Just in case the closing days of the Adelaide Festival of Arts and Adelaide Fringe create an artistic and social blackout in your lives we thought we’d tempt you out to the movies and to air conditioned comfort with some free ticket offers below for Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead and Be Kind Rewind.

sa celebrates screen

The SA screen industry gathered at Adelaide’s Mercury Cinema on Thursday March 6 for the announcement of the winners of the state’s premier competition for short filmmaking - the 2008 South Australian Short Screen Awards, proudly driven by Toyota. A broad spectrum of 18 genre and craft categories were judged and awarded.

“This has been the most outstanding year ever for short film practice in South Australia,” said Gail Kovatseff, director of the Media Resource Centre who present the awards. The coveted Best Film award and Best Screenplay went to You Better Watch Out, a work by the husband and wife team Steve Callen (director) and Jules Callen (producer). Anthony Maras stepped up to the podium for Best Direction for his film Spike Up which also won the AFI Award for Best Short Film this year. This AFF Investment Fund short was also judged Best Drama.

One of the surprise successes of the night was the film Hole in the Water which was nominated in seven categories and won the Emerging Producer Award from Flinders University for Mathew Salleh, who managed to get the film made on a budget of $1,300.

Congratulations to all the winners:
Best Film: You Better Watch Out directed by Steve Callen, produced by Jules Callen
Toyota Award for Best Drama: Spike Up directed by Anthony Maras, produced by Kent Smith
Best Comedy: Nightingale directed and produced by William Allert
Best Documentary: A Fighting Chance directed by Mark Andersson, produced by Katrina Lucas
Best Animation: Work in Progress, directed and produced Fleur Elise Noble
Best Experimental Film: Caught In A Loop directed & produced by Sarah Crowest
Best Direction: Anthony Maras - Spike Up
Best Screenplay: Steve Callen - You Better Watch Out
Independent Arts Foundation Best Performance Award: William Allert - Nightingale
Best Cinematographer: Aaron Schuppan - Hole in the Water
Best Composition: Tom Harrer - The Hunter
Best Editing : Chris Kellett - 3 Hot Tales
Acdesign Best Production Design: Charlotte Rose Hamlyn – Mona
Best Sound Design: Martyn Zub - Spike Up
Innovation in Digital Media: The Moviemaker SA – Alma Mater High - directors Alex Alexander and Yasmin Clement, produced by Alex Alexander
Performing Arts/Musical Video:The Next Bob Dylan - directors Storm Ashwood & Nic Datson, produced by Storm Ashwood
Office for Youth Best Emerging Filmmaker: Maxx Corkindale, DOP and Editor
Emerging Producer: Mathew Salleh - Hole in the Water

SUBSCRIBERS WIN TICKETS!

EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE FILM SCREENING

On offer to our lucky subscribers this month are double in-season passes galore to the following films:

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (MA)
Master filmmaker, Sidney Lumet takes a mature look at the darkest side of human nature in one of his strongest films in over two decades. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Andy, an overextended broker who lures his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke) into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a ‘mom-and-pop’ jewellery store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is, the store owners are Andy and Hank’s actual mom and pop and, when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is both a superb heist thriller and a family drama, featuring remarkable performances from its delectable cast. In cinemas March 20.

Courtesy of Hopscotch Films, we have 50 double passes to giveaway. To WIN simply be one of the first 50 people to email your full name and mailing address details to rsvp@hopscotchfilms.com.au with ‘’AFF’ in the subject field. Only winners will be notified and tickets will be sent via post.

Be Kind Rewind (PG) directed by Michel Gondry
Jack Black (King Kong, School of Rock) and Mos Def (The Italian Job) and Mia Farrow star in this new comedy from the wild imagination of Academy Award-winner Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) about two best friends, one electromagnetic field, and every movie you’ve ever loved.
When Jerry (Black) becomes magnetized while trying to sabotage the power plant that he believes is melting his brain, he accidentally erases all the tapes in the old-fashioned video store where his best friend Mike (Mos Def) works. To keep the few customers happy, Jerry and Mike decide to remake some of the erased movies in Jerry’s junkyard.

Courtesy of Roadshow Films we have 50 double in season passes to Be Kind Rewind which opens on 20 March. To WIN, CLICK HERE and fill in ALL of your details, and the name of the film. Tickets are limited, and will fly out the door, so be quick!

Australian Short Filmmakers advised to Rush

Organisers of the 2008 SHORTS Film Festival are advising filmmakers to be quick and enter their short film for the festival before March 14th to get the chance to become one of just 10 Australian films to also be featured at the renowned Rushes Soho Shorts Festival in the UK.

In late 2007, SHORTS struck an expanded partnership with Rushes Soho Shorts Festival to give Australian filmmakers the chance to have their films showcased in front of an international audience.
The Rushes Soho Shorts Festival will be held from 23 July to 1 August 2008 and the films will be shown across fourteen separate venues across London. The SHORTS Film Festival is open to all emerging filmmakers across the country.

SHORTS also established a three-year partnership with The Prairie Hotel in Parachilna where SHORTS and selected Rushes films are screened at an open-air cinema. SHORTS Outback is held in conjunction with Tastes of the Outback on Saturday, 26th April 2008. The 2008 SHORTS Film Festival is in late November.

To enter your film before the early submission deadline of 14 March 2008, visit www.shortsfilmfestival.com

TEROWIE DAYS EASTER WEEKEND

DON'T MISS THIS!

This tribute to Terowie’s own pioneer of silent cinema J.P.McGowan will be screening vintage glass slides and the film Roaring Six Guns (1937). Other highlights include:

Memories of Steam: archival material from Adelai de 1906 to Back to Peterborough 1930.
Meet the Filmmaker, festival guest AFI Longford Award winner 2007 David Hannay.
Big Saturday Night Picture Show Shotgun Wedding – a rarely seen 35mm 1993 crime comedy.
Sunday matinee at the edge of the outback, Terowie 5421, Lucky Miles by Michael James Rowland and Nicholas Boseley’s Shit Skin (2002).

Inquiries: Jacki Mattey 8659 1104, Heather Strawbridge 8659 1187