Local and International filmmakers win awards at Two Short Nights Film Festival

Exeter Phoenix’s annual short film festival, Two Short Nights, brought flocks of filmmakers, viewers and industry specialists to the city last week in a celebration of short film and the people who make them.

Now in its fifteenth year, last week’s festival was the biggest to date and attracted record numbers of film lovers to the city. Featuring the best of local and international short film, events ranged from screenings covering an extraordinary variety of animation, documentary and fantastic storytelling alongside unmissable opportunities for emerging filmmakers in the South West.

The festival’s opening night on Thursday included the 48 Hour Film Screening, a collection of films written, shot and edited in just 48 hours. The second day of the festival featured a sell-out screening premiering Exeter Phoenix’s 2016 film commissions – 7 films made by emerging local talent with support from the city-centre arts hub.

JonasHawkins, Digital Media Manager at Exeter Phoenix said:‘The festival is all about offering a platform for new and emerging film talent and connecting filmmakers with a cinema audience’.

Other festival highlights included four curated selections of inspiring short film from directors across the globe, panel discussions, filmmaker advice sessions and a Live Pitch from teams of filmmakers competing to win the ?750 South West Animation Short Film Commission for 2017. The commission was awarded to Exeter-based animator Stephen Whittingham, for his project idea Totem, a modern telling of a shamanistic coming of age tale through animation and live action, which will be made over the next 12 months and premiered at next year’s Two Short Nights Festival. An award ceremony and after party brought the festival to a close.

Awards went to:

Best Short Film Award
Bulgarian filmmaker Toma Waszarow for his film Red Light (Na Červeno)

Audience Choice Award
Exeter University Students Timiakindelle-Ajani & Hana Elias for their film The Search Party

Best 48 Hour Film Award
First place: Team Candyland’s film Little Billy Matches
Second place: Team Klassisk’s film Dölja Dem Väl
Third place: Team Exeter Indie’s film Hide Your Fears

Alongside their award, each winner received subscriptions to industry-standard software packages, a week’s worth of kit hire from Exeter Phoenix, a subscription to Little White Lies magazine and free cinema tickets.

At the end of this year’s festival, Exeter Phoenix officially opened their 2017 commissions, a collection of filmmaker opportunities for the coming year offering over ?10,000 worth of support to filmmakers across the South West.Applicants are invited to submit ideas for films across four categories, and selected applications will be supported in the creation of their films through 2017. 

More information on this year’s award winners and the 2017 Exeter Phoenix commissions and can be found at twoshortnights.com and exeterphoenix.org.uk