Auckland student film wins at Show me Shorts Film Festival

University of Auckland student film wins at Show me Shorts Film Festival

Blind Mice, a short film by University of Auckland Film, Television and Media Studies graduate Walter Lawry, has won Best Student Film at the 8th annual Show me Shorts Film Festival.

Show Me Shorts is a national film festival showcasing the best new short films from New Zealand and around the world.

The award is the first Walter has received, but comes after a successful year for the BA Honours graduate

"I was kind of hoping I would win but at the same time I wasn't sure because Blind Mice is a dark and gritty film which I thought might not appeal to the judges.

“I was up against my mates who were all from the University and I was actually sitting with them at the ceremony when the announcement was made.”

Walter’s winning film is partly based on a series of events from his late teens. Blind Mice centres on the Auckland drug scene and how a young woman, Jules, finds her life complicated by an unwanted pregnancy. By oscillating between two drug dealers; a younger buyer, Ollie, and her older lover and supplier, Chase, she looks for a male figure to support her.

Earlier this year Blind Mice was selected and screened at the 15th Tel Aviv Student Film Festival, a showcase of the best student films from the world’s best film schools and part of the CILECT ( International Association of Film and Television Schools) Panorama.

Blind Mice was also accepted for the Pineapple Underground Film Festival in Hong Kong and the Vancouver Film Festival. The film was in the top six in New Zealand's Best Short Film Programme at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

The University of Auckland’s Screen Production Programme is the only film school in New Zealand that is part of CILECT, which was founded in Cannes, France in 1955.

Walter has recently returned from volunteering in Cambodia for two months where he was based at Siem Reap. He is using his skills as a filmmaker to shoot a documentary for the volunteer organisation, Build Your Future Today and has worked for the Love the Children Foundation in the Philippines.

Now based in New Lynn, Walter plans to continue making documentaries and perhaps return to the University to do an MA.
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