The Big Mountain Short Film Festival is a
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...
based in
Ohakune
Ohakune is a small town at the southern end of Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island of New Zealand.
A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohak ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
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
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
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 28 short films from 13 countries.
Winning films
The 2009 festival
Overview
In 2009, the festival returned to Ohakune as a single-day event on October 24, 2009.
Winning films
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:
*
Alun Bollinger, Cinematographer of ''
Heavenly Creatures
''Heavenly Creatures'' is a 1994 New Zealand biographical psychological drama film directed by Peter Jackson, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his partner, Fran Walsh, and starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in their feature film debu ...
''
* David Coulson, Editor of ''
Whale Rider
''Whale Rider'' is a 2002 New Zealand drama film written and directed by Niki Caro. Based on the 1987 novel ''The Whale Rider'' by Witi Ihimaera, the film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a twelve-year-old Māori girl whose a ...
''
*
Dale G Bradley, Director/Producer of over 20 films in New Zealand
* Paul Davis, Producer of ''
Sione's Wedding'' and ''We're Here to Help''
* Susan Parker, Production Manager of ''
The Last Samurai
''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the ...
'' and ''
In My Father's Den''
* Jackie Dennis, Music Licensing, Mushroom Music NZ
References
External links
Big Mountain Short Film Festival official site
{{coord, -39.417487, 175.398913, region:NZ_type:event, display=title
Short film festivals in New Zealand