Rushes Soho Shorts Announces Official Selection

The official selection and two new competitive categories for 2009 have been announced for the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.
With entries, requests and interest from 112 countries (1,462 cities!) over 1,159 films have been received, 140 of which have been selected for competition.
The 18 countries represented this year include Peru, France, Mexico, China, Spain, USA, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Iceland, Australia, Slovenia, Israel, Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg and the UK.
The notable increase in both international submissions and work being entered that was longer than 12 minutes has resulted in two additional categories being created.
International will showcase fictional work, from newcomer and professional, made outside the United Kingdom.
Long form will feature fictional work, from newcomer and professional, from UK and abroad, that is longer than 12 minutes and shorter than 30 minutes.
The full list of films screening in competition, along with directors and companies that made the work, can now be seen at: www.sohoshorts.com.
This year's festival will take place from July 22 to 31. The non-profit event is acclaimed, nationally and internationally, as being a major platform for the short film genre, with an equal focus on emerging and established talent.
Joe Bateman, Festival Director, said: "As ever, we've had a phenomenal number of entries. It's been an incredibly tough shortlisting process and we hope you enjoy the selection that's been chosen. The programme has something to cater for all tastes and will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. Your journey can include some great farcical moments into deeply moving realisations (that'll leave you devastated) then back to something seemingly mundance, but poignant, that'll remind you that things just happen because they do.
"With the additional competitive categories, the guest programmes and the line-up of events being planned, the end of July is promising to be more chaotic than ever! It's going to be very exciting."
This year will see all competition screenings held at the Institute of Contemporary Art, with tickets on sale from the end of June. Full festival screening and event details will be available online from June 22 2009 at: www.sohoshorts.com.
(KMcA/BMcC)