[press release from Tsuki]
The winner of the prestigious DigiSPAA Competition was announced on the final day of the 2008 SPAA Conference.
Award-winning Producer Jason Byrne won the 2008 ‘SPAARTAN Award’ for his film Little Deaths, starring Magda Szubanski, Abe Forsythe, Caroline Craig and Alex Schepisi. Byrne’s film competed against grand-finalist David Parker’s horror tale, The Gates of Hell.
Little Deaths is an original, innovative feature film combining the talents of one writer and eleven of Melbourne’s emerging film directors to create a multi-faceted vision of modern love. The directors include, Sian Davies, Fin Edquist, Melanie Brunt, The Man With No Name, Geoff Hitchins, Jarrah Gurrie, Genevieve Bailey, Chris Benz, Giula Sandler, Ben Chessell and James Teh.
"We’re really excited to have won. Little Deaths was a great collaborative effort and we’re thrilled at the recognition of our peers. DigiSPAA is a great opportunity to market your project in front of other filmmakers and especially important for the digital/Indy film maker. The competition was a tremendous boost to our DigiSPAA project last year (Rats and Cats) and I believe it will help Little Deaths get on the radar as well. You have to be in it to win it.”
In addition to receiving $15,000 cash prize and $20,000 worth of post production sponsored by MOVIE NETWORK CHANNELS, Little Deaths will also be screened on the MOVIE EXTRA channel. On top of this, Byrne also receives a subscription to Movie Network and return airfare and free registration to the prestigious Rotterdam Cinemart international feature film market.
"Little Deaths is a remarkable achievement. It represents the true spirit of DigiSPAA whereby a group of deeply passionate filmmakers have pooled resources to enable them to produce a feature on a truly low budget. Each segment of the film tells a themed story with a different point of view. Made on a minimal budget, the story telling is slick, the filmmaking sophisticated and each part of the film is special and unique in its own way. Jason Byrne and his team of filmmakers should be applauded for their efforts and the film deserves to be seen as widely as possible," said Daniel Scharf, DigiSPAA judge and Producer of Romper Stomper.
This is Byrne’s second year in a row to enter his film in the annual DigiSPAA competition. In 2007, he was a finalist for his film Rats and Cats up against John L Simpson’s winning film Men’s Group, directed by Michael Joy.
Since winning DigiSPAA, Men’s Group won best feature at this year’s Inside Film Awards, dubbed the people’s choice awards of Australian film. The emotive drama opened theatrically nationally on Nov 6 at Melbourne’s Cinema Nova.
On top of this, Simpson was awarded the 2nd AFI Fellowship award worth $25,000. Men’s Group was also invited to screen at The Rotterdam Film Festival 2008, The Warsaw Festival, the Copenhagen Festival and The Melbourne International Film Festival, amongst others.
Similarly, Kristian Moliere, who was the runner up last year, has also received accolades for the success of Boxing Day which has since been selected for the prestigious London Australian Film Festival at the Barbican (Patron: Toni Collette), the OzFlix Australian Film Weekend in Toronto and Vancouver, the Bradford International Film Festival (UK) and the New Zealand Film Festival’s 2008 World Cinema Showcase.
2008 DigiSPAA judges include Academy Award winner Melanie Coombs, producer of the Oscar winning Harvie Krumpet, Antony I. Ginnane, President of IFM World Releasing Inc., Geoff Brown, Executive Director SPAA; Daniel Scharf, Producer of Geoffrey Wright’s AFI Award-winning Romper Stomper; and Colleen Meldrum, Program Director, Movie Network Channels.
Digi SPAA is a creative project of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) an industry body that represents Australian independent film and television producers on all issues affecting the business and creative aspects of screen production. Digi SPAA is proudly supported by Movie Network Channels which is distributed via subscription TV platforms FOXTEL, AUSTAR, Optus, SelecTV, and Neighbourhood Cable.