Winners announced for the Aurora Short Film Festival – Sheraden Robins wins Critic’s Choice
Aurora, Australian not-for-profit STV community channel, announced the four winners of the Short Film Festival on air on Sunday 9th June, which included Rosie O’Rosey’s Big Speech, Bored, Game?, Hopeless and Sending the Gungu Home. All winners received cash prizes and were broadcast on Aurora.
The main $2000 prize for the Critic’s Choice Award went to the film Rosie O’Rosey’s Big Speech by Sheraden Robins (left), an animated tall tale about the time the Queen of England visited Wagga Wagga.
Says Robins: “We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this year’s Aurora Short Film Festival and we are now very excited to have won the Critics’ Choice Award. The quality of the other nine finalists was extremely high, which makes our win even more thrilling.”
The winner of the Viewer’s Choice Award, receiving the most votes in the online polls and a $1000 prize, was Libby Butler with her film Bored, Game?, a story with a clever twist on the old board game Guess Who. She said she was delighted for her work to be noticed by the voters and to be broadcast nationally on TV.
Says Butler: “As emerging filmmakers, it can be difficult getting your work out in front of an audience – so a big thanks must go to the Aurora Short Film Festival for providing Australian storytellers with such a brilliant, accessible platform.
“Both Joe (Joe Murphy, director) and I are massive try-hard romantics at heart, so we’re thrilled that Aurora viewers loved our little film enough to go to the effort of voting for us.”
The Best Young Filmmaker went to Matt Osborne for his film Hopeless about domestic violence and The Best Community Organisation was awarded to WWF-Australia with their documentary Sending the Gungu Home, showing how we need to save and protect sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef. Both winners received $1000 each.
Says Phyllisse Stanton, CEO of Aurora: “We were delighted with the diverse range of films that were entered this year. They were reflective of the many different communities and tell a range of thought-provoking stories.
“Above anything, we are so pleased to be able to help kick-start the careers of these budding filmmakers. We wanted to let everyone feel like they could participate and that anyone could give this opportunity a go – and I really think we have achieved that.”
This year’s judges included:
· Jason Van Genderen – from Treehouse Creative. Winner of the Nokia Music Prize Sundance London 2013, Runner up Tropfest 2012 and winner Tropfest New York 2008
· Dave Taylor – managing director Ink Project. One of the country’s leading creative agencies, winners of over 100 industry awards in Australia and overseas
· Graham Burrells – creative director, Foxtel Movies and Premium Drama
· Phyllisse Stanton – CEO Aurora Community Channel
All winning films were screened last night along with the ten finalists from both the Critcs’ and Viewers’ Choice categories.
The remaining finalists of the Best Young Filmmaker and the Best Community Organisation categories will be shown as part of the ‘Best of the Rest’ and a selection of entrants that did not make it into the finals will also feature. These screenings will take place on Sunday 16th, Sunday 23rd and Sunday 30th of June at 8pm.