A Shaded View on Fashion Film Awards

Announcing the Winners of the 4th Edition of the Festival: ‘A Shaded View on Fashion Film'

In a rapturous awards ceremony held on the opening night of Diane Pernet's three-day international festival A Shaded View On Fashion (ASVOFF), nine ‘fashion films' were bestowed upon winners with gongs and prizes followed by a moving performance at the official venue of ASVOFF 4 in Paris, the Centre Pompidou.  Over the weekend, ASVOFF electrified enthusiasts of both fashion and film as well as the ever growing number of dedicated ‘fashion film' buffs.  With a diverse programme that included new and vintage film screenings, celebrity appearances from the likes of Rossy de Palma, Daphne Guinness and Christina Kruse, professional conferences and exclusive live music & dance performances, ASVOFF was commended by industry veterans and up-and-coming directors alike.

Oscar-nominated director, Mike Figgis, who has screened several short films at ASVOFF over the years, had the following to say after attending this year's edition: "In the often vacuous world of fashion, Diane Pernet's ASVOFF festival shines a light on originality and talent."

In her bid to explore the themes of fashion, style and beauty through the medium of the moving image, Diane Pernet is often credited with pioneering and nurturing the ‘fashion film' genre, pushing its boundaries forward, matchmaking creative collaborators and presenting commercial opportunities for talent across both industries.  This year was no different, with several seasoned and young directors recognising Pernet's role and ASVOFF's encouragement.

"Working in the film business as a young director and working with fashion, well, it's always very challenging," says Davide Bedoni, the director of this year's Special Animation Prize.  "Most clients are still not used to experimenting much or taking risks with videos. So, to me, this award means that all the effort that we put into making this just for ourselves with no boundaries or without having to communicate any client needs, it means that our vision had some kind of poetry for others too."

An esteemed panel of film critics, actors, producers, creative directors, fashion designers, editors, journalists and photographers made up the ASVOFF 4 jury, who are all leading and influential figures at venerable institutions such as the Musée Galliera and the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard; television channels like Paris Première and Canal+; publications including Le Figaro, the International Herald Tribune, Libération, Mixte Magazine and Condé Nast Digital; or renowned ad & creative agencies such as Art + Commerce and Première Heure and the online boutique thecorner.com.  (A complete list of the jury is located on the last page of this press release.)

THE ASVOFF 4 PRIZE WINNERS ARE: (access the films online at:  http://t.ymlp218.net/mqyazaujmhaaaejwaaahyjy/click.php)

• ASVOFF Grand Prize awarded by MK2: I Want Muscle by Elisha Smith-Leverock

(the awarded film will be screened through the MK2 network of theatre rooms for one month)

• Best Art Direction Prize: The Fantastic Man Series by Lernet & Sander
• Best Soundtrack Prize: Praise Break (Director's Cut) by Eric Weidt
• Best Actor/Actress Prize: Danny Trejo in the film Onions Don't Make me Cry by Bryan Adams
• Best Styling Prize: Twin Parallel by Justin Anderson
• Beauty Prize awarded by Shu Uemura: Waters by Kira Lillie
• Young Talent Prize awarded by Portal + Zekka: Is This Real Life (Nuptialis Project) by Suzie Q + Leo Siboni
• Special Animation Prize: Exercise in Sartorial Depravation by Davide Bedoni
• Thecorner.com Award: Scalpel/ Stradivariusby Jason Last & Jaime Rubiano (the awarded film is given the opportunity to be showcased on the global window of thecorner.com)

This year's festival saw exponential growth in both quality and quantity since its 2008 debut - an impressive 103 films by 88 directors were selected, with 68 in competition for awards. Spanning both the establishment and the underground, fashion brands & designers featured in this year's films included Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain, Undercover, Miu Miu, Balenciaga, Comme des Garcons, Maison Martin Margiela, House of Holland, Lanvin, Stephen Jones, Prada, Dries Van Noten, Charlie le Mindu, Calvin Klein & Gareth Pugh.  Behind the camera were photographers Bruce Weber, Ellen von Unwerth, Steven Meisel, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Serge Lutens, Lisa Eisner, Mark Borthwick, Bryan Adams, Walter Pfeiffer, the late Richard Avedon and many others who have turned their hand to video or film in order to capture inspirational fashion, style and beauty.  

An exclusive screening of 1970s and early 1980s vintage footage of Jun Ropé's short film series starring Anjelica Huston, Lauren Hutton, and Jean Shrimpton and a ‘carte blanche' given to the French TV archive specialist INA that included a conference focusing on the cult 1960s fashion series ‘Dim Dam Dom' also delighted audiences.  

The breadth of talent was felt not only in the films themselves but in the many other festivities held during ASVOFF 4 (October 7 - 9).  Public forums gave this year's audience members exclusive insight into the professional universe of some of the most highly-acclaimed fashion and film veterans including jury president Elisabeth Quin, Michel Mallard, Manette Bertin, Sylvie Richard, Leyla Sassi, Nathaniel Brown, photographer/director Peter Knapp.  

ASVOFF's exciting conferences culminated in a star-studded ‘carte blanche' double-bill in the presence of two spellbinding jury members:  fashion icon and film producer Daphne Guinness and as ASVOFF's ambassador Rossy de Palma, who says that the reasons she champions the festival is "because I love celebration and a visionary's point of view on the world -- and ASVOFF has both." 

Live performances and parties punctuated the busy weekend festivities with highlights from a duet by pianist Rosey Chan and director Mike Figgis on bass with dancer Zack Winokur, a DJ set by British designer Pam Hogg, an unforgettable live performance by Rossy de Palma and sword swallower Jewels Good at David Lynch's Club Silencio, and an intimate live set by the seductive British band Sullom Voe at the Centre Pompidou.  

A Shaded View on Fashion Film's international reach continues with another year of plans to tour the globe.  It begins next week, when ASVOFF travels to Japan (October 19-22) as Diane Pernet presents a four-day special screening in Tokyo's Tabloid Gallery (2-6-24 Kaigan Minato-ku).  A compilation of the Paris edition of ASVOFF 4 films, combined with ten new additions from Japanese artists, will certainly expand the repertoire of the ‘fashion film' even further...

ABOUT ASVOFF
Since its launch in 2008, ASVOFF (http://www.asvoff.com/) has gained critical acclaim for encouraging both emerging and established artists to reconsider the way that fashion is presented and for challenging the conventional parameters of film.   ASVOFF debuts in Paris during fashion week and tours the globe with subsequent screenings at prestigious institutions and events like the Barbican, the Guggenheim and Cannes Film Festival in a host of creative capitals such as New York, London, Tokyo, Milan, Moscow, Mexico City - and this January at the CaixaForum Barcelona.  ASVOFF is not only a competition of short fashion, style and beauty films but also a travelling international event showcasing feature films, documentaries, conferences, performances and installations - making it a must-see on both the fashion calendar and the film circuit.  Genre-bending and groundbreaking, it has already brought together such illustrious names as Chris Cunningham, Róisín Murphy, Nick Knight, Erwin Olaf, Nobuyoshi Araki, Tilda Swinton, Steven Klein, Mike Figgis, Chloë Sevigny, Dita Von Teese, Max Vadukul, Bruce Weber and Ryan McGinley as well as Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Gareth Pugh, Sergio Rossi, Hussein Chalayan, Mr. Pearl, Rodarte, Givenchy, Yohji Yamamoto & Thom Browne.

ABOUT DIANE PERNET
Diane Pernet is a world-renowned fashion critic and video journalist based in Paris. Previously a photographer and fashion designer, she now acts as documentary filmmaker, talent scout and fashion blogger on her site, A SHADED VIEW ON FASHION (http://www.asvof.com/), which has become a ‘must-read' in fashion and creative industry circles.  As one of the most recognisable faces in fashion, she has also been captured on the other side of the movie camera through cameo appearances in Robert Altman's film, ‘Prêt-à-Porter' and in Roman Polanski's ‘The Ninth Gate'.  While contributing to some of the most highly-acclaimed fashion magazines and pioneering online media, Pernet launched ASVOFF in 2008.  As the founder of the world's first film festival dedicated to fashion, style and beauty, she is widely considered to have incubated the ‘fashion film' from its infancy to the popular genre that it is becoming today.  Pernet is not only credited with providing the first platform of its kind for the ‘fashion film' genre to evolve and flourish, but also with helping ‘fashion film' fulfil many of its early promises which were to revolutionize the fashion industry, breathe life into static photography, offer a new outlet to filmmakers - and to trigger several important commercial, business and digital media opportunities across the fashion and movie industries.

More information: http://t.ymlp218.net/mysazaujmhagaejwaoahyjy/click.php  

To view the trailer video of ASVOFF 4: http://t.ymlp218.net/myuataujmhazaejwalahyjy/click.php

To view the WINNING FILMS of ASVOFF 4: http://t.ymlp218.net/mqyazaujmhaaaejwaaahyjy/click.php

ASVOFF 4 COMPLETE JURY LIST
Elisabeth Quin, Film Critic & Journalist (Paris Première, France Inter, et al) / ASVOFF 4 Jury President
Rossy de Palma, Actress / ASVOFF Ambassador
Elisha Karmitz, Multimedia Director of MK2
Leonardo Girombelli, Branding & Communication Manager at thecorner.com
Olivier Saillard, Director of Musée Galliera
Manish Arora, Fashion Designer / Creative Director of Paco Rabanne
Daphne Guinness, Film Producer
Pascale Faure, Head of the Short-film Department, Canal+
Chris Miller, Co-President, Flower Films
Colette Barbier, Director of the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard
Joseph Ghosn, Editor-in-Chief, Condé Nast Digital for Vogue.fr, GQmagazine.fr and Glamourparis.com
Jerry Stafford, Creative Director, Première Heure
Philippe Azoury, Journalist at Libération
Sam Shahid, Creative Director (including for books on Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, Ellen Von Unwerth, et al)
Raphaëlle Stopin, Creative Director, Responsible for the Photography Section, Festival d'Hyeres
Rebecca Blake, Photographer / Director
Thérèse Deprez, Production Designer (for films including Black Swan)
Alice Pfeiffer, Journalist (International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, New York Times, et al)
Philippe Brutus, Executive Vice President of Photography, Art + Commerce
Christian Ravera + Guy Guglieri, Founders of Mixte Magazine