New Zealand’s top short film festival Show Me Shorts may be Academy Award® accredited, but is low on South Island entries.
Festival organizers are unsure of the reason for the low numbers, but suggest a northern drift of filmmaking talent may be partly to blame. To help ensure the Mainland voice is represented, Show Me Shorts has slashed entry fees for filmmakers who reside in the South Island, making it free to enter for the month of May.
Entries for the eighth annual Show Me Shorts Film Festival are now open. The festival takes place at cinemas nation-wide every November. Prizes include cash and filmmaking equipment, plus the winner of the prestigious Best Film award will qualify for entry to the Oscars®.
Festival Director Gina Dellabarca says, “We have received a much higher number of entries for Show Me Shorts already this year, and the quality is outstanding. When we looked at the geographic spread though, we were disappointed to find a decidedly North Island-centric focus.” Show Me Shorts has responded to the shortfall by offering an incentive to encourage southern filmmakers to enter. For the month of May, any short film set in the South Island, or with a key crew or cast member who lives there, can enter for free.
Dellabarca hopes the incentive will encourage more filmmakers from the region to showcase their work, so viewers can enjoy more stories about our beloved southern regions. She pokes fun at southern stereotypes, adding, “We’d like to see the glaciers and Southern Alps on screen, visit with ageing potters from Nelson, and smoke dope with paranoid Otago students in their basements.”
“I want to programme some hard hitting debates about why we should call your homeland ‘Te Wai Pounamu’ versus ‘The Mainland’. I am interested in the history of Chinese minors from Arrowtown; especially un-dead ones that are now hunting tourists on Mount Aoraki. I need to see the elusive moa you’ve been hiding from us North Islanders.”
Filmmakers with projects set anywhere in the South Island, or that have a writer, director, producer or main actor who currently resides there are eligible for the free entry. For further information about entering a short film, visit http://www.showmeshorts.co.nz/
