Press release from VCA
Film connoisseurs can catch a glimpse of the state’s best up and coming filmmakers when graduating students from the Victorian College of the Arts’ School of Film and Television showcase their works on the big screens at ACMI over two weekends in December.
Amongst the films being screened are Jonathan Leahy’s NorthKids – an urban love story about two teenage best friends featuring Julia Zemiro; Tim Bathurst’s crime-caper romance Loaded co-starring Simon Lyndon, Merethe Tingstad’s Petit Rat an animated short film, set in Paris around 1880 and
Anna Helme’s Continental Drift, set in Croatia, but filmed on Mornington Peninsula.
David Price, head of the School of Film and Television, said the annual showcase of graduate screenings represented an important time for these emerging filmmakers, before their exposure on the national and international film festival circuits.
“The graduating students will present an engrossing selection of short films across different genres, showcasing fresh new filmmaking talent to the Australian public,” Mr Price said.
Films from last year’s graduate screenings have received popular and critical acclaim during the year.
Justin Olstein (Adam's Tallit, 2010) is nominated for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for Best Short Fiction Film. Andrew Kavanagh (At the Formal, 2010) won the 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival 'Transmission Films Award for an Emerging Australian Filmmaker'; and Kwik Fix (2010) written and directed by Kelly Hucker made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.
Ariel Kleiman’s 2009 VCA film Deeper Than Yesterday won the International Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance this year after winning two awards at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, as well as China's most prestigious foreign short film award at the 9th Beijing Film Academy's International
Student Film and Video Festival.
The VCA has launched the careers of numerous acclaimed filmmakers, including David Michod (Animal Kingdom), Michael Henry (Blame), Justin Kurzel (Snowtown), Jonathan Auf der Heide (Van Diemen’s Land), Richard Gray (Summer Coda), Gillian Armstrong (Love, Lust and Lies) and Oscar-
winner Adam Elliot (Harvey Krumpet, Mary and Max).
Watch the trailer for the Graduate Screenings: http://vimeo.com/32652771
Premiere screening dates: 8 – 10 & 15 – 17 December 2011
Venue: ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square
Program details: http://vca.unimelb.edu.au/events?id=280