Wintec Graduate At ‘A List’ Film Festival

MEDIA RELEASE

May 29 2009
Wintec Graduate Shows At ‘A List’ International Film Festival

A film by Wintec School of Media Arts Honours graduate Michelle Savill has been accepted into its fourth International A-list festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Michelle will attend the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June with her film‘Betty Banned Sweets’ which is the only New Zealand film to be selected into this prestigious festival. 'Betty Banned Sweets' was also accepted into another A list festival - the Melbourne International Film Festival last year.

As a result of my film's acceptance into that prestigious event Michelle received post production funding to mix and master the sound, and create a high quality HD screening tape and was one of three New Zealanders picked by MIFF (Melbourne) to participate in a film-making program called Accelerator

Accelerator has firmly established itself as a showcase of pre-eminent new Australian and New Zealand shorts. For the first time featuring filmmakers from Ireland and Singapore, Accelerator has secured international recognition as an esteemed industry program. The filmmakers have been selected to shift gears in their development and to gain a broader appreciation of the culture of film internationally, within one of the largest film festivals in the Asia Pacific region.

After Melbourne Festival, Betty Banned Sweets was accepted into two additional A-list festivals, International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2009 and Clermont-Ferrand 2009. The New Zealand Film Commission again sponsored
her to attend these two festivals where she established valuable creative relationships including with Destin Cretton whose short film Short Term 12 won at Sundance this year. He is currently critiquing Michelle’s new script.
Michelle currently works part time as an assistant for the great New Zealand film maker Gaylene Preston and in her spare time is working on her next short film.

Michelle graduated from Wintec with a Bachelor Media Arts - Moving Image in 2005. Her third year film was titled Martin and Snakes go to the Zoo which was experimental / non-narrative and a collaboration with Martin Webclaw and Emit Snakebeings.

She returned to Wintec to complete honours in 2007 and made the drama Betty Banned Sweets.

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