Finalists for NZ’s Best Announced for 2013 Film Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday 30 May

Finalists for New Zealand’s Best Announced for 2013 Film Festival

Six short films have been selected as finalists for the New Zealand International Film Festival’s New Zealand’s Best Short Film Competition.

The films will compete for three cash prizes, with winners to be announced at the closing night of the Auckland leg of NZIFF. The six finalists are Tom’s Dairy (dir: Oscar Kightley), Blind Mice (dir: Walter Lawry), I’m Going to Mum’s (dir: Lauren Jackson), Interim (dir: Dan Kircher), Friday Tigers (dir: Aidee Walker) and Here Now (dir: Chelsie Preston-Crayford).

The New Zealand’s Best programme will screen as part of the 2013 NZIFF and audiences will be asked to choose a winner. A jury of three will select the winners of the $5000 Madman Entertainment Jury Prize and the $3000 Friends of the Civic Award. The winner of the Audience vote in Auckland and Wellington takes away 25% of the box office from the Festival screenings in the four main centres.

Winners for the Madman Entertainment Jury Award and the Friends of the Civic Jury Award will be chosen by three judges: Metro Magazine editor Simon Wilson, Michael Eldred for Madman Entertainment and veteran film producer Bridget Ikin (An Angel at My Table, My Year Without Sex, The Rocket, William Yang: My Generation).

Guest selector and international filmmaker Alison Maclean selected the six finalists from a shortlist of 12. Festival programmers Bill Gosden and Michael McDonnell viewed 91 entries to prepare the shortlist.

“These films found ways to open up unfamiliar worlds and make the familiar more potent. From my now slightly outsider perspective, it was thrilling to watch these shorts - so much talent and skill in every department and, in separate, unique ways, a real authorial voice coming through... I can't wait to see what these filmmakers do next,” says Alison Maclean.

The finalists are:

Tom’s Dairy (13min)
World Premiere
New Zealand 2013
Director: Oscar Kightley
A poignant and humorous short film about a young boy growing up in West Auckland in 1981.

Blind Mice (15min)
World Premiere
New Zealand 2013
Director: Walter Lawry
In the small Auckland drug scene, a young woman, Jules, finds her life complicated by an unwanted pregnancy

I’m Going to Mum’s (13min)
New Zealand 2013
Director: Lauren Jackson
Jacob is eight years old and his parents dress him funny. Stuck in the middle of a fresh divorce he takes drastic fashion action to make himself heard.

Interim (15min)
World Premiere
New Zealand 2013
Director: Dan Kircher
A young and green police officer is implicated in the assault of an arrestee.

Friday Tigers (Nga Taika o Te Ramere) (16min)
World Premiere
New Zealand 2013
Director: Aidee Walker
When an unexpected friendship threatens Ana’s secret world, can she find the courage to deal with her past for the sake of her future?

Here Now (14min)
World Premiere
New Zealand 2013
Director: Chelsie Preston-Crayford
Inspired by Lena Dunham's Girls, Here Now explores the dilemma of the modern day twenty-something. Tess and her friends have no problems, but are they really living?

NZIFF today also released three further film confirmations for the 2013 programme.

New Zealand filmmaker Simon Ogston’s documentary about the Skeptics will have its world premiere at NZIFF. Sheen of Gold looks at the history and influence of one of New Zealand’s most influential Flying Nun bands. A reissue of two Skeptics LPs is planned for August from Flying Nun.

“Director Simon Ogston continues his excavations of underground Kiwi rock, with a tribute to one of New Zealand’s most influential and eclectic rock bands of the 80s,” says NZIFF Assistant Programmer Michael McDonnell.

Incredibly Strange Programmer, Ant Timpson, confirmed his first film, You’re Next from director Adam Wingard.

“At first glance You’re Next sounds like the type of horror film you've seen numerous times before but like The Cabin in the Woods proved, a director can have a hell of a lot of fun with jaded horror fans who think they know every beat & rhythm of the genre. For the best experience, I highly recommend not watching the trailer nor reading any reviews. Bring an unsuspecting date and watch their popcorn fly when the film kicks in," says Timpson.

The first international guest confirmed for the Auckland leg of NZIFF is professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce, the subject of The Crash Reel directed by Oscar nominated Lucy Walker (Waste Land).

Further NZIFF film confirmations
Sheen of Gold
NZ 2013
Director: Simon Ogston
Director Simon Ogston continues his excavations of underground Kiwi rock, with a tribute to one of New Zealand’s most influential and eclectic rock bands of the 80s.
The Crash Reel
USA 2013, 107m
Director: Lucy Walker
Festivals: Sundance 2013
The meteoric rise, calamitous crash and remarkable endurance of US champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce are related with nerve-wracking immediacy in Lucy Walker’s (Wasteland) documentary. Kevin Pearce will attend the Auckland screenings of this film.

You’re Next
USA 2011, 96m
Director: Adam Wingard
Festivals: Toronto 2011; San Francisco 2013
Mask clad intruders attack a family during their wedding anniversary getaway. Soon the mysterious killers learn that one of their victims has a secret talent for fighting back!

NZIFF will begin in Auckland (18 July – 4 August), open in Wellington one week later (26 July – 11 August), then Christchurch (1 – 18 August) and Dunedin (8 – 25 August) before continuing to travel around New Zealand screening in Gore, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Nelson, Tauranga, Masterton, Hawke’s Bay and New Plymouth.

The Festival has already announced ten films including NZ titles Antarctica: A Year on Ice, Gardening With Soul, Romeo and Juliet: A Love Song, The Deadly Ponies Gang; international features including Gebo and the Shadow, Much Ado About Nothing, Upstream Colour, What Maisie Knew; and international documentaries Becoming Traviata, and Dirty Wars for the 2013 programme.

Festival programmes will be available online and around town from June 25 in Auckland, and June 28 in Wellington. For Festival updates visit www.nziff.co.nz and register to receive e-newsletters.

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