Cardiff Screen Festival attracts a record number of entries

The organisers of the Cardiff Screen Festival, which organises the prestigious DM Davies Award, have announced that this year's competition has attracted a record 69 entries.
The Award, which is given to a filmmakers who has been resident in Wales for at least two years or who is of Welsh origin was started in 1993 and is named after the Aberystwyth Commodore cinema owner DM Davies - a staunch supporter of the international film festival for Wales.
Previous winners have included Justin Kerrigan ‘Human Traffic’ and Sara Sugarman ‘Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Very Annie Mary’, and 2001 winner Daniel Mulloy has gone on to win a BAFTA Cymru Award and the ARTE prize at Hamburg International Short Film Festival, for his film ‘Sister’, which was made with the proceeds of the award. ‘Hamoudi and Emi’, by Mahdi Fleifel who won in 2003, won the Best International Short Film prize at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival as well as the ‘Filmstock’ Audience Award. Both have been screened at numerous international festivals, and ‘Amser Chwarae/Playtime’ by Arwel Gruffydd (winner in 2002) has been screened at numerous festivals from Brighton and Cork to Barcelona and Philadelphia.
Last year's winner, Simon Ludders, who reached the top 6 from the 39 entries received in 2004, has recently finished filming his second film ‘Sunny Side Up’, which will receive its premiere on the opening night of this year's festival alongside Proof.
The winner of the award makes their next film with the cash prize of £5,000 and support in services from the award sponsors to the value of £20,000. This year, the award sponsors Barcud Derwen, Trucut, Soho Images, Skillset Cymru, Sgrîn Cymru Wales and Soundworks will be joined by KODAK, who take the reigns from Fuji, who were award sponsors since its inception.
For the first time this year the DM Davies entries will be streamed online, powered by Sequence and the winner of the DM Davies Award 2005 will be announced on the 18th November .
For more information on the award and the Cardiff Screen Festival visit www.cardiffscreenfestival.co.uk
(CD/SP)