Big Mountain Short Film Festival

The Big Mountain Short Film Festival is a short film festival based in Ohakune, New Zealand designed to encourage and celebrate creative short film making and storytelling. Entry is free and open to filmmakers internationally, who are encouraged to use maximum creativity on minimum budget. In addition to screening short films, the festival also features professional guest speakers offering tips and techniques on an assortment of topics of particular interest to low and no-budget filmmakers.

The festival was run as a three-day event in 2006 and 2007, before being reformatted as a single-day event, beginning in 2008.

History

The first annual Big Mountain Short Film Festival was held on October 20–22, 2006 at the Ohakune Cinema on Goldfinch Street in Ohakune. It was co-founded by filmmakers Jeff Bollow and Bret Gibson as a way to encourage and inspire filmmaking in New Zealand.

From the beginning, the Big Mountain Short Film Festival was conceived as an entirely free event, both for filmmakers submitting their films, and for audiences attending the festival.

The 2006 festival

Overview

The festival screened 34 short films from 14 countries, 6 educational interviews with industry professionals, the full presentation of the ATOM Award-winning Making Fantastic Short Films, and two live presentations.

Short films were screened in two distinct categories. Program A included short films made with budgets of over $1,000 or which are made with professional equipment and crews. Program B included short films made with budgets of less than $1,000 which are made with home video cameras and personal computer editing systems

Winning films

Award Title Director Country
The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) Domestic Katie Hides Australia
The Flurry (Audience Favourite) Elemenopee Natalia Amoore Australia
Best Director (Program A) Big Bad Wolves Rajneel Singh New Zealand
Best Story Crossing Riad Galayini USA
The Rumble (Best short film made for under $100) Coucou Clock Francois Cailleau France
Best Emerging Director (Program B) The Hit Campbell Cooley New Zealand
Best Animation Coucou Clock Francois Cailleau France

The 2007 festival

Overview

The festival returned to the Ohakune Cinema on October 19 - 21, 2007. It featured 28 short films from 15 countries, educational content from New Zealand and international filmmakers, and live Q&A with Paul Davis, producer of New Zealand feature films "Sione's Wedding" and "We're Here to Help".

Winning films

Award Title Director Country
The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) Boletos Por Favor Lucas Figueroa Spain
The Flurry (Audience favorite) Night of the Hell Hamsters Paul Campion UK/New Zealand
Best Director (Program A) Before and After Kissing Maria Ramon Alos Spain
Best Story Before and After Kissing Maria Ramon Alos Spain
The Rumble (Best short film made for under $100) 7 of Diamonds Ollie Neas & Sam Bigwood New Zealand
Best Emerging Director (Program B) Schaffenskrise Felix Krisai Austria
Best Animation Coffeeee Nolan Canada

The 2008 festival

Overview

In 2008, the festival shifted gears, and returned to Ohakune as a single-day event on October 25, 2008. It featured 25 short films from 14 countries.

Winning films

Award Title Director Country
The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) Against the Wind Dan Masucci USA
The Flurry (Audience Favourite), tie Half a Horse Hewison Dickson Faulkner New Zealand
Dictaphone Lament unknown unknown
Best Story Half a Horse Hewison Dickson Faulkner New Zealand
Best Cinematography Against the Wind Joe Masucci USA
Best Animation It Was a Dark and Scary Night L Dickenson & S C Jaffe New Zealand

The 2009 festival

Overview

In 2009, the festival returned to Ohakune as a single-day event on October 24, 2009.

Winning films

Award Title Country
Best Director E Finita La Commedia France
Best Story Coffin Call England
Audience Favorite AIE Belgium
Best Animation Glonk! Klank! France
Best Short Under $100 Space Junk New Zealand

The 2010 festival

The 5th Annual festival is scheduled to return to Ohakune Cinema as a single-day event on October 23, 2010.

Notable participants

In addition to the international films featuring emerging and famous filmmakers from around the world, the following people have participated in the festival, either as speakers, live presenters, featured filmmakers or interview subjects:

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