{press release from Bearcage Productions}
Bearcage Productions’ short film Shockwaves has been selected for competition in the prestigious International Tampere Film Festival in Finland.
Classified by Screen Australia as one of the world’s most prestigious short film festivals, Tampere attracts entries from all over the world. Shockwaves is the only Australian film to have gained selection.
“This year three thousand films were submitted” according to Serge Ou, the film’s director, “and only sixty-nine were selected, so the competition was tough.”
Bearcage Productions Managing Director, Michael Tear, who produced the film, stressed the magnitude of this achievement.
“The Tampere Film Festival has been running for thirty-nine years and is one of Europe’s largest and most important festivals,” he said, “as well as awarding prizes for Best Animation, Best Fiction and Best Documentary, the Festival nominates its winning film for the European Film Awards”.
According to Serge Ou, the themes of the film may explain its appeal to an international jury, “the issues we deal with in twenty minutes include shock jock radio, immigration, small town isolation and domestic violence, themes that are globally relevant.”
Shockwaves was written by Bearcage script writer, Michael Cove with edit, design and audio design carried out in-house. Cast, crew and locations were all sourced from the Canberra region with the exception of the lead role, which is played by noted Sydney actor Tony Barry.
For Michael Tear, this achievement recognises, in an international forum, the standard of Bearcage’s work, “the team at Bearcage brings enormous creativity and expertise to all of our projects” he says, “and can switch seamlessly from television to advertising, documentaries, multi-media installations and corporate projects. Shockwaves is testament to the talent we have in this company.”
Shockwaves will be screened at the Tampere Film Festival from 4-8 March 2009 with Australian screenings to follow.