Japanese beer, Kirin Ichiban has announced the four finalists for their short film competition, with the winner being chosen by the public.
The four finalists have been chosen from a judging panel of industry experts from the world of short film including the London Short Film Festival and award winning Short Film director Simon Ellis.
The public vote is now open on http://www.kirinfirstcut.co.uk/how-to-vote.php. Here you can view all the finalist videos and vote for your favourate.
The winning entry will be announced at the 55th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express in October.
The winner will get their film shown at this prestigious Film Festival (October 12-27), receive £3,000 cash, and have their film showcased at The London Short Film festival in early 2012 too.
Second place will receive £1000 cash, third place will receive £500 cash and the final runner up will win a year’s supply of Kirin Ichiban beer. The four short-listed films will also be screened at Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, held 20th -29th July and screened at the Curzon Mezzanine lounge. These shortlisted film makers will also be invited to mingle with industry experts at the closing night party at Studio Valbonne on the 28th July.
The short-listed films will also be screened at the Kirin Ichiban Pop Up yatai restaurant on Brick Lane, East London the first week in August, where the public will again vote on the short film of their choice to be crowned this year’s winner.
The four finalists are:
“The Dreamers” by Matt Maude
Matt Maude is a 26 year old writer and director from Leeds who established the production company 'Left Eye Blind' in his late teens, signed to Academy Films at 23 years of age and writes and directs music videos. He now concentrates his imaginings within fiction films. He said: “I spend way too much time looking out of windows dreaming about Worlds that hopefully one day will be seen on screen.”
“Perfect Pair” by Craig Connolly and Jack Judd
Craig Connolly, 27, from Wickford, Essex and Jack Judd, 24, from Finchley, London met whilst working at a box office in a local theatre and quickly discovered they both had a passion for telling stories and making films. Though neither one of them had a film-related background, they decided then and there, that they would have a film-related future. Throwing themselves into the film scene, they attended various workshops and seminars and soon felt confident enough to try their hand at a short film.
They said: “The Kirin 'First Cut' competition represented a great opportunity to test our newly acquired skills, especially as the challenge set was to create a story around the idea of 'First Press' perfection and represents the first project between the two of us”.
“Money Shot” by Graham Rathlin
Originally from Belfast, Graham Rathlin now lives in London and has been making shorts for a number of years and hopes to make the step up to feature film-making soon. Despite having no formal qualifications, Graham was recently accepted onto the Film and Television production course at the University of Greenwich on the strength of his showreel.
The Money Shot is his eighth short film and possibly the one he is most proud of, given what little resources he had to shoot it, basically one light and a Canon 550D during the two day shoot.
“Door Open” by Carolina Giametta and Schuman Hoque
Door Open is the latest film from award nominated filmmakers Carolina Giametta and Schuman Hoque. The film is about a young man, who enters an open door intent on robbing the place, but finds the elderly resident reacts in the most surprising manner. Inspired by the Kirin First Cut film competition’s idea of a film based on the concept of “First Press”, they have built their story around an old woman, who is interrupted while in the process of pressing the first flowers of spring.
