Handle The Jandal 2008: Finalists announced

November 11, 2008

Attn Entertainment reporters

Handle The Jandal 2008: Finalists announced

Fifteen of New Zealand's hottest up'n'coming filmmakers will square off for the coveted Golden Jandal at the Handle the Jandal 2008 Do It Yourself Music Video Awards.

Handle the Jandal is the annual competition for Do-It-Yourself New Zealand filmmakers to create music videos for local bands and artists. The Awards are about matching rising music stars with up’n’coming filmmakers. All videos must be completely self-funded and may only use New Zealand music.

The finalists were selected from 122 entries, which was a record number of entries received for the Handle the Jandal awards. Local Wellington filmmakers and entertainment journalists identified the final 15, and they have now entered the Judges Protection Programme to help protect them from any potential recrimination from the many entrants that did not survive the initial cut.

"It was a long and arduous task to separate the wheat from the chaff in this year's crop of competitors," said Handle the Jandal event director Hadden Morrison. "And in many cases the music videos that didn't make the cut were of an extremely high quality.

"It wasn't easy to make that final distinction but we're confident in our initial judges that the final 15 have that mind-blowing quality that elevated them over the rest.

"We'd like to thank all filmmakers and bands who entered this year for their contributions and efforts and hope they'll be giving it a go in 2009."

The 2008 Handle the Jandal Music Video Awards will be held at Wellington's St James Theatre, Courtenay Place, on Thursday November 27. The 15 finalist music videos will be shown in their entirety for the audience to vote for the grand prize, the Golden Jandal for People's Favourite.

A judging panel will award category winners for the remaining six sections: Best Editing, Best use of Exploitative Tactics to Promote a Band, Best Cinematography, Best Concept, Best Animation and Rising Star.

The judging panel for the final awards includes:

• Jonathan King: Twice winner of Best Director at the NZ Music Video Awards, maker of over 100 music videos

• Roger Shepherd: The man who started Flying Nun Records

• Mhairead Connor: General Manager, Sticky Pictures, multiple award-winner including NZ Screen Guild Awards and Qantas Media Awards

• David Ridler: Assistant NZ Music Manager, New Zealand on Air

And the finalists are:

(Filmmaker, band, song title)

Marco Vidaurre: The Ruby Suns, Tane Mahuta

Vorn Colgan: Vorn, Get Better Work Stories

Sam Muirhead: Brand New Math, Idiot Savant

Ben Forman/Judah: Finnigan Deep Sea Regret, So Far So Good

Daniel Batkin-Smith: Little Pictures, This House Can Fit Us All

Campbell Farquar: Wilberforces, Tidal Waves

Kent Griggs: Missing Teeth, Not For Me

Jonas Besson & Paul Raine: Moon Balloon, Video Games

Anton Steel: Reb Fountain, TAB

Brian Hainsworth: The Short Shorts, You Don’t Know

Brian Hainsworth: Tommy Ill and Buck Beauchamp, Letters To The Editor

Daniel Alexander: Fowler Denmark, Street Will You?

Logan McMillan: Flip Grater, Ring Around The Rosie

Thedownlowconcept: The Hot Grits, Headlights

Curtis Baigent: The Bonnie Scarlets, It's Getting Me Down

ends

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