What an amazing night this year's Gala Awards Final was! The films were amazing and impressed a packed house at Chauvel Cinema. Everyone is still talking about it!
But what everyone really wants to know is...who won the awards! So here goes...
Best Film and Best Cinematography awards went to Christopher Stollery for No Budget (shot on an iPhone 4s). “No plot, no story, no characters but these two cineastes and this ambitious little film are going places.” The film featured cameos from Hugo Weaving & David Wenham!
Bubbles Don’t Lie by Stepan Etrych of the Czech Republic (iPhone 5) picked up Best Screenplay and Best Director awards. This is a wonderfully absurd story in which everybody discovers comic-book style bubbles above their heads and in a funny twist, they find out what they mean.
The People's Choice Award was hotly contested this year with The Weird Sisters by Blake Worrell taking out the prize with 340 LIKES on Facebook!
Susan Farrell won Best Actress for her role in Baggage Claim - a film about a politician and his indiscretions. Filmmakers were Carla DeLuca, Luke Kellett and Andy Gallagher from Sydney (iPhone 6s Plus).
Liam J. Phelan of Surry Hills (iPhone 6) won both Best Actor and the new #FILMBREAKER awards with his powerful piece about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Don’t Give Up – which tells the story of Iraq war veteran Chris Carter. This new category, for first time filmmakers, was inspired by Pocket Filmmaker, Jason van Genderen and SF3’s partnership with his Pocket Film Academy.
The SF3 Kids Flick Pick has been awarded to 12-year-old Talia Cohen-Vigder (USA) for her joyful movie Holiday of Holidays, filmed in Israel and documenting an annual holiday festival in the Israeli village of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam, a purpose-built, integrated community of Arabs and Jews.
Two more films were screened as Founders’ Pick Flicks: Time to Pay Off Debts by Conrad Mess (Spain) and Fly Away by Luis Juarez (Venezuela).