Calling Future Stars: Youthtown Short Film Challenge Is On

Youthtown urges New Zealand’s rising film making talent to enter the 2011 Youthtown New Zealand Short Film Challenge.

Now in its eighth year, the Short Film Challenge gives budding film makers, actors and actresses, between 13 and 18 years of age, the chance to showcase their talents, with awards for best film and best director up for grabs on premiere night.

Entries for this year’s competition must be received by 25 July and will be judged by a panel of industry experts and screened at a red carpet ‘Oscar style’ premiere event at the Academy Cinema in Auckland on 17 August.

“We are very excited about this year’s competition and anticipate a high calibre of entries, if previous years are anything to go by,” says Youthtown CEO, Keith Thorpe.

“We have an extraordinary pool of creative youth in New Zealand and we are delighted we can assist in recognising and rewarding this talent through the Youthtown NZ Short Film Challenge.”

Youthtown will hold short film workshops every Saturday between 7 May and 9 July at its Central Auckland hub in Nelson Street from 11.00am to 2.30pm. The workshops will cover all aspects of filmmaking including camera technique, acting, directing, editing, production and script writing. Attendees will also produce a film which will be entered into the competition at the end of the 10 weeks. The Taupo branch will also be running an eight week short film programme during Term 2.

"Participation in our workshops isn't compulsory for entering the NZ Short Film Challenge however many previous contestants have found them very useful, particularly if they're newcomers to filmmaking,” says Thorpe.
The Youthtown New Zealand Short Film Challenge attracts a great diversity of styles and genres as illustrated by last year’s winning film ‘Cookie’ by Isaiah Tour, who has taken out the top award three years running. The six-minute bilingual cartoon describes the tragic consequences of a feud between two families of biscuits – the Afghans and the Shortbreads.

To register, head to www.youthtown.org.nz or text “shortfilm” with your name and address to 4040 for more information.