Seen any good shorts lately? No? Well if you’re based in London’s trendy Soho district then you’ve got no excuse?!? For the past 10 days the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival has dominated the cool zone with its mix of promos, docs, ads, idents and – obviously – super shorts. Last night saw the awards being dished out by a variety of Fiennes, Winstones and Popes. The Reel was there to give you the lowdown.
We love shorts on The Reel. And we love Rushes. In fact, we’re pretty fond of Soho too. So when those mighty forces collide to form the Captain Planet of short film festivals – The Rushes Soho Shorts – we readied our heinies, memorised our A-Zs and set about town. Celebrating its 10th year, this year’s festival played host not only to a series of top-notch shorts and promos, but also to seminars, talks, panels and masterclasses ranging from Fashion in Film to Gaming Blitz. With free entry to the majority of events, all lucky punters needed to have was a copy of the festival programme, a working watch and an affinity for film.
The screenings themselves were a triumph, being shown in ace screening rooms including Soho House, 22 Below and the Curzon Soho. Over the course of the festival more than 150 pieces were shown to eager audiences and expert judges in order to skim the cream from the crop. In each category – Animation, Broadcast Design, Music Video, Documentary, Newcomers and Short Film – three finalist were chosen, with the winners being announced in last night’s star studded bash. Here are the results:
ANIMATION 1st “Standup”
Dir. Joseph Pierce
National Film and Television School
2nd “The Control Master”
Dir. Run Wrake
Sclah Films
3rd “Sony Bravia: Play Doh”
Dir. Frank Budgen and Darren Walsh
Passion Pictures
SHORT FILM
1st “Souljah”
Dir. Rikki Beadle-Blair
Team Angelica
2nd “Eel Girl”
Dir. Paul Campion
Chameleon Pictures
3rd “El Hoppo!”
Dir. Marcus Shepherd
Dan Films Ltd
BROADCAST DESIGN
1st “1 in 7 Children”
Dir. Susannah Hayes
Ferocious Films
2nd “BBC iPlayer: Penguins”
Dir. Vince Squibb & Darren Walsh
Passion Pictures
3rd “Don’t Let It All Unravel”
Dir. Sarah Cox
Aardman Animations
MUSIC VIDEO 1st Mika - Lollipop
Dir. Bonzom
Passion
2nd Spektr: Things That Go Bump In The Night
Dir. Thomas Pors
Simulakrum
3rd One Eskimo: Hometime
Dir. Lucy Sullivan & Matt Latchford
Gravy Media
NEWCOMERS
1st “Love Does Grow on Trees”
Dir. Bevan Walsh
Keel Films
2nd “Covered”
Dir. Jack Laurance
Covered
3rd “On The Upside”
Dir. Peter Bunzl
Peter Bunzl Films
DOCUMENTARY
1st “A to Z”
Sally Arthur
Arthur Cox
2nd “Adi Dassler”
Martin Krejci
Stink
3rd “I Dreamt of Flying”
Alex Bland
As always the bash was hosted in fine style by Word stalwart Terry (Dani, I love you) Christian in Café De Paris. Celebs of note included Joseph Fiennes, Nick Moran, Jaye Griffiths, Magenta Devine, award-winning director Tim Pope and Jaime and Lois Winstone (who the Reel editorial team managed to mysteriously enrage). As for the winners: despite being fairly animation heavy, the selection was of an exceptional quality, the victorious pieces managing beauty, depth and the occasional shock. Lucky UK subscribers will get to see a selection in a special feature in the August Issue.
Speaking of the event, Joce Capper – Managing Director of Rushes and founder of the festival – had this to say: ‘Our 10th has been a huge success! We did our utmost to meet the demands for great events and film programmes that our audience expects. It is a completely full on annual challenge, one we enjoy, argue, laugh and rise to. Beating expectation year on year is our goal and one we fulfill. The standard of entries was brilliant, as was the amount we received. Everyone knows Rushes Soho Shorts is about screening exceptional films.’
For more info on the event, and some beautiful snaps of beautiful people (Reel types included) check out the official site - www.sohoshorts.com. To see what the wonderful Rushes peeps do for a day-job, give their site a look too - www.rushes.co.uk.
All we can say is, roll on number 11!!
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