THE 50 DAY COUNTDOWN IS ON!
THE COURIER-MAIL BIFF FAST FILM COMPETITION
DIVE headfirst in 2005!
Click here to DOWNLOAD YOUR ENTRY FORM
The Courier-Mail BIFF Fast Film is a major component of the extensive 14th Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) program, and is an incredible launching pad for film-makers looking to be thrown in the deep end.
The competition is open to everyone, irrespective of age and location, and entrants are encouraged to take the plunge with just 50 days to write, shoot and edit a short film.
The competition places no restriction on film genre or subject but must include a visual representation of this year’s special ingredient: DIVE.
DIVE must be the physical act of a dive, but entrants are encouraged to submerge themselves in the idea – a dive into a pool, diving for a catch, diving out of an airplane or even a deep sea dive!
The winner of Best Film will receive $3000 cash plus $5000 worth of post-production facilities at Cutting Edge, and the Merchant Solutions Best Young Filmmaker will be awarded $1500 cash. Additional prizes will be announced before the awards presentation.
Applications close at 5pm on Friday 8 July, and entrants must submit their film in either DVD or VHS format for judging. The film must be less than 5 minutes long, including the opening and closing credits, and filmmakers must be the copyright holder and/or have all the necessary copyright permissions.
The Courier-Mail BIFF Fast Film competition and the 14th Brisbane International Film Festival are organised by Pacific Film and Television Commission.
Applicants must read full terms and conditions on entry form.
Coming Soon
The 14th Brisbane International Film Festival is just around the corner! We’ll be updating this website very soon with the latest BIFF 2005 information so stay tuned. To keep up-to-date with the latest Festival news, register for our E-news updates.
Information/Enquiries?
For information or enquiries regarding the 2005 Festival please contact:
The Pacific Film & Television Commission Pty Ltd
Festival and Events Office
T: (+61 7) 3007 3003
F: (+61 7) 3007 3030
W: www.pftc.com.au
Level 3 Hoyts Regent Building
167 Queen Street Qld 4000 Australia
GPO Box 909 Brisbane Qld 4001 Australia
Showtime
top ten - Features
The
votes have been counted and the official top
ten of this years favourite features is here.
 |
Takeshi Kitano's superb Zatoichi
swept the voting board in securing first place. It's
great to see a broad selection from our
world cinema making several appearances
from Head-On's powerful
and unrelentingly poignant story to the surreal
Scandinavian eccentricities of Kitchen
Stories. |
Two Australian features, Cate Shortland's Somersault
and Alkinos Tsilimidos's Tom White
have also made it into the final line up.
The
definitive audience top ten is as follows.
1. Zatoichi
(Japan)
2.
I'm Not Scared
(Italy)
3.
Head-On (Germany)
4. Silent
Waters (India)
5. The
Wooden Camera (South
Africa)
6.
Kitchen Stories (Sweden
/ Norway)
7.
Witnesses (Croatia)
8.
Somersault (Australia)
9. Donau,
Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea
(Austria)
10. Tom
White (Australia)
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Showtime
top ten - Documentaries
 |
With
such a strong line up of great Documentaries
in this years line up the places the top
ten voting saw some very close calls.
Coming in at number five in the listings
is Cathy Henkel's gripping
documentary The Man Who Stole
My Mother's Face. The
film's screening on the final Sunday of
the festival ended in a standing ovation
from the sold out cinema two. |
Cathy
Henkel's attendance at the screening
caused much excitment and the Australian made
documentary had a fantastic audience responce.
Oh, and this is how the BIFF audiences rated
the array of docos on offer.
1. Story
of the Weeping Camel
(Germany / Mongolia)
2. Metallica:
Some Kind of Monster
(USA)
3. The
Corporation (Canada)
4.
Lightning in a Bottle
(USA)
5. The
Man Who Stole My Mother's Face
(Australia)
6. A
Social Genocide (Argentina)
7. Photo's
To Send (USA)
8. Bukowski:
Born Into This (USA)
9.
Festival Express (Canada)
10. The
Five Obstructions (Denmark)
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Showtime
top ten - Shorts
 |
Shorts were BIG at this years
festival and SHOWTIME Top Ten highlights just
what a great selection was screened.
The Last Uncounted Village
was your favourite with the adorable lovesick
hi-fi man from Hello coming
in at a close second. |
No less than four Australian shorts feature in
the listings. Our opening night short
The Scree and closing night's Birthday
Boy (pictured) both make an appearance
in the top ten. Neither of these titles
were eligable for voting in their opening or closing
night slots. Their subsequent screenings
through the festival secured their places in the
top ten. This only goes to highlight the
strength and quality of Australian shorts.
1. The
Last Uncounted Village
(Iran)
2. Hello
(Australia)
3. The
Scree (Australia)
4. Ward
13 (Australia)
5.
Passing Hearts (Sweden)
6. Nuts
and Bolts (Germany)
7. Two
Cars, One Night (New
Zealand)
8. Birthday
Boy (Australia)
9. Showa
Shinzan (Canada)
10. The
Flower, the Bird and the Sun
(Iran)
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Judgement
Day Arrives
The
secret life of BIFF, an existence largely unseen
by most patrons, is the goings-on associated with
the deliberations of the juries judging the films
in competition at the Festival. They have an intensive
screening programme and their deliberations often
have to overcome language and cultural barriers
as well as differences of opinion!
BIFF
is privileged to announce the results of this
years three jury awards.
 |
The FIPRESCI
Jury Awarded Ryuichi Hiroki's Vibrator
the 2004 FIPRESCI winner. Hiroki attended
the award ceremony to collect his award.
With magnificent cinematography and subtle,
honest performances, Vibrator is a compelling,
intimate drama of female desires. |
It
is a superb adaptation of a Japanese feminist
novel by pinku (Japanese erotica) director Hiroki.
Alternately romantic and carnal, the arrestingly
spare narrative follows Rei, a boozing, bulimic
insomniac tormented by self-doubt. When she sees
a bleached blonde truck driver outside a convenience
store, she impulsively embarks on a brief but
heated relationship with him that soothes her
demons - for a while.
Each jury award winner received a Dennis Nona
print from the Michelle Sourgnes Fine Arts. Hiroki's
print (pictured above) represents one of
the Torres Strait Islanders totems, the shark,
an important part of their religious and magic
traditions.
 |
Khammosh
Pani's Silent
Waters (pictured) was the jury's
unanimous choice as the 2004 INTERFAITH
Award for a film promoting Humanitarian
values.
Although
set in the tumultuous times of the Pakistani
Punjab of 1979, Silent Waters has universal
resonance for any contemporary society,
anywhere in the world, where religious fundamentalism
divide communities along racial, gender
and sectarian lines.
|
Silent
Waters painfully portrays the ignorance,
poverty and violence that provides the context
within which religion can serve to oppress rather
than liberate the human spirit.
 |
The NETPAC Award for Asian cinema
was awarded to The
River's End, Iran, written and directed
by Behrooz Afkhami for its bold use of literary
tradition in challenging viewers to appreciate
a new cinematic language of haunting and profound
dimensions.
|
NETPAC
(Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) was
formed in 1990 at a conference in New Delhi organised
by UNESCO and Cinemaya, an Asian film journal.
NETPAC's purpose is to promote Asian cinema's
role in the development of cultural diversity
and integrity in the face of late twentieth century
globalisation. One way of doing so is through
the presentation of the NETPAC
award, which is given each year in twenty international
film festivals, including Pusan, Berlin, Hawaii,
Singapore and Brisbane.
For
full jury member details (pictured above) and
listings of the nominated films
click
here
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Images
Gallery
Even
though the print reels have stop turning you can
still catch a glimpse of the highlights at this
years BIFF in our images gallery.
Who knows you yourself may even make an appearance
in the myriad of photos on offer from all of this
years events!
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