This is Film of the Month 2009
These are the winning and finalist films from Film of the Month 2009
December 2009
Mr Dec - Daniel Outram
A Supermarket Love Song
“A dark little story with a warm heart. It really subverts our notion of old people being sweet and inoffensive. Beautifully acted too. It stayed with me.” — Penny Woolcock
December Shortlisted
The Technical Hitch
“I was in awe of the brilliant animation! The beginning was spectacular. Lots of ideas. Clearly a real talent.” — Penny Woolcock
December Shortlisted
Butterflies Fly
“I loved this. It has a queasy nightmarish quality and a really wonderful soundtrack. I watched Paradox by the same filmmaker and was amazed and disturbed in the same way.” — Penny Woolcock
November 2009
Mr Nov - Duncan Raitt
Ant & Len
by Duncan Raitt
“Extremely sophisticated visually. The animation is seamless and looks great. A very cute short that manages to effectively tell a story despite being under two minutes in length. My daughter would love this. Well done!!” — Christine Vachon
November Shortlisted
Tashtastic
by Tessa Morgan
“Very, very funny. Feels like the perfect premise for a Christopher Guest mockumentry. Ends on a great note.” — Christine Vachon
November Shortlisted
Sweet Nothing
“Great use of music and very well shot. A nice balance of humor and tenderness throughout. Well paced and comes to a satisfying conclusion.” — Christine Vachon
October 2009
Ms Oct - Uli Hesse
The Good Heart Attack
by Uli Hesse
“A well constructed and informative short film which weaves archive into the edit in a seamless and interesting way” — Andrew Kötting
October Shortlisted
Music For People Who Can’t Go Home
“An ambitious and well acted film that occasionally creates unexpected tension with a premise that is quite fascinating” — Andrew Kötting
October Shortlisted
Hearts Suspended
“Succinct, emotive and engaging from the getgo” — Andrew Kötting
September 2009
Mr Sept - Oakley Anderson-Moore
Portrait of the American Climber
“A fascinating glimpse into the obsessive world of rock climbing – a driven subculture which this film starts to penetrate. It will be good to see the subject (and its maker's involvement with the subject) given more space and time to dig deeper (climb higher?). Despite the voice-over claims that the reason for climbing cannot be put into words one senses that it could be evoked on film” — Sally Potter
September Shortlisted
Rapunzel’s Flight
“This inventive, imaginative mix of animation and the 'real' felt to me like a journey (clearly involving a lot of painstaking work) which hints at much more to come, especially if as much attention is paid to the 'what' (the storyline and thematic) as to the 'how' (the way it is realized” — Sally Potter
September Shortlisted
Peter and Ben
by Pinny Grylls
“This film about solitude and relationship across the species is tenderly made and embued with a love of landscape. The story drew me in; I wanted to know more about everything that had already happened and, crucially, about what happened next” — Sally Potter
September Shortlisted
Urban Underground Explorer
“This extraordinarily interesting subject deserves more space and time; the glimpses of underground worlds and hidden urban history whets an appetite for more, as well as for a lost quality of stillness that the spaces suggest : images to contemplate, information to digest, architectural silences to absorb. I hope the film will be developed” — Sally Potter
August 2009
Ms August - Pinny Grylls
Peter and Ben
by Pinny Grylls
“Peter and Ben has a wonderful human touch to it” — Werner Herzog
August’s Film of the Month was our
Encounters with Herzog – a film competition.
There were six finalists for this month and
you can watch them all here.
July 2009
Mr July - James Owen
Can We Talk?
by James Owen
“Hysterically funny. Brilliant performances. Cuts so close to the bone that the laughs come at a price. Love the art direction and wardrobe” — Larry Charles
July Shortlisted
Junglophilia
“Dry, real, idiosyncratic, absurd, a spinal tap of performance art. An incredibly trenchant, microscopic portrait of the ultimate self-absorbed performer and it is shot in a claustrophobic style that really accentuates that. Amazing performances by the star and her supporting players.” — Larry Charles
July Shortlisted
American Apparel: Everyday Sexy
by Todd Bieber
“Great parody. Captures the madness and absurdity of the actual American Apparel guy, while managing to also satirize media and fashion.” — Larry Charles
June 2009
Mr June - Chris Hemming
Liver Good Life
“Brilliantly original, brilliantly refreshing!” — Michael Nyman
June Shortlisted
Passing
“An impressive piece of work, unnerving in it’s simplicity” —
Michael Nyman
June Shortlisted
Fire in the Belly
by Lucy Beech
“An uncomfortable viewing experience which is why it held my attention so well” — Michael Nyman
May 2009
Mr May - Brett Snelgrove
Domestic
Film of the Month!
“Domestic is great fun and the inventive use of kitchen utensils really shows off the high standard of the choreography in this film” —
Katie Metcalfe, Head of Acquisitions, Future Shorts
May Shortlisted
Mine – story of a sacred mountain
“A moving portrait of a community facing a greedy corporation. How much is one village’s life worth in the global context? Touching story of a social struggle doomed to fail” —
Jan Naszewski, Acquisitions,
Shorts International
May Shortlisted
Ball
by Ewan Bailey
“Impressive one-man project! You build suspense well with your use of editing and sound – nice work” — Jesse Vile, Creative Agent, Dailymotion
Vincent Moon is a brilliant music video director and since none of May’s finalists were music videos, Vincent felt he couldn’t fairly judge the films. So instead we took them to Edinburgh Film Festival and asked some industry experts what they thought.
April 2009
Mr April - Christopher Hood
There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting me on the Head with an Umbrella
Film of the Month!
“A big congratulations on this short. Well Done - in fact, "thank you" for distinct originality and for making it work. Disappearing down this rabbit hole was an absolute pleasure especially when so many films are derivative and predictable. I loved the absurdity of the meta-reality-thing going on. Kafka-esque, kooky and nicely unsettling. I liked the ending but wondered if it could have been more hard-hitting, something that packed more of a punch to further heighten the tantalising absurdity of it all. Overall, I highly commend this.” — Martha Fiennes
April Shortlisted
Ruby
by Alex Jacob
“Much to highly commend about this film’s scope and ambition. The casting was excellent and there was some nice editing too - I felt emotionally engaged. An unjudgemental observation would be to say that it was quite a literal story... it was not a movie with a great degree of subtext when it came to setting and story. However, I think it came admirably close to achieving all that it set out to do and it demonstrates a good handling of a range of emotions; jeopardy, horror, black comedy, relief, tenderness.” — Martha Fiennes
April Shortlisted
Speechless
by James Cooper
“Speechless - Very good, with a steady hand on the tiller throughout. Good language and comedic undercurrent - no mean feat. Nice conceit of the texts on screen and the film is well edited. I definitely felt drawn in and anticipated the ending. The lollipop moment was great and a nice subtext here about the general communication loss - or total blackout - that the textual relationship can incur. Good music too. Not sure the ending quite did justice to the idea, insofar as the lead was still speechless in the final moments... liked your casting though.” — Martha Fiennes
March 2009
Mr March - Richard Smith
Mono
Film of the Month!
“I loved this charming tale about the awkward everyday experience of meeting someone new. So much is communicated through looks and smiles and music. In the space of just a few minutes I was totally drawn into the lives of these two lonely people and yearned to see them meet. This is very clever story-telling and a real treat to watch.” — Stuart Beattie
March Shortlisted
Bows and Arrows
“I really love the style of animation in this film, a wonderful juxtaposition of charming innocence and violent realism. It's also startingly original in the way it uses multiple theater stages as windows in the mind of the caretaker. A great example of 'show-don't-tell'. Best of all though was the terrific twist that this infirm, harmless man is the cause behind all this horror!” — Stuart Beattie
March Shortlisted
Cinematic Orchestra 'To Build A Home'
“There's some truly stunning imagery here, from the opening landscape portraits to the heartbreakingly disturbing intercutting of a dying woman trying to reach her bed and the man who loves her grinding up a poison cocktail in the basement. I wish the narrative had been a little more clear and concise but overall, a terrific achievement.” — Stuart Beattie
February 2009
Mr February - Trevor Hardy
Pushkin
by Trevor Hardy
Film of the Month!
"I love animation, especially stop motion animation, and this film is really, really good, extremely impressive. Give this guy a TV show, quick! He could be the next Nick Park. It's so well done, so professional."
— Morgan Spurlock
February Shortlisted
Last Orders: The Narrowboat Coffin
"I love the quirky characters, you can't write characters this good. It's so disarmingly honest about their outlook on the world and it makes me happy to be alive. It's also beautifully shot with great framing and pacing. If the Coen brothers made a documentary it would look like this. And I hope somebody gives me a casket like that!"
— Morgan Spurlock
February Shortlisted
School
by Liam Simpson
"This is a beautiful portrait of a little girl and school life. I love the way they captured the interaction between her and her classmates. The music is also great, best I've heard in a short film in a while, really brilliantly used. The film is a little long though and I wish she had been subtitled, it's so hard to hear what she is saying. Perhaps the mix could be adjusted."
— Morgan Spurlock
February Special mention
Christian Bale Rant - Batman Edition
by Joe Butcher
"Fucking awesome! That's all I can fucking say about this. Fuck, I'm going to watch it again (And he did – Ed.) — Morgan Spurlock
January 2009
Mr January - Robin Bushell
Zoo
Film of the Month!
"Zoo is totally charming. It's a film that is extremely inventive with its use of material - both audio and visual - and it has a stonking soundtrack. The film really reminded me of Polish 60's animations; the way it just riffs off the narrators voice and then free associates. Subversive, quirky and loads of fun." — Mike Figgis
January Shortlisted
Hanging with Frank
"This is a fascinating piece of social history. Chilling and immensely watchable. If it's helpful to give additional comments I'd say that I thought the editing could have been a little bit tighter, but this didn't detract at all from a very solid and gripping film. Loved the black and white."
— Mike Figgis
January Shortlisted
Jump
by Lab Ky Mo
"Wow. Very unusual, witty and concise. What I really liked about this film is that I am non-the-wiser whether it's for real or whether it's an ironic double take." — Mike Figgis
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