Editor

THE INAUGURAL THE FITZ: BEST SHORT FILM AWARDS 2004

Leading Melbourne short film festival Fitzroy Shorts will hold its very first short film awards event, the Fitz Awards, at the Fitzroy Town Hall on November 6th.

Taking place during the peak of the Australia film industry’s end-of-year awards season (between AFIs, and before the IF Awards), the Fitz Awards stands apart as the only awards event solely dedicated to short film, and arrives at a time when an unprecedented number of Australian short films are trail-blazing a path across the world, and arguably, surpassing our feature films in international recognition stakes.

Celebrating the achievement of short filmmakers who have screened with Fitzroy Shorts in 2004, the awards categories in the 2004 The Fitz best Short Film Awards are: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing and Best Achievement in Sound, with up to $5000 in cash and $4,500 in-kind prizes to be won.

Among the films nominated for a Fitz Award are many high profile Australian shorts currently achieving substantial recognition on the local and international festival circuits, as well as outstanding short films from the UK, USA, Canada and Germany.

All nomination details are available on the Fitzroy shorts website: http://www.fitzroyshorts.com/upcoming/nov04.htm

ON THE NIGHT…
An awards night, screening and fantastic party set in the groovy surrounds of the Fitzroy Town Hall, the Fitz Awards will showcase our thriving, independent, ‘grass roots’ short film culture.

Screening on the night will be the 8 Best Film nominees, which will be judged by Fitzroy Shorts fabulous and esteemed judging panel: famous Aussie indie director Richard Lowenstein (Dogs in Space, He Died with a Felafel), actor Stephen Curry (Thunderstruck) and the gorgeous Jacinta Stapleton (Stingers).


The nominations for Best Film comprise of four Australian and four international short films. Among the Australian contingent: the hugely successful animation Hello, directed by RMIT graduate Jonathon Nix (winner of the AFI Best Animation Award 2003); local filmmaker Yen Ooi’s My Sister (winner, Best Short Film at MIFF 2004, also nominated at this years AFIs), Corrie Jones’ Victim (winner, Best New Director & Eat Carpet Award at 2004 St Kilda Film Festival) and Peter Ward’s darkly comic Ward 13, a massive hit on international animation festival circuit. Among the internationals: Eva Sack’s Colorforms (US), a previous winner of a student Academy award; the BAFTA-nominated documentary Lift by Mark Isaacs, Der Schuler (Germany) and Pink (Canada)

ABOUT FITZROY SHORTS
Blasting off in February 2004, Fitzroy Shorts is a year long short film festival screens local and international short films at the famous Night Cat in Fitzroy. Established by Fitzroy-based filmmakers Thomas Baricevic and Anna Reeves, Fitzroy shorts is independently run and with the assistance of various businesses in the Fitzroy community, in particular the fine folks at Crumpler. Running for less than a year (the first event was in February 2004), Fitzroy Shorts has already established itself as a premier event of its kind in Melbourne, their short film nights regularly attract 300 people (without any advertising), and building up a database of supporters, which is several thousand strong.

The 2004 Fitz Awards will take place on Saturday, 6th November, from 6:45-Midnight at the Fitzroy Town Hall (cnr Napier & Moor Sts Fitzroy), followed by an after party at The Night Cat (141 Johnson Street, Fitzroy)