New film festival puts spotlight on young filmmakers

27 February 2012

New film festival puts spotlight on young filmmakers

Up-and-coming film makers will get to rub shoulders with some of the New Zealand film industry’s leading figures when Australasia’s first International Tertiary Student Film Festival comes to Auckland in April.

The Uni Shorts Film Festival, hosted by the Department of Performing and Screen Arts at Unitec Institute of Technology, has attracted entries from film schools and universities around New Zealand and Australia, and as far as Europe and the Unitec States.

Registration has opened for the festival, which is targeted at emerging and student film makers. A packed festival programme will see screenings of selected films and industry guests join panel discussions for seminars organised on the weekend of 21-22 April. The seminars will give emerging filmmakers an opportunity to discuss issues relevant to them today, while receiving expert advice from the industry during the seminars.

"We anticipate that the festival will provide a platform for discussion on the issues that affect all emerging film makers and the landscape they are entering," says Athina Tsoulis, Head of Unitec's Performing and Screen Arts Department, who is also a film director.

Among the seminar topics are; making the transition from short to feature films, film making on a budget and in a producer’s survival guide.

The Uni Shorts judges are familiar names in the screen community: director/writer, Roseanne Liang (My Wedding and other secrets), award winning director Florian Habicht and Unitec’s curriculum leader for screen, Caroline Grose, formerly the Head of Development at the New Zealand Film Commission.

Film entrants whose short films are selected will vie for four main prizes of NZD$1,000. All entries will feature 100 per cent student work as the films have had to be made as part of a course of study.

Finalists for awards and a list of industry guest panellists will be announced in March.

Uni Shorts is open to all in the tertiary student film making community, screen industry representatives and educators. To register to attend or to see the festival programme, go to www.unishorts.unitec.ac.nz. You can also follow the festival on our FACEBOOK page UNI SHORTS. EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION BY 28 FEBRUARY.

ENDS