Tim Hamilton Wins Best Edit at TikTok Short Film Competition

With over 70,000 short films submitted from 44 countries, DEGANZ member Tim Hamiltonโ€™s Zero Gravity was able to beat out the competition to win the Best Edit Award at the inaugural TikTok Short Film Competition.

Tim was able to make Zero Gravity on a shoestring budget of $600 with the help of AWA Films and his colleagues at POW Studios. Speaking to TikTok, he stated how thrilled he is to see TikTok recognised as a place of storytelling and that “the most innovative filmmaking techniques you can see today come straight out of TikTokโ€.

TikTok launched the global #TikTokShortFilm competition in partnership with the Festival de Cannes where experienced and emerging filmmakers could demonstrate their skills with the help of TikTokโ€™s creative tools and effects. A jury of industry leaders judged the submissions.

Watch the hilarious Zero Gravity here.

Our congratulations to Tim Hamilton!

/by

Kirsty Hamiltonโ€™s Save Me Seeks Support on Kickstarter

The Kickstarter campaign for Save Me is underway with 19 days to go! Directed by Kirsty Hamilton, the project is seeking a target of $20,000 to help cover production costs.ย The short film brings together a group of talented individuals, including producer Lynnaire MacDonald and cinematographer Jess Charlton (Loimata, The Sweetest Tears).

Kirsty Hamilton participated in DEGANZโ€™s inaugural Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator in 2017. After being delayed due to the pandemic, the team is now working full speed ahead towards making Save Me.

Written by Suzanne Adamson, Save Me is about the well-intentioned but sometimes misguided sacrifices we make to try and heal the one we love from grief and suffering. 14-year-old Kirsten is desperate to help her mother move beyond the grief she is chained to, but what Kirsten needs is to be seen and loved by her mother again.

If you are keen to support the filmmakers of this powerful and thought-provoking film, visit their Kickstarter page. Good luck to Kirsty and the rest of the Save Me team!

/by

Cucchiara, Evans & THUNDERLIPS Win at Clipped Music Video Festival

The winners of the Clipped Music Video Festival in Sydney, Australia have been announced and a few of our members were victorious! Shout out to the wonderful creativity emanating from these awarded music videos for Kiwi and international music artists.

Directed by Lula Cucchiara (DEGANZ), Ladyhawke and BROODSโ€™ music video for their single Guilty Love won the top award for Best Video (NZ). Congratulations to Lula on her win.

 

The music video for BENEEโ€™s Happen To Me, directed and edited by member Charlotte Evans, took home the award for Editing (NZ). DEGANZ is the proud award sponsor and the prize is an annual membership to the Guild.

 

We also sponsored the Best Directing (NZ) award, which was awarded to directing duo THUNDERLIPS for their work on Find Your Way by Dutch DJ San Holo featuring Bipolar Sunshine.

 

Our congratulations also goes out to Zoe McIntosh, a 2017 alumna of the DEGANZ Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator. Zoe was recognised with the WIFT NZ Award for her work directing the Better Daze MV for HOSS.

Congratulations to Lula Cucchiara, Charlotte Evans, THUNDERLIPS and Zoe McIntosh!

View the full list of winners awarded in March. The Clipped Music Video Festival plans to return to full capacity in the middle of 2023, bringing back its talks, workshops, trade-show, live music and more.

/by

Show Me Shorts Hearts Tฤmaki Makaurau with Special Screening

,

The pandemic kept many Aucklanders from enjoying the Show Me Shorts Festival last year, which meant that some of the best shorts never screened for their home crowd. To fix that, Show Me Shorts has put together a screening (July 2) to celebrate eight short films made in Tฤmaki Makaurau Auckland or by Aucklanders.

Among them are films crafted by DEGANZ members and alumni, includingย Green, directed by Rachel Ross (DEGANZ Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator 2020) and edited by our member Ben Chesters. Green follows an estranged father and daughter, both with newly diagnosed life altering illnesses, as they smoke marijuana together for the first time. Green won the SAE Peopleโ€™s Choice Award at Show Me Shorts 2021.

Blood and Gold, directed by Yamin Tun (Incubator 2017) and edited by member Brendon Chan, will screen as well. This exciting short western follows a woman on the run as she makes a decision that will alter the course of two lives. Blood and Gold won the Best Actor Award at the festival and was nominated for a couple more awards, including DEGANZ Best Editor. The film has also been selected for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this year.

Heart to Heart is written and directed by Incubator 2018 alumna Lauren Porteous. This short psychological thriller set in Raurimu in the dead of winter explores obsession and oppression, and asks are women really for or against one another?

Audiences will also get to see June, directed by Dwayne Cameron who edited alongside DEGANZ member Peter Roberts. June sees Willow and David receiving serious news that causes their world to rapidly disintegrate. But a transcendent occurrence offers them the hope of new life. June won the DEGANZ Best Editor award at Show Me Shorts 2021.

See the full list of films and book your tickets here!

/by

Catch Whetลซ Mฤrama – Bright Star at the Civic for Matariki

In celebration of Matariki, Doc Edge has organised a special screening of Whetลซ Mฤrama – Bright Star at the Civic in Auckland on Friday 24 June, followed by a Q&A with Toby Mills.

Co-directed by Aileen Oโ€™Sullivan (DEGANZ) and Toby Mills, this film is the story of Sir Hekenukumai Ngaiwi Puhipi, aka Hek Busby, and his significance for Mฤori in rekindling their wayfinding DNA and for all New Zealanders in reclaiming our place as traditional star voyagers on the world map.

According to the directors, “For us the ultimate underlying focus of Whetลซ Mฤrama โ€“ Bright Star is the story of a culture that understands an inner compass… Hek talks of always knowing where he is – a sense of connection to his ancestors ‘lying just below the surface’. His voyaging has reconnected his crews with their inbuilt GPS systems and they in turn are teaching and inspiring the next generation, building a bridge back into our past to take us forward into the future.”

Whetลซ Mฤrama – Bright Star will be distributed throughout the country from July 7.

 

/by