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2012 Healdsburg International Short Film Festival Winners

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The 2012 Festival Winners are:

Best Family Film

“MOONLIGHT” (Family – USA – 8M) Dir. Tammy Berlin
An old recluse becomes an unwilling babysitter to a little boy of a single mother.

Nominated for Best Family Film
“Manu Marmont” (Australia)
“Moonlight” (USA)

Best Comedy

“IT”S NOBODY’S FAULT” (Comedy – Spain – 14m) Dir. Esteban Crespo
Antonio comes home with the intention of leaving his wife and three
children so he can live the dreams of his youth. But things don’t go exactly as planned.

Nominated for Best Comedy
“Blue Marble Cafe” (Sweden)
“It’s Nobody’s Fault” (Spain)
“Why, Because Somethings You Never Forget” (Spain)
“Nieche #5″ (Ireland)
“Valse Favorite” (France)

Best Animation

“THE LOST THING” (Animation – Australia – 8m) Dir.Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan
Oscar-winning animated film based on the acclaimed picture book
by multi-award-winning author and illustrator, Shaun Tan.

Nominated for Best Animation
“The Lost Thing” (Australia)
“Pasteurized” (Argentina)

Best Documentary

“I WANT TO SAY” (Documentary – USA – 29m) Dir.Peter Sorcher
Those with autism remain trapped in their bodies with no way of
communicating. But touch technology is changing their worlds.

Nominated for Best Comedy
“Hidden Smile” (Ethiopia/Spain)
“I Want To Say” (USA)
“The Last Supper” (USA)

Best Romance

“SPLIT TIME” (Romance – France – 3m) Dir.Fabrice Bracq
A man and a woman cross each other a million times without
ever meeting. Are they meant to be together?

Nominated for Best Romance
“In The Grey” (USA)
“Split Time” (France)

Best Drama

“GUANG” (Drama – Malaysia – 29m) Dir. Dir. Shio Chuan Quek
An autistic young man struggles to find the perfect object to
complete his important collection.

Nominated for Best Drama
“Guang” (Malaysia)
“It Was My City” (Iran)
“Scenes of an Adult Nature” (UK)
“Whisky/Water of Life” (Ireland)

WATCH THE AWARD PRESENTATION in high def:

Or watch the same presentation in low resolution for slow connections:

For High Resolution Photos of the 2012 festival please click here

SOLD OUT SCREENINGS ON FRIDAY AND MOST OF SATURDAY. IT WAS THE HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN! Here are some iphone photos from the field during the 2012 Festival.

Iranian Filmmaker To Present Her Unbelievably Brilliant Film “It Was My City”

The Healdsburg Community is in for a giant treat!! Masterful Iranian Filmmaker Tina Pakravan is coming to town to present her powerful anti-war film: “It Was My City”

This movie was filmed in a single shot . The camera starts from a close up of an innocent woman who is in her denial about war and then pans over three other innocent people who are struggling with the realities of war. Then after 360 degrees of shooting, the camera turns toward the city and rises high above the scene to give riveting clarity to the situation.

Director Tina Pakravan comments:

It was so hard to shoot because of mixing the acting , detailed dialog , specially choreographed camera movements, precisely timed special effects …. all synchronized in a single shot. After half a day rehearsal, we were prepared to shoot. All of a sudden it started pouring rain, so we had to ask everyone go home and come back the next day !

Ms. Pakravan’s’ history and career credits include:

BA in cinema ( film directing )
Started working in cinema at age 18 as an Assistant director and production manager in more than 15 feature films
Worked with Bahram Beyzaei, Masoud Kimyaei , Dariush Mehrjoui & many other famous iranian film director
Producer of 2 feature films
Director of 1 feature film
Director 3 short films
Author of two books : one is persian poem”Last night I lost around the pomegranate” and the other is a short story for children called “Last night I made God fall in Love “

Her film, “It Was My City” is playing in screening session “A” (The Festival Kickoff) and session “E” and in the 10pm Spoonbar set on Saturday Sept. 22, Seats are expected to sell out.

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Australian Filmmaker Becomes Second With Two Films In The Festival

Australian Director Erin Collett becomes the second filmmaker to take the honor of having two films in the 2012 competition. His visually clever drama, “No Where, No One” is the stirring drama that literally plays in reverse to its dramatic conclusion (or beginning). His second selected film, “A Finite World” is an activist documentary about food waste in western societies. We congratulate Mr. Collett on his double acceptance into the festival.

Emerging from a creative background Erin Collett wrote, directed and performed his first play ‘Three men dreaming’ at a young age. Erin has since pursued his passion for creative narrative, with his most recent work, interning as a director with academy award winning Writer/Director Jane Campion and working on Campion’s latest mini series ‘Top of The Lake’ in New Zealand.
Son to Vietnamese father Tri Nguyen, and Australian mother Lynne Collett, Erin contributes his Rudolph Steiner education and multicultural background as the source of his creative style and passion for filmmaking. ”

Before directing short film ‘No Where, No One’ while attending Macquarie University, Erin’s previous documentary ‘A Finite World’ received international recognition and some of his recent work includes collaborations with acclaimed writer Gerard Lee as well as Director Max Homai on his latest film ‘Kettle’.

Irish Filmmaker is First with Two Films in the Festival!

Irish Filmmaker Shaun O’Connor is the first to hold the esteemed honor of having two separate films officially selected to be in the 2012 festival!

Based in Cork City in the south of Ireland, Shaun O’ Connor had been working as a full-time musician for almost ten years when in 2009 he decided to try his hand at his lifelong ambition: to make films. Less than a year later, that decision had resulted a micro budget feature film, “Steamin + Dreamin: The Grandmaster Cash Story”, (which he directed, co-wrote, shot, edited and co-composed music for). The film became a local cult hit, had two sold-out screenings in the 2009 Cork Film Festival and enjoyed a successful independent DVD release.

Since then, Shaun has been involved in various video projects, including directing a number of music videos. One of these, “Conspiracy” by the band Echogram, went on to win the award for ‘Sexiest Video’ at the 2011 Irish Music Television Awards.

Shaun forged a productive creative relationship with writer/actor Tadhg Hickey, and their short film work has received a number of awards. One of their films, “Nietzsche No. 5″, won the award for Best Comedy at the Corona
Fastnet Short Film Festival and the ‘Audience Selection’ award at the Kerry Film Festival 2011. The film is now an officially selected film at the Healdsburg International Short Film Festival in the comedy category.

Their latest short film, entitled “Uisce Beatha” (Gaelic for ‘Whiskey’ or ‘Water Of Life’) is a period piece, set in
Ireland in 1912. It will have its international festival premiere at the upcoming Healdsburg International Film Festival 2012.

Video Clips

Preview of Films for Sunday Sept. 23, 2012 from Healdsburg Film Festival on Vimeo.

Check out our All Audiences Theatrical Teaser

And here is the original version.Here’s the trailer from “Blue Marble Cafe”, a Swedish black comedy about the source of the food we eat.

“Blue Marble Cafe” – Short Film – Official Selection at Healdsburg International Short Film Festival from Healdsburg Film Festival on Vimeo.