The Dreamers
Japanese beer, Kirin Ichiban has announced a shortlist of four finalists from its inaugural short film competition.
Now the public vote is open to decide the overall winner, which will be announced at the 55th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express in October.
The four finalists have been chosen from a judging panel of industry experts from the world of short film including the London Short Film Festival and award winning Short Film director Simon Ellis.
- The Dreamers by Matt Maude
Matt Maude is a 26 year old writer and director from Leeds who established the production company 'Left Eye Blind' in his late teens, signed to Academy Films at 23 years of age and writes and directs music videos.
He now concentrates his imaginings within fiction films and says of himself: “I spend way too much time looking out of windows dreaming about Worlds that hopefully one day will be seen on screen.”
- Perfect Pair by Craig Connolly & Jack Judd
Craig Connolly (27 yrs) from Wickford, Essex and Jack Judd (24 yrs) from Finchley, London met whilst working at a box office in a local theatre and quickly discovered they both had a passion for telling stories and making films.
Though neither one of them had a film-related background, they decided then and there, that they would have a film-related future.
Throwing themselves into the film scene, they attended various workshops and seminars and soon felt confident enough to try their hand at a short film.
They say: “The Kirin 'First Cut' competition represented a great opportunity to test our newly acquired skills, especially as the challenge set was to create a story around the idea of 'First Press' perfection and represents the first project between the two of us”.
- Money Shot by Graham Rathlin
Originally from Belfast, Graham Rathlin now lives in London and has been making shorts for a number of years and hopes to make the step up to feature film-making soon.
Despite having no formal qualifications, Graham was recently accepted onto the Film and Television production course at the University of Greenwich on the strength of his showreel.
The Money Shot is his eighth short film and possibly the one he is most proud of, given what little resources he had to shoot it, basically one light and a Canon 550D during the two day shoot. All the money in the film was borrowed and unfortunately had to be given back!
- Door Open by Carolina Giametta and Schuman Hoque
Door Open is the latest film from award nominated filmmakers Carolina Giametta and Schuman Hoque. The film is about a young man, who enters an open door intent on robbing the place, but finds the elderly resident reacts in the most surprising manner.
Inspired by the Kirin First Cut film competition’s idea of a film based on the concept of “First Press”, they have built their story around an old woman, who is interrupted while in the process of pressing the first flowers of spring.
Guidelines for entries were that the films must be original work, anything from 1 minute to 10 minutes in length and using one of the following production techniques: live action, animation, narrative/experimental or documentary. Also that the short films entered should be based around the concept of ‘First Press’, a reference to the brewing process.
The four short-listed films will also be screened at Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, held 20th -29th July and screened at the Curzon Mezzanine lounge. These shortlisted film makers will also be invited to mingle with industry experts at the closing night party at Studio Valbonne on the 28th July.
Vote for your favourite film from these budding short film makers at http://www.kirinfirstcut.co.uk/how-to-vote.php, where you can watch their shorts and influence who will be crowned this year’s winner!
The winner will get their film shown at this prestigious Film Festival (October 12-27), will receive £3,000 cash, plus get their film showcased at The London Short Film festival in early 2012 too.