The international one-minute film festival Filminute 2010 has commended a South African entry! The festival is a challenge to all filmmakers, animators, writers and artists to create the world’s best one-minute films.
This year’s online festival audience applauded a South African film after the Romanian one-minute comedic entry “A New Prayer for the People’s Choice Awards” narrowly beat both the Icelandic and South African entries.
The audience was comprised of people from 124 countries all over the world each of whom were allowed one vote for their favourite. This year’s winners were selected from a 25-film line-up from 18 countries. This shortlist was narrowed from a filed of more than 2000 films, animation screens and submissions, and it’s a credit to the South African entry that it was chosen to go through.
The jury praised the following five films ranked in order:
- Auto Madar (India), Vasan Bala (Director): An assassin who is late for work is further held up by the fact that he cannot catch a cab.
- Goodbye Mr. Nice Guy (Romania), Ana Iliesiu and Matei Branea (Directors): One-minute romantic comedy in which animation and live action are cleverly blended in this break-up story that’s a little off-beat.
- Gumboots (South Africa), Bauke Brouwer (Director): A gritty and ultimately triumphant story distinguished itself as the first South African entry to make the Filminute short-list.
- Love Suicides: Prologue (Malaysia/Japan), Edmund Yeo (Director): A complex story about a family haunted by the ghost of their father and his demands is depicted in a simplistic way.
- Flesh (Nederlands), Maarten Rots (Director): A persistent voyeur, waiting in the rain leads to an awkward and tense confrontation.
The overall winner of the festival was a UK entry “Choose Not to Fall”, an acrobatic and inspiring documentary. It is the very first time that a documentary has won the top honours at the Filminute festival.
The Filminute co-founder stated that the “range of countries and stories on the jury’s commendation list support the belief we stated when we started Filminute in 2006. One-minute films level the playing field. These films prove that no country has a monopoly on great stories… So many of this year’s films do prompt us to watch them two and three times in a row.”
It’s a wonderful achievement for South African born director Brouwer to have achieved a top spot in the Filminute awards and has set a fine standard for future South African entries.
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
