The organisers of the 48-Hour Tasploitation Challenge are delighted to announced the winning films (as chosen by the Jury on the night and an audience vote).
Twenty-two short films screened at the Stanley Burbury Theatre at UTAS last night, 13 April.
The competition and screening was jointly presented this year by Stranger With My Face International Film Festival and Wide Angle Tasmania. The Tasploitation Challenge was first held in 2013 as part of the Stranger With My Face program but has now developed as a satellite event of the festival, growing in popularity every year.
“It was fantastic to have Wide Angle Tasmania’s support in presenting the Challenge in 2017,” says Stranger With My Face Director Briony Kidd. “WAT does such great work to support grassroots filmmaking in Tasmania, so there’s a natural fit between this event and their expertise and skills.”
The Jury this year consisted of Shaun Wilson (Wide Angle Tasmania board member and director of Noirhouse, Rosehaven and The Ex-PM), ABC Local Radio presenter Helen Shield, producer, director and cinematographer Dick Marks OAM, creative producer Catherine Pettman of Rummin Productions, award-winning composer and sound designer Heath Brown and acclaimed cinematographer Sandi Sissel (The People Under the Stairs), as well as Stranger With My Face’s Briony Kidd. Read more about them here.
Laird and Edwards starred in the winning film as well as writing and directing.
The judges commended all the filmmakers on their creative and entertaining efforts this year but Nuncersion II: And Then There Were Nun (The Nunnering) was a standout for its originality, getting the nod from both the Jury and audience. The film is a meta twist on its allocated subgenre of ‘nunsploitation’, beginning with a conventional scene involving a priest and a nun but rapidly devolving into a behind-the-scenes story about the filmmakers working on a 48-hour film for the Challenge.
“We love the audacity of this film,” says Briony Kidd on behalf of the Jury. “It’s clever enough to play with and subvert audience expectations multiple times, yet it also manages to incorporate some great atmosphere and a genuine scare, which is no easy feat.”
“We love Stranger With My Face and the 48-Hour Tasploitation Challenge,” say the creators of Nucursion II, Alex Laird and Scott Gerry Edwards. “All we wanted to do was give the audience a bit of a laugh and hopefully a scare. To walk away with both the Audience Choice and the Best Film awards was more than we could have hoped for.”
The Best Film winners received a Monster Fest 2017 festival passes and $500 cash to help them get there.
The complete list of winners for the Tasploitation Challenge 2017:
- Jury Award for Best Film - Nuncersion II: And Then There Were Nun (The Nunnering) by Timebois (Alex Laird, Scott Gerry Edwards)
- Audience Choice Award - Nuncersion II: And Then There Were Nun (The Nunnering) by Timebois (Alex Laird, Scott Gerry Edwards)
- Cooper Screen Academy Best Actor Award - Jane Hamilton-Foster for Art Therapy by The Strange Mothers
- Special Award (Best Vomit) - Meet the Weavers by Play Nice
- Tasmaniana Award (for a film that incorporates a specifically Tasmanian aspect in the most original or interesting way) - The Faerie Tree by Derek Disaster Squad
- Barbara Creed Award (for a film that reflects on gender issues in a thoughtful or clever way) - Good Mourning by Decomposers
- Next Generation Award (for an outstanding film made by a team which includes an under 16 year old filmmaker working in a key role) - Reflected Fears by HP Studios.
The films will be available to view on the Stranger With My Face website soon.
