Prestigious UK film festival shortlists two Otago student films.
The most prestigious of all natural history festivals, WildScreen in Bristol, has selected two films produced by University of Otago Masters students as finalists for its hotly contested Newcomers Award.
Science Communication students Nick Holmes and former Design Studies graduate, Guy Ryan produced the second film to be selected: “Carving the Future,” which profiles three passionate young New Zealanders as they lead projects driving positive social change. The film features the internationally-acclaimed environmental journalist and founder of 350.org climate action movement, Bill McKibben.
In October the four will go up against a field of first-time commercial film-makers backed by the big names of wildlife and natural history film-making, such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.
The Director of the University’s Centre for Science Communication Professor Lloyd Spencer Davis is delighted the two films have been selected.
“Those outside the film industry may not realise just how prestigious this award at WildScreen is and how tough the competition is to become a finalist. To have one of our student films as a finalist in each of the last three biennial WildScreen competitions is terrific, and to have two films as finalists simultaneously is almost unbelievable,” he says.
“We are enormously proud of our students and the talent they bring to communicating science. Their films are testament that it is not the size of your budget that matters, but the story telling and the creative minds behind the camera.”
“Carving the Future” won runner up for Best New Zealand Film.
Guy Ryan says it was ‘mind-blowing’ to receive the email notification of their WildScreen selection.
“We put in a mammoth effort making the film last year, with so many sleepless nights. Because “Carving the Future” is part of the global 350 movement, it already had a lot of momentum behind it that seems to be just growing and growing. Now it’s receiving these accolades. It’s quite humbling really,” he says.
