New Zealand’s biggest little film festival has grown even larger.
The Show Me Shorts Film Festival will screen the best new short films from Aotearoa and across the world at 36 cinemas and community venues nationwide from 7th-30th October.
This is the 17th edition of Show Me Shorts, which has been recently hailed as one of the top 20 short film festivals globally.
Seven films will make their world premiere at Show Me Shorts in October. Audiences will be among the first in the world to see: Atali’i O Le Crezent (Sons of the Crezent) (NZ), King Tupac (NZ), Punk It Tender (US), Split Ends (Iran), Time Tourists (NZ), Xanadu (UK), and Yaffa 11 (Israel).
Special events will include opportunities to hear from visiting international filmmakers and a programmer from Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, which is this year’s country of focus.
This is by far the largest programme ever for Show Me Shorts, with 92 short films and music videos selected. The short films span a wide variety of genres, including comedy, drama, science fiction, fantasy, satire, documentary, animation and thriller. There are also two programmes of whānau-friendly short films to enjoy with your tamariki.
The selected films include work from talented local directors with established careers such as Mark Albiston (Datsun), Ivan Barge (Blue Smoke) and Stephen Kang (Breathe) alongside some impressive debut films from new directors like Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand (Disrupt) and Siobhan Marshall (Manny and Quinn). There are also two filmmaker spotlight sections that showcase the work of rising stars: local filmmaker Isaac Bell (Isaac Bell Spotlight), and Australian actor/stunt professional turned filmmaker Nash Edgerton (Spider/Bear/Shark Trilogy). Both filmmaker spotlight sections feature a retrospective of older and new work, that allows us to delve more deeply into these directors’ filmmaking journey, and quirky senses of humour.
“We had our largest number of submissions ever this year with 2,194 entries. This is a testament to the unstoppable creativity of filmmakers, who managed to complete their work during a pandemic,” said Festival Director Gina Dellabarca
Show Me Shorts will launch with Auckland Opening Night on Friday 7th October at The Hollywood, Avondale. Many of the world premieres will take place at this event, which will be a fun and glamorous celebration of the local screen industry, as well as featuring international guests.
Wellington Opening Night will follow on Thursday 13th October at The Embassy, and then Christchurch Opening Night on Friday 14th October at Alice Cinema.
The Awards Night – at which the eight coveted major prizes will be presented – will take place on Sunday 9th October at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket. Show Me Shorts is an Oscars-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.
Show Me Shorts Film Festival will play in Arrowtown, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne, Hamilton, Havelock, Katikati, Matamata, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Ōpōtiki, Ōtaki, Picton, Tākaka, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangārei, Whitianga and even Antarctica.
The full programme including dates, locations and booking information is now available at showmeshorts.co.nz
