BRIEF ENCOUNTERS REVEALS RECORD FESTIVAL

BRIEF Encounters, one of the UK’s leading short film festivals, awarded three major new prizes and played host to some big names in a record breaking festival.
This year saw a record number of filmmakers applying to have their work shown at Brief Encounters, with over 550 films submitted, a testament to its growing international reputation.
Highlights of the festival included the first UK screenings of four of the critically-acclaimed screen adaptations of Irish Playwright Samuel Beckett’s work by directors including Anthony Minghella (pictured), Kieron J. Walsh and Damien O’Donnell who attended the Festival along with Michael Colgan, Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin who hatched the ambitious plan to capture all of Beckett’s work on film.
Showcasing some of the very best in international and national short film, the programmes played to packed houses every evening, with a number of sell-out screenings.
The new prizes awarded at Brief Encounters were: The Pathe Five Minute Award won by Linus Tunström from Sweden for his breathtaking film ‘To Be Continued’ - the film will now get a UK cinema distribution deal with a Pathe Feature film including DVD and video release; The International Jury Award, with a cash prize of £3,000, was won by Gerard Holthuis from the Netherlands for his poetic film ‘Hong Kong’; and the Short Circuit Award for the Best British Film awarded to ‘Jomeo and Ruliet’ by Alnoor Dewshi – the film will now get UK cinema distribution via the Short Circuit scheme.
The awards also included: DepicT! the ‘micro-movie’ competition for films of up to 90 seconds long, sponsored by Aardman and Rushes with a cash prize of £3,000. The winner was Sara Dunlop with 'Big', her witty re-working of the Barclays advertising campaign. All the short-listed DepicT films can be viewed on the Atomfilms website. The Atom Audience Award, collected by Belgian director Emmanuel Jespers, went to ‘Le Dernier Rêve’.
The Festival is becoming a growing focus for the media and film making industries with international directors from Belgium, Russia, Australia, America, Ireland and Germany joining filmmakers from all over the UK.
At Brief Encounters they got the chance to meet film producers, distributors, advertising companies, TV and film production companies who all came to the Festival to scout for new film making talent. These included Atom Films, Pathe, Aardman and Bolex Brothers, McCann Erickson and Scottish agency 1576, BBC and HTV West.
Minghella said the exciting programme and lively atmosphere made Brief Encounters a really strong festival, which delivered for filmmakers and audiences.
The date for next year’s Animated Encounters is set for April 26-29, 2001. Details can be found at www.animated-encounters.org.uk
(SP)