher Kezelos, Australia)

(Dir. Dane Clark, Linsey Stewart; Canada)

(John Maclean, UK)

(Dir. Ross McDonnell, Ireland)

Turbulence (Mkhobbi fi kobba)
(Dir. Leyla Bouzid, France/Tunisia)

(Dir. Samanou Sahlstrøm, Denmark)
[It gets a trailer since it's my favourite!]


And my own awards, just because:
Best Film and Best Live Action Film: Withering Love
Best Canadian Film: Margo Lily
Best Animated Film: Kali the Little Vampire
Best Documentary: Remember Me My Ghost
Best Performance: Emmaneulle Béart, Withering Love
Honorable mention: Maxine Peake, Deafblind
Best Experimental Film: Gravity of Centre
Best Cinematography: Pitch Black Heist
Best Overall Programme: Official Selection - "Creative Control"
Worst short: Snow Canon (Dir. Mati Diop, France)
                        -->I know it’s mean to do this, but this film ruined Iron Ladies for me.


Thanks to all the staff, programmers, and volunteers for putting on another good festival!
 I Hope to be there again next year.