17 February 2008

Sony Tropfest 2008

Sony Tropfest 2008 was tonight, but the threat of rain kept Heather and I away. Fortunately, they ran a live stream on the internet, so I still got to watch to event for this year, and it did not disappoint.

I wrote about this last year, but if you don't remember what it is all about, look here. Basically, there are three rules: one, the film must be seven minutes or less; two, it must debut at Tropfest; and three, it must contain the Tropfest Signature Item (TSI). This year's TSI was Eight.

Overall, I thought this year's movies were a notch above last year's. My two personal favourites were 'Scab' and 'Marry Me', which won first prize, as well as best actress for the ten year old girl in the lead role. As soon as videos are available, I'll point you to them.

Speaking of videos, NineMSN finally has last year's sixteen finalist up. This is 'An Imaginary Life', last year's first prize winner. The TSI was Sneeze--see if you can spot it.

My favourite last year was 'Between the Flags', based on the Cronulla Race Riots of December 2005. It was hard to imagine a humourous take on that, but the filmmakers pulled off a winner with this one.

The rest of the sixteen finalists from 2007 can be found here. I recommend 'The Von', 'Mere Oblivion' and 'Road Rage'. Remember to look for the sneeze.

I shared this one last year, too, but no mention of Tropfest is complete without the 2006 winner, 'CARMICHAEL and shane'.

1 comment:

Stefan Petersen said...

Interesting, I would have loved to see this!I've participated in a few short film festivals in the past (primarily animated shorts)and would have been interested to see what sort of talent is out in this area.