Editor

The International Festival of Cinema and Technology 2004 Tour Award Winners

Today the long-awaited announcement took place of the International Festival of Cinema and Technology 2004 Award Winners.

The tour was launched this past February in Orlando and festival screenings took place in London, Toronto, New York, Sydney and Brisbane. Festival locations this year included Universal Studios in Orlando, The Fox Studios Screening Room in Sydney, The Canadian Broadcast Centre in Toronto, the Horse Hospital in London among others. In each city, extensive judging took place in each city to determine the award winners. The international projects this year swept the award categories as multiple recognitions went to the German film directed by Erika Rettig Michaels, "Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)," which won five separate award categories. The short film based in a futuristic world is about a young woman who is a victim of a crime, and suddenly finds herself locked-up in an insane asylum that is a cross between an psychiatric institute and a prison. "Time to Be Born" by Columbian Director Jose Restrepo and the dramatic short "The Rainbow" from Iran and Wales, directed by Caradog Wolfe also won multiple award recognitions.

The IFCT 2004 World Tour is a creation of the International Festival of Cinema and Technology. Last year's IFCT tour took place in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London and Paris. Popularity of the touring event in 2003, launched a new tour in 2004 with the additional cities of Sydney and Brisbane added to the list. The festival seeks to showcase the best in truly independent cinema. The festival also provides participating filmmakers with comments from the judges in each city, providing useful feedback which may potentially either encourage them to make different choices in their future works. Many of the award winners in the festival this year were by student or "first-time" filmmakers: this factor speaks to the level of new filmmaking talent which often goes unrecognized. Many of the award winning films were U.S. Premieres, Canadian Premieres, and Australian Premieres at IFCT.

Festival projects include short comedies, dramas, animations, experimental films, music videos and documentaries and are from truly independent filmmakers from a wide variety of countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, France, Germany, Bermuda, and Switzerland. The festival's motto is it seeks to "discover the undiscovered film." The "technology" in the festival's name occurs both in the content of the festival, which tends to focus on themes of technology or feature unique creation techniques, as well as in the method of showcasing content at the events. The winners of the tour were selected by a panel of over 50 judges who are based in London, Toronto, Sydney, Brisbane, New York and Orlando. These judges consisted of film reviewers, magazine editors, music composers, acting teachers, and award winning directors.

IFCT AWARD CATEGORY WINNERS
Best Short
WINNER: Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)

Best Documentary
WINNER: Time to be Born (The Touch)

Best Short (under 6 minutes)
WINNER: I Don't Mind

Best Director of a Short
WINNER: Caroline Morton-Hicks for Ladies Night

Best Cinematography in a Short Film
WINNER: God's Helper

Best Cinematography in a Documentary
WINNER: Time to Be Born (The Touch)

Best Animation
WINNER: Einstein: Shedding Light on the Universe

Best Student Short
WINNER: Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)

Best Student Documentary
WINNER: Sunny and Diane

Best Experimental Project (Longform)
WINNER: Shudder

Best Short Experimental Film (6 minutes or less)
WINNER: Insight

Best Original Score in a Short
WINNER: Blue Celtic Grass for The Scotsmen

Best Comedic Short
WINNER: Delivered

Best Dramatic Short
WINNER: Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)

Best Actor
WINNER: The Rainbow

Best Actress
WINNER: Chantal de Freitas for Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)

Best Short Editing
WINNER: Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)

Best New Talent (first time filmmaker)
WINNER: A Naked Eye

Best Use of Special/Visual FX in a Live Action Short
WINNER Kann ich abhaben? (What's in it for Me?)

Best Microbudget Short
WINNER: Captive Soul

Best Screenplay for a Short Film
WINNER: The Rainbow

Best Cutting Edge Use of Documentary Format
WINNER: Revelation and the Atomic Wedgie

Best International Short
WINNER: Viendo Lluver (Looking into the Rain)



More information on the International Festival of Cinema and Technology Tour, principles, jurors or participating filmmakers please contact admin@ifct.org. Details on the festival can be found at www.ifct-tour.org. The complete listing of award winners can be found at http://www.ifct-tour.org/awards.html.