Crazy8s is a filmmaking competition and festival held annually in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

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. It provides funding and support to local filmmakers to shoot and edit a short film in eight days. It has been called one of the best platforms for emerging filmmakers in Vancouver and has produced over 100 short films.

History

Crazy8s was founded in 1999 by Andrew Williamson. Teams of filmmakers pitch their concepts to industry professionals. Around 200 teams annually submit a video pitch, 40 are then chosen to pitch in-person to a jury, after that 12 teams advance to the script stage before six finalists are announced in early January. After fine-tuning their concepts and delivering revised scripts, 6 winners are chosen to receive $1,000 and a production package and have three days to shoot followed by five days of post-production. Most of the approximately 2,000 people involved are industry professionals. Notable past participants include

Kaare Andrews Kaare Andrews is a comic book writer, artist and filmmaker from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His work includes '' Spider-Man'', '' Iron Fist'', '' Renato Jones'', and '' Incredible Hulk''. Andrews has a diverse drawing style, which ranges from hyper ...

Samm Barnes Sara "Samm" Barnes is a television and comics writer, as well as a television producer. Biography Though born in Great Britain to Michael and Bridget Barnes, Barnes was raised in Canada, first in Ottawa, then Toronto and finally Vancouver. Her pu ...

, Carl Bessai,

James Dunnison James Dunnison is a Canadian film and television director, whose works include ''Stuff'', ''Todd and the Book of Pure Evil'' (7 episodes), and '' Less Than Kind'' (14 episodes), as well as individual episodes of Carter Carter(s), or Carter's, Th ...

Mackenzie Gray Alexander Mackenzie Gray (born 22 November 1957) is a Canadian film, television, and stage actor. He is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Canada. He divides his time between Toronto and Vancouver. Life and career Gray was born in Toron ...

, Matthew Kowalchuk,

CJ Wallis CJ Wallis is a Canadian director from Vancouver, British Columbia, notable for releasing the films: Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much. 1990s *Based on some writing samples, Wallis received an interview in New York City for ''Late N ...

, Ali Liebert,

Zach Lipovsky Zach Lipovsky is a Canadian director, former child actor and visual effects specialist. Career Lipovsky was a finalist on the first season of the Fox reality show ''On the Lot'' where he placed 5th out of 12,000 directors worldwide. He went on t ...

Elan Mastai Elan Mastai is a Canadians, Canadian screenwriter and novelist. He is best known for ''The F Word (2013 film), The F Word'', for which he won the Canadian Screen Award for Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Screenplay, Best A ...

Camille Mitchell Camille Janclaire Mitchell is an actress, writer and director. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Canada, she is the daughter of Cameron Mitchell and trained at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and at The Royal Central School of Sp ...

Nimisha Mukerji Nimisha Mukerji is a Canadian film and television director. She has directed episodes of ''Mech-X4'' and '' Gabby Duran & the Unsittables''. Career Mukerji's debut feature, ''65 Redroses'' (2009), was one of the first official selections by Opra ...

, Chris Goldade, Graham Wardle and Kyra Zagorsky. Dylan Akio Smith's '' Man. Feel. Pain.'' won Best Canadian Short Film at the

2004 Toronto International Film Festival The 29th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 9 through September 18. The festival screened 328 films of which 253 were features and 75 were shorts (148 of the films screened were in a language other than English). Awards No fi ...

. Zach Lipovsky's ''Crazy Late'' is credited with helping earn him a spot on the reality show ''

On the Lot ''On the Lot'' is a single season reality show and online competition for filmmaking, produced by Steven Spielberg, Mark Burnett and David Goffin. The show, which aired on Fox, featured filmmakers competing in weekly elimination competitions, wi ...

''. ''Earthlickers'' and ''Bed Bugs: A Musical Love Story'' later screened at the 2014

Whistler Film Festival The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is an annual film festival held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pand ...

. Joel Ashton McCarthy's ''I Love You So Much It's Killing Them'' won Best Short Film at Bruce Campbell's third annual GroovyFest. The 20th anniversary edition began February 8, 2019 and premiered February 23.

Galas

The finished films are screened at a Gala Screening followed by an afterparty. The 2010 gala was held March 27 at the

Vogue Theatre Vogue Theatre is an Art Deco/Art Moderne styled building originally built as a movie house, and currently used as an event venue for the performing arts. Situated on Vancouver’s “ Theatre Row", the building was designated as a National Hist ...

. The 2014 competition attracted 154 applicants. The 2015 gala screening was held February 28 at The Centre For Performing Arts and had 196 applicants. It was hosted by

Diana Bang Diana Bang (born 1981) is a Canadian actress and writer. She played Park Sook-yin in the 2014 film ''The Interview''. Bang has had regular roles on television in '' Away'' and ''The Astronauts'' (2020), '' Y: The Last Man'' (2021) and most recen ...

, attracted 1,700 people and featured the band

No Sinner No Sinner is a blues rock quartet based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group is led by singer-songwriter Colleen Rennison. History Rennison worked in New York City but returned to her hometown of Vancouver to begin writing with fo ...

at the afterparty. The 2016 gala screening was held February 27 at The Centre For Performing Arts and was hosted by

Ellie Harvie Elinor Anne Harvie (born April 7, 1965) is a Canadian actress who portrayed Morticia on ''The New Addams Family''. Later, she starred as Dr. Lindsey Novak in ''Stargate SG-1'' and ''Stargate Atlantis''. Harvie was the youngest of five childre ...

. The 2017 competition attracted 216 teams and will screen the final six films February 25 at The Centre For Performing Arts with an official afterparty at Science World.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://crazy8s.film/ Film festivals in Vancouver Film festivals established in 1999 1999 establishments in British Columbia Short film festivals in Canada