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BIFF presented by Vision began in style on Wednesday 27th July with Opening Night celebrations and The Courier-Mail BIFF Fast Film screening and awards ceremony drawing great crowds. The audience at the Suncorp Piazza was treated to a diverse line-up of short dramas, comedies, documentaries and animations, all featuring the special ingredient: DIVE!
The major prize, for Best Film, went to Damien Pascoe and Clint Lewis who together directed and produced the short documentary on the dole, A Dole-umentary. The film included interviews with John Safran, Triple J’s Lindsay McDougall and Democrat Andrew Bartlett, as well as satirical animations of John Howard. Damien and Clint won $3 000 cash and $5 000 in post-production facilities from Cutting Edge, so we hope to see another film from them in the near future.
The winner of the Merchant Solutions Best Young Filmmaker Prize was Rob Barbuto for Freddie’s Story, a surfing movie/comedy with a scary twist. The prize, $1 500 cash, is awarded to the best film by an entrant under 25 years of age, provided they didn’t win the major prize.
Judges Des Partridge (The Courier-Mail), Jack Sargeant (Curator of the Road Movies Retrospective) and Kais Nashef (lead actor in Paradise Now) commented on the high standard of the finalists. We were also impressed with the effort made by the filmmaker teams on the night – top marks to The Trolley Man team for their great pop-art t-shirts and their fan club in the trolley boy uniform – reflective vests.  
Photos courtesy of Jimmy Malecki and Marisa Cuzzolaro The Courier-Mail BIFF Fast Film Finalists for 2005 are (in screening order): Umbrella
Rosana Hughes
Amongst the early morning droves of businesspeople, a misplaced man discovers a forgotten umbrella. Through it he is able to escape the monotony of the grey city, finding himself free for the first time.
The Job
Lucas Taylor
Stuck in a dark, run-down hide-away, two robbers need to pull off the ultimate job to get their lives back on track and set up their futures.
A Dole-umentary
Damian Pascoe
A Dole-umentary sets out to put the books straight about unemployment.
The Discrete Art of Daydreaming
Dion Monteiro
Edwin is a telemarketer who is bored with his soul-destroying job. A soul agent hands him a book to take his mind off his work.
Splash
Nathan Geppert
Two fun-loving outcasts join together when they are shunned by their peers for being different.
The Dive
Angus Macleod
A skydiver has a terrible miscalculation upon diving in the middle of the desert.
Freddie’s Story
Rob Barbuto
Freddie was born to surf. He lives for it and the perfect wave. This is his story.
Flipside
Luke Rimmelzwaan
Sean has started going out with Karen. He hangs around a lot.
Swim
Sophia Sourris
A distressed mother takes her daughter to the local swimming pool to play what appears to be a simple game, but her mother doesn’t want to let her go…
The Little Creek
Daisy Edwards
Bill remembers his childhood and the games he played with his first love, Mary at the little creek.
Poodle Girl
Frank Gapinski
For an eleven-year old girl, the most important thing in life is to get a white, fluffy poodle. But getting the dog of your dreams doesn’t guarantee happiness.
Undercommunicating
Lily Erlinger
The breakdown of a relationship seen through the reflections and memories of a woman.
The Trolley Man
Joshua Long
Gary is a trolley boy who dreams of becoming a trolley man.
Still In Contention
Martin Moynihan
Sonny gets roped into taking a dive to repay his trainer’s gambling debt that extends deeper than he thinks.
Tools
Paul Andreovski
Seven work friends become rivals in the factory fighting to become the winner. It’s a survival of the fittest. But who is really the dominant, and who are the ‘tools’?
Screened out of competition:
Cranium
Mitchell Wade
Herman has the world’s largest head.
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