Local filmmakers turn heads at Silver Wave Film Festival
Published Monday November 17th, 2008
A Fredericton-made comedy about two video game-loving geeks who risk losing their friendship over a girl was the big winner at this weekend's New Brunswick Silver Wave Film Festival awards.
Gamers' Manifesto, which was directed by Joshua Linton of Fredericton and Chris Fulton of Miramichi, received five awards at Saturday's awards gala.
"It's incredible, floored, it's so humbling," Linton said when reached Sunday night. "My only hope was that the audience would love it. Apparently they did. That's the real prize.''
The film was recognized as Best NB Short Comedy, for excellence in art direction, for excellence in picture editing and for excellence in music composition. The moviemakers also split the $2,500 Service Award with Fredericton's Bunthivy Nou, director of the Best NB Short Drama for her film, A Lion's Tale.
The money will allow the winners to develop future projects.
"Having financial support for future projects is icing on the cake," Linton said.
Nou agrees.
The Fredericton filmmaker said she was left wide-eyed by the quality of work her peers in New Brunswick are producing.
"I saw a lot of the other shorts and thought there's a lot of really good stuff, (I'm) just happy to be considered among those others," she said.
A Lion's Tale, about a mother who confesses to killing her son's bully, is her first attempt at writing, directing and producing.
But she said it's not a one-person affair.
"My cast and crew really helped bring the movie to life."
The 2008 event was a banner edition for the Silver Wave Film Festival. The festival had a record 82 films, 32 of them from New Brunswick filmmakers.
And local artists honoured during the gala promise there's plenty more to come.
Two future projects planned by Fredericton filmmakers received the festival's major funding awards.
Shore Road Pictures received the CBC 3-2-1 award worth a total of $25,000 for an upcoming project entitled A Dark Radius. The short film follows a former military woman who must spring to action after her sister is captured by a human-smuggling ring.
"It's amazing. It's going to be a boost for us professionally," said Gia Milani, the president of Shore Road Pictures who is also writer, director and producer.
"We've had our work shown on TV before, but this is a well-recognized broadcaster, and this award also provides us with some money, resources and mentorship too."
Nicholas Tabarrok, an executive producer in Los Angeles, agreed to mentor the project.
"He read our script and really liked it," Milani said.
"We've worked very hard to get where we are, hopefully get us to the next level," said Tony Whalen, vice-president and producer of Shore Road Pictures.
Fredericton's Tim Rayne received the New Brunswick Joy Award worth $17,000 for his next film, Songbird, about a woman who has to make difficult decisions about what she's willing to sacrifice for personal success.
Rayne said it really is a shared success for Fredericton's film community.
"The passion people in this community have to stop and help others is so special. It's created a very special place here," he said.
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