Kiwi short film takes top Sundance award
28 Jan 2010
Kiwi short film The Six Dollar Fifty Man has won the top prize - the Jury Prize in International Short Film-making - at the Sundance International Film Festival in Utah.
The prestigious award is the latest in a string of successes for the film - written and directed by Wellingtonians Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, and produced by Wendy Cuthbert - and puts the Kiwis on track for a possible Academy Award.
Set in New Zealand in the 1970s, the 15-minute film tells the story of a gutsy eight-year-old boy who retreats into a make-believe world to deal with playground bullying.
Sticky Pictures
Sutherland and Albiston are in the US, and picked up the NZ$6225 prize at the Sundance Festival yesterday (27.01.10).
Albiston's wife, Amy Bardsley, who is also co-owner of the film's production company Sticky Pictures, said the couple's three children were crowded around the computer in their Wellington home, watching the Sundance ceremony.
"It would've been nice to have been there, but it was exciting to watch it live and see their daddy on the screen," she said.
Successful journey
The Six Dollar Fifty Man has gone from strength to strength since its world première at the 2009 Festival de Cannes where it gained ‘Special Distinction’.
The film has accomplished the rare feat of being selected for all three of the top film festivals in the world - Cannes, Sundance and Berlin.
The latest accolade - the ‘Cooper Award’ for Best Short Film at the 26th Sundance Film Festival - saw the Kiwi film top the list of 70 short films, short-listed from a record 6,092 submissions from around the world.
After being selected for the Berlin International Festival (one of three Kiwi films to be chosen), The Six Dollar Fifty Man took the top award at Flickerfest 2010 in Sydney, beating a record 1500 entries.
The Flickerfest short film festival is the only Australasian festival that is Academy Awards-accredited, and the Sundance prize gives the movie further eligibility for an Oscar.
Clermont-Ferrand
The next stop after Sundance for The Six Dollar Fifty Man is the world’s most important short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France next week.
It will then be screening in the Generation Kplus competition of the 60th Berlinale Internationale Film Festival from 11 - 21 February.
Albiston and Sutherland are now working on the third draft of a feature film called Shopping which is about a 15-year-old boy who runs away from home on the Kapiti Coast near Wellington, and joins a shoplifting gang.
More information:
NZ short films shine at Cannes Film Festival
'Boy' shines at Sundance
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