The awards continue to pour in for VFS students’ films! Congratulations to all our graduates making names for themselves on the festival circuit.

CanWest Comedy Fest

The CanWest Comedy Fest in Vancouver hosted its first annual “Destination Funny Shorts” Competition. Of 15 comic short films screened, 7 were by VFS students. Nominated films were screened and judged at the event on September 18, 2006.

I, Stalker, written by Writing graduate Kevin McComiskie, took the award for Best Actor. Congrats to actor Paul Hebert, Kevin, and director Katrin Bowen who was nominated for Best Direction.
Other nominations included:

Heather’s Prom, directed by Film Production grad Jacqueline La Sorda, was nominated for Best Direction and Best Actress.

Skulltron Vision, by Film Production grad Jimi Cuell, was nominated for Best Direction and Best Actor.

The Recliner, by 3D grad Phanthep Wiantrakoon, and Spider vs. Man, by 3D grad Craig George, were both nominated for Best Animated Film.

Ruby Writes Through, directed by Film Production grad Sarah Schwartz, received a nomination for Best Actress.

The Death of Theodore Graham, directed by Film Production grad Erik Hecht, received a nomination for Best Screenplay.

Vancouver Student Film Festival

The Vancouver Student Film Festival (VSFF) screened 17 student-created films on September 15th and 16th at the new Vancouver International Film Centre’s Vancity Theatre. The festival was a huge success, with the Saturday evening screening selling out.

Awards for VFS students included:

Gregoire Bedard, Film Production graduate, won Best Director for his film Alibi Inc.

Ian Whittlesey, Film Production graduate, won Best Cinematography for his film Grover’s Mill. Grover’s Mill also received Best Supporting Actor for Jason Logan.

BC Student Film Festival

While we’re at it, congratulations to our award winners at the BC Student Film Festival held this past May. The following graduates received Post-Secondary awards in these categories:

Animation

1st Place - The Heart Collector, Michael Fallik, Classical Animation graduate

2nd Place - Documentary, Lawrence Chung, Classical Animation graduate

3rd Place - Gorilla, Eric Choi, Classical Animation graduate

Narrative

2nd Place - The Shortest Dream, Jee-won Sul, Kyoko Nagata, Ahmad Al-Tamimi, Felipe de Lara, WooJo Jeon, Graham Kew - Film Production graduates

Experimental

2nd Place - The sound of, Jaidene Veda Belavy – Sound Design graduate

All of our award winners received 3 out of a possible 3 stars (project rated as “outstanding”) from the panel of judges.

During his last weeks at VFS, Cesar Montero laboured over his final project: a commercial for energy-saving light bulbs designed to showcase his 3D graphics skills as well as his storytelling abilities.

The result was Sex and the Socket, a commercial following the romantic trials of a sexy light socket looking for the right bulb. The project won Gold for Best Student Marketing in the prestigious MI6 Advertising Awards, and has been featured on countless influential computer graphics websites including CG Talk, CG Society, 3dtotal, and cgchannel.

VFS caught up with Cesar to talk about sex. And the socket.
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VFS Digital Design instructor Bun Lee has been invited to lead a “master class” on the finer arts of cinematography, lighting, nonlinear video editing, and sound engineering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The Cannes Film Festival has given rise to some of the most influential filmmakers ever known – and this year, they asked Bun Lee to join Adobe Systems Incorporated in the execution of the American Pavilion “Reel Ideas” Student Filmmaker Program.

50 Students from over 30 countries have been invited to attend the Cannes film festival and to take part in Reel Ideas, headed up by Adobe. A select group of instructors from the best filmmaking schools in the world have been invited to teach these 50 students in the art of filmmaking.

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