IFSW students’ film nominated for CFTV award

An award-winning film by two graduates of the International Film School Wales (IFSW) has been nominated in the best short film award category at a second major film festival.
The film, 'Shadi in the Beautiful Well', by Mahdi Fleifel and James Spink, about an autistic boy living in a Palestinian refugee camp, is the only Welsh film nominated in its category at the prestigious Celtic Film and Television Awards.
In December, the film scooped the coveted DM Davies Award at the Cardiff Screen Festival. It previously won awards for best fiction, best direction and best of festival at Ffresh, the student moving-image festival of Wales, and the award for best graduate film at the IFSW Finest Films Festival.
Now the two talented young film-makers will be hoping that they can repeat that success when their movie is screened at the 25th Celtic film awards to be held in Dundee from March 31 to April 3.
The graduation film with a budget of £6000 when the two students were studying for their BA degree at IFSW, which is part of the School of Art, Media and Design at the University of Wales College, Newport (UWCN).
Describing the duo's film as “pure cinematic talent” when he presented them with the DM Davies Award, worth £30,000 in cash and movie-making facilities, in December, Sgrîn Chief Executive, Berwyn Rowlands, said: "This is the first time in the history of the award that the judges were totally in agreement that the winning film was exceptional and stood out."
UWCN boasts a growing number of award-winning film-makers whose work is gaining a large audience worldwide.
Budding film-makers can find out more about the range of film courses on the University website at www.newport.ac.uk.
(SP)