7 Australian films at major French film festival

A still from A Break in the Monotony, directed by Damien Slevin  

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: SCREEN AUSTRALIA

Seven Australian short films will screen at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France which opens on 29 January.

Over the past 31 years, Clermont-Ferrand has established itself as the world’s leading short film festival and marketplace. The festival hosts around 2 million spectators and over 550 film executives including buyers, distributors, press, festival selectors and talent scouts.

From more than 5,100 entries, three Australian shorts – Glenn Owen Dodds, Foreign Parts and The Neighbour – have been selected for the prestigious International Competition section. Glenn Owen Dodds directed by Frazer Bailey is an illuminating existential comedy starring David Wenham and Abe Forsythe which received production funding from Screen Australia. The cinematic Foreign Parts directed by Michael Cody is shot entirely on location in Vietnam. The Neighbour directed by Ben Weir is an urban drama set under the flight path. All three of these Australian films will have their world premieres at Clermont-Ferrand.

Glenn Owen Dodds has also been chosen for a special screening program in Paris presented by the French short film magazine Bref. It was one of only seven shorts selected from the Clermont-Ferrand line-up.

Screening in the Lab Competition – for visually high-risk films with unique viewpoints – is the stylised documentary Cicada directed by Amiel Courtin-Wilson. The four-minute film, based on a story by Daniel P Jones, premiered last year in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Three Australian shorts will screen in a Panorama program entitled Zombies, Vampires and Other Undead which explores the figure of the living dead as it appears in recent short films from around the world. The selected films are the pencil-drawn animation A Break in the Monotony directed by Damien Slevin, the award-winning I Love Sarah Jane directed by Spencer Susser and the Victorian College of the Arts production The Long Night directed by Richard Williamson.

“Clermont-Ferrand is widely regarded as the most important international festival for the buying and selling of short films,” said Kathleen Drumm, Head of Marketing at Screen Australia. “Because the festival attracts significant audiences as well as key industry professionals it’s great that such a strong line-up of shorts will represent Australia.”

Screen Australia has created a short trailer featuring all seven films screening at Clermont-Ferrand available at www.youtube.com/user/ScreenAustralia.

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival runs 29 January – 6 February 2010.

International Competition

Foreign Parts
(10 mins, 30 secs)
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Michael Cody
Producer: Ngoc Luu, Michael Cody (Flood Projects)
Sales: Flood Projects
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a traumatic event, a young woman wanders dazed through a place that is both familiar and bewildering.

Glenn Owen Dodds
www.glennowendodds.com
(16 mins, 15 secs)
World Premiere
Director: Frazer Bailey
Writer: Trent Dalton
Producer: Bec Dakin (Play TV)
Sales: Bec Dakin
Synopsis: The story of an ordinary man who meets an extraordinary man and discovers nothing less than the meaning of life.

The Neighbour
(6 mins, 48 secs)
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Ben Weir
Producers: Christopher Seeto, Ben Weir (C4 Live)
Sales: Ben Weir
Synopsis: Under the flight path not everything is as it seems. An exploration of ignorance, retribution and self-obsession.

Lab Competition

Cicada
(9 mins)

Director: Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Writers: Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Daniel P Jones, based on a story by Daniel P Jones
Producers: Sally Hussey, Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hussey Productions and Flood Projects)
Sales: Hussey Productions/Flood Projects
Synopsis: Cicada is the immersive story of a five-year-old child who witnessed a murder. Daniel P Jones confronts a traumatic memory in an incendiary, visceral monologue.

Panorama – Zombies, Vampires and Other Undead

The Long Night
www.facebook.com/thelongnight
(12 mins, 35 secs)
Writer/Director: Richard Williamson
Producer: Tom Booth (Victorian College of the Arts)
Sales: Victorian College of the Arts
Synopsis: An indifferent, self-absorbed vampire sits in a café before dawn – sipping coffee, browsing a crossword, and waiting for the sun to end his weary existence.

A Break in the Monotony
www.slevinarts.com/damien/film/break.html
(4 mins)
Writer/Director/Producer: Damien Slevin (Slevinarts)
Sales: Slevinarts
Synopsis: In a post-Zombie holocaust world, a man laments his empty lifestyle and questions the futility of working in a corporate wasteland. But all is not what it seems.

I Love Sarah Jane
www.myspace.com/ilovesarahj
(13 mins, 40 secs)
Director: Spencer Susser
Writers: Spencer Susser, David Michôd
Producer: Angie Fielder (The Last Picture Company/FX PHD)
Sales: Spencer Susser
Synopsis: Jimbo is 13. All he can think about is one girl, Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way – bullies, violence, chaos, zombies – nothing is going to stop him from finding a way into her world.