The programme for this year’s Show Me Shorts is once again bursting with bite-sized goodness.
This year’s Show Me Shorts programme features 75 of the world’s best short films, selected from over 1600 entries. Impressively, 14 of these are world premieres—and all are in contention for the festival’s coveted eight awards, including two that are Oscar-accredited (winners of the Department of Post Best New Zealand Film and Best International Film will become qualified to enter the Academy Awards).
See also:
* Movies now playing in cinemas
* All new streaming movies & series
Aware that this announcement arrives during a time of COVID-19 lockdown, and with the festival due to open in cinemas next month, Show Me Shorts has taken the approach “It’s on until it’s not”.
COVID-permitting, the Festival will be launched Thursday 6 October at Christchurch’s Alice. Wellington’s Opening Night takes place at The Embassy on Friday 8 October. A large launch event in Auckland will not be possible at alert level 2. Instead, the main Auckland event—Awards Night—will be near the end of the season on Sunday 17 October.
Further announcements will follow on the Show Me Shorts website detailing how COVID restrictions will affect Auckland events, once up-to-date information is available.
Once thing is certain, though. Another year of intriguing selections (each around 20 minutes or under) spans a variety of genres from comedy to science fiction, fantasy to thriller. 22 countries are represented: Aotearoa, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Iran, India, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Sudan, USA and the UK.
Acting Festival Director Gareth Farry says, “The challenging times we are in has brought a real depth and edginess to the films we have seen this year – it’s a programme like no other in that way. And the fact that New Zealand audiences will be the first in the world to see many of the films is an extraordinary nod to the mana of our special festival.
“We hope our programme will inspire and surprise our audiences. With stories of identity and longing, intrigue and drama, and tales of the chaos of love, they’ll find refreshing takes on familiar themes known to us all, new perspectives in real life stories, and some beautifully-realised animation,” Farry continues.
The nine themed sections of the programme are as follows (click on each programme title to see all the shorts included):
The Sampler features local and international shorts of wide general appeal.
Whānau Friendly has shorts that have been selected with children and families in mind.
Love and Chaos has stories about characters who are in search of or expressing their love.
Australian Focus features stories exploring the lives and perspectives of diverse Australians.
Crossed Wires captures stories of mistake and miscommunication in all its guises.
Identity Crisis includes shorts challenging our images of ourselves and others.
Online Sampler includes a bumper selection of tense drama and slice of life tales.
Online Family Pack brings a colourful selection of treats for whānau viewing.
Weird and Wonderful Online is a vibrant collection of real life and animation shorts exploring the wacky imagination at the edges of filmmaking.
Find more information on specific titles online at Show Me Shorts, or read on for further info taken from today’s media release:
As ever, Show Me Shorts is a powerful vehicle for promoting the best new Kiwi shorts. For example, from previous Show Me Shorts award winner director Yamin Tun is a stunning new film Blood and Gold, which tells a story of the Otago goldrush from a woman’s perspective. A father and daughter bond over medicinal canibais in a touching and topical family drama, Green. Well-known actor and director Dwayne Cameron partnered with Sarah James and Weta Digital to create a moving new film with brilliant visual effects, June. Young filmmaker Nahyeon Lee makes her Show Me Shorts debut with Sixteen, and we welcome a return to the screen of Temuera Morrison alongside Tanea Heke in The Woman in Blue.Show Me Shorts is renowned for delivering some of the very best short films from across the world to New Zealand cinemas and this year is no exception.
The festival’s first Sudanese film, Al Sit, will win hearts across the country. Freefall takes us back to twenty years ago to the events of 9/11 in a startling and original way. And audiences will be moved by the compelling spoken word animation from Neil Gaiman, voiced by Amanda Palmer, The Mushroom Hunters.
And it wouldn’t be a COVID-year without a few pandemic-inspired shorts. Straight Outta COVID, set at a corderned-off, playground will have tamariki across the country giggling. French comedy Survivors takes pandemic-anxiety to a new level, and with one person per shot, Hysteria – shot in Switzerland in Level 3 lockdown – is a some light relief from the worldwide COVID-grief.
Seven Australian short films will be presented in a special stand-alone section which includes Aboriginal meditations and stories of land and place – an intriguing selection from across the ditch that explore themes of migration and belonging, relationships and understanding.
Show Me Shorts delivers an array of different sessions to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. A smaller, specially-curated selection plays at more than 30 cinemas and community venues across the country, and as far away as Scott Base in Antarctica.
While Show Me Shorts is first and foremost an in-cinema experience, with the ability to go ahead in Alert Level 2.0 (with restrictions on numbers in the cinemas), this year there are also three online programmes – an online Sampler, an online kids’ and family programme, and a boundary-pushing Weird and Wonderful online package. Built on a special viewing platform created by Hamilton-based Shift 72, whose platform has been adopted by film festivals across the world, tickets for the online sessions are priced from $10.
“By making a selection of the films available online, we hope to bring these unique stories to more Kiwis in far-flung parts of Aotearoa, as well as those who are at home. We are committed to supporting our cinemas, so, wherever possible we recommend seeing the films in their native environment on the big screen,” Farry says.
Show Me Shorts is an Oscar-accredited film festival, meaning the winners of the top two awards, Department of Post Best New Zealand Film and Best International Film, will become qualified to enter the Academy Awards. The 2021 festival awards night – at which the eight coveted major prizes will be presented – will take place at on Sunday 3 October at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket.
