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DepicT! 2012 Judges Announced

We are delighted to announce the stellar judging panel for DepicT! – Watershed's super short film competition part of Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival.

The judges are Chris Auty (NFTS), David Sproxton (Aardman Animations) Karen Alexander (Royal College of Art), Ravi Amaratunga (Channel 4), Will Massa (British Council), Sarah Chorley (Shooting People) and BAFTA nominated Karni Arieli (Karni+Saul) whose short Flytopia premieres at this year’s festival.

Creatives worldwide were challenged to come up with distinctive, imaginative and engaging shorts in just one minute and a half. With a record number of entries – 650 from 32 different countries whittled down to a shortlist of 15, the judges will have the difficult task of choosing winners for the main DepicT! Award of £1500 as well as the British Special Mention Award, a tailored package of career development opportunities from NFTS, BAFTA, British Council and Shooting People for a UK-based filmmaker.

For 2012, we join forces with Channel 4 to introduce the brand new DepicT! Random Acts Special Mention, which the Jury will also select. This is a fantastic opportunity for one of the shortlisted filmmakers to win a slot on Random Acts, Channel 4’s short-form arts strand that airs every weeknight.

Editor Ravi Amaratunga says:
“We’re delighted to be offering this unique opportunity for the very best creative filmmakers out there. Random Acts is absolutely committed to showcasing the most brilliant creative short bursts from all over the world to a mainstream UK TV audience and cannot wait to see what the high calibre of entrants to DepicT! have to offer.”

All will be revealed; there are just few weeks to go until the shortlist goes live on depict.org on Mon 3 September for everyone’s viewing and voting pleasure as part of the very popular DepicT! Shooting People Audience Award.

The tiny shorts get their big screen premiere at the ever-popular DepicT! Showcase (Sat 18 Sept, 15:00) at the 18th Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival (18 – 23 September) one of the world’s leading showcases and meeting points for emerging talent. The winners will be announced by members of the Jury later on that evening at the festival’s prestigious Award Ceremony. After the festival, the winning films will also be digitised by Arts Alliance Media and made available for theatrical screenings at cinemas across the UK.

Maddy Probst, DepicT! Producer comments:
“A staggering variety of entries were received from all over the globe from Brazil and Ethiopia to Germany and Hungary. The range of styles, subjects and ideas expressed in these shortest of shorts never ceases to amaze me. The jury has a tough job ahead of them!”

DepicT! is a Watershed project part of Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival sponsored by Aardman Animations and Films@59 with support from BAFTA, British Council, NFTS, Arts Alliance Media, Channel 4, Shooting People, in partnership with the Independent Cinema Office.

 

The 2012 DepicT! Jury:

·      Chris Auty – Head of Producing, NFTS
Former film critic Chris Auty has produced films including Stealing Beauty, My Summer of Love, In This World and 24 Hour Party People and is currently Head of Producing at NFTS. He sits on the governing board of the European Film Academy and has just launched a new course (EPCRI), backed by the NFTS, Ingenious Media, and Sir Richard Branson.

·      Will Massa – Film Advisor, British Council
Will is Film Advisor at British Council, working to promote new British work internationally. Will is also Development Co-ordinator for Rankin Film (the new film wing of photographer, Rankin) overseeing their recently launched Collabor8te Shorts Scheme.


·      Karen Alexander – Senior lecturer, Royal College of Art
Karen Alexander is currently a senior tutor in the RCA's Curating Contemporary Art department. Prior to that she worked as a film curator and freelance consultant on film exhibition and distribution.

·      David Sproxton – Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Aardman Animations
David is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Aardman. Together with co-founder Peter Lord, he has overseen the development of the company from a two-man partnership to one of the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry.


·      Karni Arieli – Filmmaker / Photographer
Artists Karni+Saul direct films and music videos and their film 'Turning' was short-listed for the best film short in the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) and shown in several festivals, including Encounters Short & Animation Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival and the LA Shorts Fest.

·      Sarah Chorley – Operations Director at Shooting People
Sarah has worked for independent production companies like Slate Films, Signal Films and Living Cinema and the London Disability Film Festival and Cambridge Film Festival.


·      Ravi Amaratunga – Media Project Manager, Creative Diversity Editor, Random Acts / Channel 4
Ravi works across short form at Channel 4 running Channel 4’s late night zone for short films ‘The Shooting Gallery, its weeknightly arts strand Random Acts and commissions short form factual for the channel.

Posted on 16 Aug 2012 at 8:14 am.

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