When We Were Marks

2012 YoungCuts Film Festival Call For Submissions

2012-01-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

2012 YoungCuts Film Festival
Call for Submissions and Participation

The YoungCuts Film Festival is looking for Great Short Films by the World's Best Young Filmmakers (25 and under).

Established in 2001, the YoungCuts Film Festival is the Premiere Showcase for young, emerging talent. Every year, the festival selects its Top 100 short films from more than a thousand films that come from more than 30 countries.

We present awards in multiple categories including Best Picture, Best Animated Film, Best Documentary and Best Short Short Film (film under five minutes).

This year, for the first time, we will be providing an opportunity for filmmakers and the public to help us select winners by voting on film submissions by filmmakers who are participating in our 2012 People's Choice program. Anyone interested in watching or voting for great films will be able to do so, for the price of a theatre ticket. Every month, beginning in January, we will have a new slate of films to vote on and at the end of the month, based on public voting, we will announce one film pre-selected to the Festival.

To see how it will work, courtesy of Canadian Heritage, here are a selection of great films from the Festival that you can watch and vote on for free.

Filmmakers can submit their films online HERE!

Our Early-Bird deadline is January 31st. It is cheaper to submit before January 31st and, as always, the earlier that you submit, the better your chance for your film to be accepted.

Our regular deadline for the Festival is March 31st, but we accept films until June 15th.

For more information on submitting your film go HERE!

Or contact Michael Ryan: festivaldirector@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

From the Cutting Room Floor: Jason Reitman's Anonymous Narcissists

2012-01-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

From the Cutting Room Floor
Jason Reitman's Anonymous Narcissists

Rather than just giving you the link to my latest article on Sound on Sight, I thought that I would include a few snippets of what didn't make it into the article and how I came to write it.

I kept trying to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol before Christmas, largely to watch the extended preview of Christopher Nolan's next Batman film, but it was always sold out. The first time that I tried to get in and failed, I went Christmas shopping instead. The second time, I went to see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows and made it a double feature with Jason Reitman and Cody Diablo's follow-up to Juno: Young Adult.

Simon Howell beat me to the review with his excellent summary. Ricky and Simon never refuse second looks at films and many of my reviews are second takes on films already reviewed on the site including my reviews of Bellflower, The Innkeepers, The Devil's Double and The Adventures of Tintin. But, they don't exactly encourage the duplication either. Usually, if I am writing a second review, it is because I fundamentally disagreed with the first review (The Innkeepers) or I didn't know that it existed (The Devil's Double).

In the case of Simon's review (and Roger Ebert's excellent review that muses on Mavis' alcoholism) I didn't so much as disagree with the reviews as wonder at the notion that Young Adult was in some way a complete departure for Jason Reitman. Where others saw differences, I saw only similarities.

It was obviously a bit of a departure by Cody Diablo and, as she herself has admitted, a commentary and reaction to her previous scripts about young adults and the critical reaction to them. What was most interesting to me, is that in creating Mavis Gary, Cody created a character who was even more a Jason Reitman character than Juno MacGuff, or to put it another way, she shifted her focus from Juno to a secondary character from that film, the narcissistic Mark Loring.

But while Young Adult ended up being more similar to Thank You For Smoking and Up in the Air than to Juno, all of Jason Reitman's films struggle with the conflict between selfishness and selflessness, between narcissism and altruism.

It's not the only similarity between the four films. All of them have fantastic title sequences - little short films that captivate and offer a miniature insight into the entire film.

All four films also have protagonists with an extraordinary facility for language. As Nick Naylor (without any humilty whatsoever) says, "Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk." Ryan Bingham talks people into believing that being fired is a good thing, telling them, "Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's because they sat there that they were able to do it." Juno, while still only 16, is constantly playing with language with a facility beyond her years. While Mavis Gary is nowhere near as good as Nick, Ryan or Juno at talking, she is easily their equal at writing, completing her final Waverly Prep novel during the course of the film despite being on a Lost Weekend type bender from the opening frame to the last. (One of the reasons that Roger Ebert may have identified so closely with Mavis Gary is that he admits that early in his writing career he was an alcoholic. When Jian Ghomeshi asked him if his alcoholism affected his professional life, Ebert proudly told him that even at the worst of his drinking, he never missed a deadline.)

The one part of the article that I regret is that it may be so clinical in its analysis that it may hide how much I admire Jason Reitman's talents as a writer and director and how much I like all of his films. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't waste the effort on crappy films or a crappy director. (Next up Udo Kier!)

I also admit to being a bit nervous about throwing in Groundhog Day, and full confession here: I originally remembered Groundhog Day as having been written and directed by Ivan Reitman, Jason's Dad, not Harold Ramis, a friend and collaborator of Ivan Reitman, but I felt that the point was worth making and made for a natural conclusion to the article, so what the hell.

*****

The final thing that I couldn't cram into the article is how much Mavis Gary seems motivated by a fear of failure, scarred perhaps by her miscarriage of Buddys baby and her failed marriage of the (unnamed?) husband that she married after her break-up with Buddy. This fear of failure seems to be what has been causing her writer's block as the film starts and the fact that the Waverly Prep series has been cancelled, that she is supposed to be writing the final volume in the series, can be seen as another failure. That Mavis is the ghost writer for someone else's series rather than the creator of her own and her reliance on eavesdopped conversations by teens for her dialogue are also signs of her fear of failure. Her compulsive preparations for her encounters with Buddy; her donning of the war paint points a kind of self-loathing that seems to say that she is afraid of simply being who she is. Mavis' narcissism is not so much self-love as love of herself as some imagined ideal; who seh becomes rather than who she is.

One of the other reasons that Mavis hates Beth Slade is that Beth has no fear of failure, playing drums for the local rock band Nipple Confusion with little real talent, but great enthusiasm.

Read my article about the tragic flaw that binds all the protagonists of Jason Reitman's funny tragedies.

My Top Ten TV Shows of 2011

2012-01-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

My Top Ten TV Shows of 2011

The same way that Sound on Sight asked me to vote for my Top Ten Films for 2011, they asked me to to vote for my Top Ten TV Shows for 2011, for their year-end list.

As with films, I only picked TV shows that I actually saw. The biggest distinction here is that it is a lot harder to watch good TV (at least on TV) than good films. For every good movie that only seems to play at festivals or plays one week and then disappears, there are dozens of TV shows that only play on Pay-TV. A good rule of thumb was that if it played on HBO Canada, I wasn't able to watch it. This eliminated a ton of great shows: Game of Thrones, Homeland, Walking Dead, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie and so on and so on.

One of the reasons that I started writing my Obsessive, Compulsive, Procedural column was that on broadcast TV about all that is currently programmed is reality TV, talent competitions, comedies and procedurals. Good thing I like procedurals.

All that kvetching aside, it was a very good year for TV and these were my favourites...

*****

#10. Harry's Law (tie)

Not as good a season as the first one, but still good. Perhaps a victim of its own success - it was left alone by the network until it started drawing good ratings and the network moved in to make the show safe for primetime.

Despite the fact that the show seems to have betrayed the very reason for its existence this year, I keep watching - if for no other reason than that it seems like David E. Kelley is inserting a sub-text about how miserable Harry is becoming being a regular criminal lawyer this year compared to her delight defending the neighbourhood poor last year.

My OCP Column about Harry's Law.

*****

#10. Storage Wars (tie)

This compulsively addictive A&E show has a deceptively simple premise: four characters - a mogul with an established store, a young turk (and his wife) with a new store, an experienced reseller with a penchant for taking gambles and an eccentric with a history of collecting - attend public auction of storae lockers, bid on the contents and then see if they made a profit or not.

I like Auction Hunters on Spike as well. Auction Hunters has a slightly better format, because it follows the Hunters from buying the locker to actually selling the merchandise, while Storage Wars counts a valuation as a sale. Auction Hunters has it right, because an item can be valued quite high, but what matters is how much will give you in cash for it now.

I am also a fan of Pawn Stars on History, but Storage Wars has the most engaging charactersof any of the shows, which puts it on this list.

*****

#9. Dragons' Den

The Dragons' Den series started in Japan as "Manē no Tora" or Tiger of Money. The basic idea is that entrepreneurs come on the show asking for money for their companies. The Dragons have the option of buying a share of the entrepreneurs company, but only if they put up the full amount of what is being asked.

There have been more than 20 versions around the world. The Canadian version on CBC is so good that two of the Dragons from that show (Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec) also appear as Sharks in the U.S. version Shark Tank.

Compulsively watchable, Dragons' Den is a great mix of good ideas, bad ideas, cynicism, the occasional moment of capitalist benevolence and great clashes of personality. The ongoing feud between Kevin O'Leary and Arlene Dickinson is especially entertaining. Jim Treliving is also very good as the éminence grise of the show - probably the smartest man in the room, but also smart enough to let the others blather on for him.

*****

#8. Bones

One of the best of the long-running procedurals. David Boreanz has been a favourite of mine since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I am working on an OCP column about Bones, but it is worth watching every week if only for the parental advisory for "graphic forensic content".

*****

#7. The Amazing Race

The smartest and classiest reality TV show period.

Part of the fun in the program is watching the contestants struggle with the culture unfamiliarity and with the weird male obsession with not asking for directions. While physical fitness is helpful, mental fitness is much more important, proved this year when a team of senior citizens finished fifth destroying teams decades younger.

*****

#6. Young Justice

One of three cartoon procedurals on this list.

A smart show that deals head-on with the weird superhero habit of recruiting teen sidekicks and throwing them into danger. It uses huge amounts of more than 70 years worth of comic-book continuity, but does it in a non-intrusive way.

I am working on a column about the show now and it is turning into an EPIC monster.

*****

#5. Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

One of the best procedurals currently on television is a half-hour cartoon that has been on television in one form or another since 1969 and was a major inspiration for what many (myself included) believe was the greatest serial drama in the history of television. The irony is that Scooby-Doo was solidly mediocre until the debut of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated last summer.

The rest of my OCP column on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

*****

#4. Prime Suspect

Unfairly crucified for being both too similar and not similar enough to the equally great British original, Prime Suspect had the second best cast on broadcast television.

The U.S. Prime Suspect has one terrible, undeniable problem: its title. Even though the U.S. Prime Suspect is closely based on the U.K. Prime Suspect, the title just doesn’t work.

The rest of my OCP coulmn on Prime Suspect.

*****

#3. Archer

The last of the cartoon procedurals on my list, Archer is a fast-talking, fast-thinking spy procedural that manages to borrow from the entire history of the espionage genre to give us something completely new.

It also neatly fits into a personal theory of mine that U.S. spies are almost always amateurs while British spies are almost always professionals, but that the reverse is frequently true for each countries detectives.

By amateur, I don't mean that Archer is incompetent (although he sometimes is) just that he holds his position not because of training, but because of nepotism and a willingness to do the job.

*****

#2. Doctor Who

I have been a Doctor Who fan from my childhood days of watching Tom Baker on PBS and seething through the pledge drives when they would interrupt the action to try and sell us tote bags.

The latest Doctor, Matt Smith, is both the youngest and the oldest Doctor. His Doctor is funny, compassionate and much smarter than he looks.

While the latest season had its bumpy patches, it also gave fans some of the best TV moments of the year.

*****

#1. The Good Wife

When CBS originally announced The Good Wife it seemed like a terrible idea. Make a TV series about the wife of a fallen politician? The one forced by circumstances and her own ambition to stand by his side and publicly forgive him? Even when doing so means doubling your public humiliation?
Three years in, The Good Wife is by far the best broadcast network drama currently on TV and the only network show to be nominated for a Best Drama Emmy in 2011.

The rest of my OCP column on The Good Wife.

My Top Ten Films of 2011

2012-01-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

My Top Ten Films of 2011

One of the reasons that I haven't been posting as much to this blog is that I have become a fairly regular contributor to Sound On Sight. I guess I could use this blog to announce and link to my articles there, but I just never seem to get around to doing that.

I was asked to contribute to Sound On Sight's best films of the year voting which led to the site's top 30 films of the year. Since the site didn't publicize who voted for what, I thought that I would present my top ten films and justify my votes.

One quick note. I saw about 100 films last year, but many of the films that showed up on the Sound on Sight list I never saw, either because they only played at film festivals that I never attended or I haven't had time to see them yet. (In particular, I very much want to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soon.)

*****

#10 (tie) Rango

The best animated film of the year - about a pet chameleon whose aquarium accidentally falls out of the family car on the highway and through a series of misadventures becomes sheriff for the animal city of Dirt. The action and animation (especially the film's many great chase scenes) is pitched somewhere between Chuck Jones' Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons and Wild Kingdom.

While I am not sure that Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp's insistence in taping all the dialogue with all actors present was completely necessary, I appreciate the effort.

Two scenes made me fall in love with this film. The first is a sequence where Rango meets an old cowboy named by the film "Spirit of the West" (Timothy Olyphant channeling Clint Eastwood so well I was convinced that it was Eastwood.)

The second great scene is when Rango finds out that Dirt uses water as currency with the town's reserves held in the town bank. This simultaneously links Rango to Chinatown and to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, reminding us that there is a long history of scoundrels posing as honest bankers, both in film and in real life.

*****

#10 (tie) Brawler

Brawler is a ferociously original film built on the bones of very old stories – some of the oldest in literary history. It is a part of a new sub-genre of films including Bellflower and Another Earth that are narratives about the most twisted, fucked-up relationships humanly possible, framed in the context of a genre narrative.

Rest of the review

*****

#9 Contagion

Steven Soderberg's film takes the epidemic genre (Outbreak, The Andromeda Strain) and ups the ante by looking at what would happen in the real world if the killer virus really got loose. The result is a tense thriller that plays in many ways like a tribute to the great disaster films of the 70s. Stars appear, get sick and die in ways both heroic and not.

The entire film seems inspired by Robert Wagner plunging through the glass in The Towering Inferno and falling to his fiery death.

*****

#8 The Adventures of Tintin

The Sound On Sight podcast featuring me discussing The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse.

Did I just ~~say~~ write that Rango was the best animated film of 2011? ~~I think~~ I meant The Adventures of Tintin.

Spielberg reassures fans of Tintin right off the bat, first with an astonishing animated credit sequence that is filled with Easter Eggs of Tintin’s adventures that reminds fans – and introduces non-fans to – how awesome and influential Tintin is: he was the world’s favourite spy before James Bond; the world’s favourite explorer before Indiana Jones; the world’s favourite comic-book detective before Batman and the world’s favourite red-headed kid reporter before Jimmy Olsen.

Rest of the review

*****

#7 13 Assassins (Director's Cut)

Upping the ante on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Miike gave us a story that instead of focusing on the protection of one village against bandits, featured the destruction of one village in the service of bringing to justice a bandit that preyed on the entire country. In the process, Miike both captured the zeitgeist of the moment and the frustration of the 99%. He also gave us the longest, bloodiest and most incredible action set-piece of the year - giving the metaphorical 99% revenge against the rapacious 1%.

*****

#6 Midnight in Paris

I am not a big believer in the traditional narratives about Woody Allen. Some of it is wrong in the "you are entitled to your wrong-headed opinion" sense and some of it is just plain wrong, full-stop, like the assertion that Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen's biggest box-office hit ever, passing Hannah and Her Sisters, which is wrong twice, because it completely ignores inflation.

Woody Allen has been putting out great movies year after year for more than 40 years. Sure, some have been better than others, but Midnight in Paris is not an aberration, it is part of a 40 year trend of excellence.

Which is not to say that Midnight in Paris didn't strike a chord. In a year when many films mined nostalgia, some to great effect, Midnight in Paris examined nostalgia to expose its weaknesses.

*****

#5 Bellflower

Bellflower is not the Armageddon we were promised.
We were promised scarred tattooed bad-asses riding apocalypse bikes with biker sluts. We were promised Tina Turner in dominatrix gear. We were promised deserts filled with broken glass and rusted abandoned machinery. Most of all, we were promised Detroit muscle cars belching fire.

Well, one out of four will get you a steady paycheck in major league baseball.

Bellflower does give us the amazing fire-breathing Medusa muscle car, but instead of a physical Armageddon, it offers up an emotional apocalypse.

Rest of the review.

*****

#4 War Horse

The Sound On Sight podcast featuring me discussing The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse.

An emotionally wrenching journey through the First World War as seen through the eyes of Joey, a Devon thoroughbred trained as a plough horse, who is sold to a British cavalry officer on the first day of World War One and serves in the war for a variety of owners until the Armistice. Along the way, Spielberg is able to play with his common themes of the collision between the natural world and the mechanical world, as well as the way that the monstrous presence of death is revealed by the movement of inanimate objects. (Particularly effective is Spielberg’s use of a windmill.)

Rest of the review.

*****

#3 Super 8

One of the projects that I never got around to last year was an extended critique and defence of Super 8 and my apparently controversial opinion that it is much more influnced by the films of Joe Dante than the films of Steven Spielberg, especially the neglected Joe Dante classic Matinee.

*****

#2 Rabies

My favourite film from the Fantasia Film Festival this year, which is also my favourite film festival in the world (other than the one that pays my salary.) I also saw Bellflower, 13 Assassins and Brawler at Fantasia. The Innkeepers by Ti West was on this list until very late - only dislodged by Steven Spielberg's two great late films.

My explanation for why I picked Rabies as my favorite film at Fantasia still stands:

This year at Fantasia we heard horror in an entirely new language. As Israel’s horror pioneers, Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado borrowed from the World of Exploitation Cinema, but struck off in an entirely new direction. Rabies is darkly funny and filled with rage. The very existence of the film has inspired the production of 3 new horror films from Israel and a follow-up from Keshales and Papushado that threatens to do to the kidnap genre what they have already done to the slasher genre.

My full review of Rabies.

*****

#1 Hugo

The Sound on Sight podcast featuring me discussing Hugo (and The Muppets).

Hugo is a love-letter to the history of cinema and particularly the very early work of Georges Méliès... The most eloquent and beautiful tribute to the power and history of film since Cinema Paradiso... Beyond Scorsese’s love of film, this is fantastic family film, part Boy’s Adventure, part Oliver Twist and part Jules Verne.

Fair warning about my full review. As originally written, I pointed out that most reviews of Hugo ended up being huge film nerdgasms, at which point my own review turned into a film nerdgasm. I was trying (clumsily) to point out that Hugo was designed to infect filmgoers with film nerdery. Simon Howell cut that out in favour of when I just came out and said that that was what the film did. It reads better that way, but it does make me look like an incredible film geek.

Two other minor points about Hugo and my review...

One final piece of film evidence that points to Hugo being set in 1931 is René Clair’s 1931 film À Nous la Liberté, which (depending on who you listen to) either predicted or influenced Charlie Chaplin's 1937 film Modern Times.

Finally, right after watching Hugo, I walked into Indigo and bought a very nice hardcover of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but I didn't start reading it until after I had written and submitted my review. On the very first page of the novel, it tells us that the year is 1931. D'oh! Impressive that my detective work got the year right, but the actual answer was literally sitting at my elbow throughout my search.

Rest of the review.

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Award Winners and Nominees

2011-10-05T09:27:00.001-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Award Winners and Nominees

Every year, the YoungCuts Film Festival staff review the work of more than 5, 000 filmmakers and watch more than 1, 000 films to pick our Top 100. From our Top 100, we pick our list of Top 10 films to honour with an award.

From Left to Right: Jay Moulton (YoungCuts Chairman), Karl Kimmel (A Noble Cause),
Anthony Boulay (Fokker), Colin Racicot, (L'Invité), A. J. Korkadakis (Haleiya)

The following are the Award nominees and winners from the 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival:

TextbookVideos.com Award for Best Teen Film:

Untermensch (Subhuman) by Michael Aloyan (USA)

Onion Skin by Joseph Procopio (Canada)

The 36 by Nic Weinfield (USA)

Claret by Izzy Traub (Canada)

MeJohn by Philip Bernardino-Gomez (USA)

Oasis HD Award for Best Documentary:

Finding Fathers by France Costrel (USA/France)

Common Ground by Holly Fifer (Australia)

MeJohn by Philip Bernardino-Gomez (USA)

Patrick the Artist by Aidan Jeans (Canada)

Our Subject is Hair by Vincent Toi (QC)

Virgin Radio 96 Award for Best Music Video:

Haleiya by A.J. Korkidakis (QC)

Waterton Lakes – Dreamer by Kevin Caners (Canada)
Wrecking Ball by Guy Verge Wallace (Australia)
Break of Reality - Spectrum of the Sky by S. V. Broadbent and Tami Tamar Sasson (USA)

Tribute.ca Best Animated Film:
Le Fokker by Anthony Boulay (QC)
The Girl and the Fox by Tyler Kupferer (USA)
The History of Denim by Drew Roper (UK)
Icare et le Géant by Simon Leclerc (QC)
Insecurity by Mallory Mahar (USA)

En Primeur Award for Best Cast:
Something Wrong by Michael Donaghy (UK)
Finding Soil by Tavarius Eberhart (USA)
Lumiere dans la nuit by Pierre-Luc Lafontaine (QC)
Bust by Daniel Daigle (QC)
Daddy's Little Girl by Shawn Gerrard (Canada)

MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best International Film:
Halbschlaf (A Light Sleep) by Johannes Hartman (Switzerland)
Castoffs by Nathan Campbell (Australia)
Common Ground by Holly Fifer (Australia)
La Combi Borracha (Drunken Bus) by Luis David Rojas (Mexico)

YoungCuts.com Award for Best Editor:
Diaspora by Aadhi Vive (Canada)
Halbschlaf (A Light Sleep) by Johannes Hartman (Switzerland)
En Route by Colin Levy (USA/Canada)
Blacksmith by Francis Martineau (QC)

YoungCuts Award for Best Quebec Film:
L'Invité by Colin Racicot (QC)
Le Fokker by Anthony Boulay (QC)
Bust by Daniel Daigle (QC)
Disconnected by Alberto D'Onofrio (QC)
Blacksmith by Francis Martineau (QC)

MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Canadian Film:
A Noble Cause by Karl Kimmel (Canada)
L'Invité by Colin Racicot (QC)
Bust by Daniel Daigle (QC)
Diaspora by Aadhi Vive (Canada)

Tribute Magazine Award for Best Director:
En Route by Colin Levy (USA/Canada)
Halbschlaf (A Light Sleep) by Johannes Hartman (Switzerland)
L'Invité by Colin Racicot (QC)
Dead Grass, Dry Roots by Gabe Hohreiter (USA)
A Noble Cause by Karl Kimmel (Canada)

Oasis HD Grand Prix Award for Best Film:
Dead Grass, Dry Roots directed by Gabe Hohreiter, produced by John Negropontes (USA)
Halbschlaf (A Light Sleep) by Johannes Hartman (Switzerland)
L'Invité by Colin Racicot (QC)
A Noble Cause by Karl Kimmel (Canada)
En Route by Colin Levy (USA/Canada)

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners and thanks for their passion for filmmaking and their great films!

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Presents Oasis HD Best Film Award to Dead Grass, Dry Roots

2011-10-05T09:26:00.001-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Presents Oasis HD Best Film Award to Dead Grass, Dry Roots

The YoungCuts Film Festival celebrated ten years of presenting "Great Short Films by the World's Best Young Filmmakers" on the weekend. The Festival presented its' Top 100 films over 9 screenings at Cinema Guzzo Spheretech in St-Laurent on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The screenings included one presented as part of les journées de la culture attended by 250 enthusiastic high school students and a screening of the best young Quebec filmmakers sponsored by Canadian Heritage.

After the last screening, the Festival presented awards in eleven different categories:

TextbookVideos.com Award for Best Teen Film to Untermensch (Subhuman) by Michael Aloyan (USA)

Oasis HD Award for Best Documentary to Finding Fathers by France Costrel (USA/France)

Virgin Radio 96 Award for Best Music Video to Haleiya by A.J. Korkidakis (QC)

Tribute.ca Best Animated Film to Le Fokker by Anthony Boulay (QC)

En Primeur Award for Best Cast to Something Wrong by Michael Donaghy (UK)

MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best International Film to Halbschlaf (A Light Sleep) by Johannes Hartman (Switzerland)

YoungCuts.com Award for Best Editor to Diaspora by Aadhi Vive (Canada)

YoungCuts Award for Best Quebec Film to L'Invité by Colin Racicot (QC)

MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Canadian Film to A Noble Cause by Karl Kimmel (Canada)

Tribute Magazine Award for Best Director to En Route by Colin Levy (USA/Canada)

Oasis HD Grand Prix Award for Best Film to Dead Grass, Dry Roots directed by Gabe Hohreiter, produced by John Negropontes (USA)

The full list of our Winners and Nominees can be found on the YoungCuts web-site.

Montreal Gazette columnist Bill Brownstein praised many of these films in his Friday column:

The YoungCuts Film Festival would not be possible without the generous support of its sponsors, especially our presenting sponsor Oasis HD.

Our other sponsors include Canadian Heritage, Tribute Magazine, En Primeur and Tribute.ca, Jarislowsky Fraser limited, Virgin Radio 96, 24 Heures and the Montreal Mirror, TextbookVideos.com, MyFilmmaker.com, Sixforces, the City of Montreal and the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision de Montréal.

We are pleased to team with charity Leave Out Violence to raise money and provide opportunities to encourage young people to choose art instead of violence as a way of expressing themselves.

With our 10th Anniversary Festival in the books, the YoungCuts Film Festival will now begin preparing for our 2012 edition. Every year we evaluate the work of more than 5000 young filmmakers and watch more than 1000 films to pick our Top 100.

About the YoungCuts Film Festival

Founded in 2001, the YoungCuts Film Festival’s goal is to advance the careers of up-and-coming filmmakers. This international festival selects the best independent short films produced by young people 25 and under.
HYPERLINK "http://www.youngcuts.com" www.youngcuts.com

-30 -

Source : Jay Moulton, Chairman, YoungCuts Film Festival
Information: Michael Ryan, Festival Director, YoungCuts Film Festival, 514-285-4591, mike@youngcuts.com

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Twilite – Fire

2011-09-26T10:08:00.001-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Twilite – Fire

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Marcin Mikulski's short film Twilite – Fire as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Music Video.

Twilite – Fire

Marcin Mikulski

Directed and Written by Marcin Mikulski

This music video is the first film that we have ever played from Poland.

It's a sharp little narrative about the permanence of the past.

It manages to comment on memory, the past and the environment without using a speck of dialogue (beyond the lyrics of the song).

*****

The Barren Landscape of Regret

Runtime: 2 min: 34 sec

Completion: September 2010

County of Origin: Poland

*****

Digging a Hole Big Enough to Bury the Past

Synopsis: The main character wants to change his life so he packs all his stuff and begins his travels.

Précis: Le personnage principal veut changer sa vie pour qu'il l'emballage de tout son matériel et de commencer son voyage.

*****

Filling the Hole

Director's Statement: The main character wants to change his life. So he packs all his stuff in a big sailor bag and begins to travel. When he finally find his destination, he digs a hole and throws all his things in the hole. He leaves, but his personal things don't let him get very far. It's complicated, You just have to see it ;-)

Parole du Réalisateur: Le personage principal veut changer sa vie. Alors, il l'emballage de tout son matériel dans un sac marin grand et commencer à Voyage. Quand il trouve enfin sa destination, il creuse un trou et de jeter toutes ses croit le trou. Nous s'en va mais sa persone les choses ne veulent pas le laisser aller très loin. C'est compliqué, Il suffit de voir ;-)

*****

Free of the Past

Filmmaker Age: 25

Maciej Twardowski

Cinematography and Post Production by: Maciej Twardowski

*****

The Past Returns

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival begins on Friday, September 30th at Guzzo Spheretech. The Animation and Music Screening is Saturday, October 1st at 5PM and concludes with a presentation of an award for Best Animated Film and Best Music Video.

*****

The Band

Not so Easy to Turn Your Back on the Past

Oasis HD Grand Prix Screening (Best of the Fest) at the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Oasis HD Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring the best films of the Festival by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada, the United States, Switzerland and France.

Sunday, 2 October, 2011 9PM/21h dimanche, le 2 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

15 Films, Approximately 107 Minutes

Buy tickets for the screening!

1. Fokker, Le (QC) Anthony Boulay, Animation, 1:00

Synopsis: One quiet evening at the aircraft museum, a rambunctious little boy decides to steal a plane to go flying in the clouds.
Une soirée tranquille au musée de l'aviation, un petit garçon turbulent décide de voler un avion du musée d'aviation pour se promener dans les nuages.

2. Finding Soil (USA) Tavarius Eberhart, Drama, 7:30

Synopsis: Sometimes it's hard to grow without a strong foundation.
Parfois c'est dur à grandir sans une forte fondation.

3. Patrick the Artist (Canada) Aidan Jeans, Documentary, 4:30

4. Il Était Encore Un Fois (QC) Roxanne Baril-Monfette, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: Mister Fox finally gets his cheese only to find that Mister Crow has encased it in a metal container!
Maître Renard, parvenant à obtenir son fromage tant désirée, ne se douta point que Maître Corbeau, cette fois-ci, le lui offrirait dans son emballage métallique.

5. Diaspora (Canada) Aadhi Vive, Drama, 6:30

Synopsis: Hard work, a good education and a big dream sound like the sure ingredients for success in starting a better life in a new country. But are they?

6. Insecurity (USA) Mallory Mahar, Animation, 1:00

7. En Route (Canada/USA) Colin Levy, Drama, 8:00

Synopsis: A slight deviation in course - a fortuitous decision in child's play - can spawn a ripple effect that will change the trajectory of your life.

8. Extraordinary Fight of Atticus Walker and the Monster in his Mind, The (USA) Michael Karman, Comedy, 13:00

Synopsis: You know that voice? The one that reminds you of your every insecurity? For Atticus Walker, this voice is 6 feet tall, obese, furry, and green.

9. Amis, Les (QC) Olivier Brisson, Animation, 2:00

Synopsis: Friendship.
De l'amitié.

10. Best Christmas Ever, The (USA) Kai Winikka, Comedy, 2:00

Synopsis: Santa Claus comes down a chimney but only two of the three children were good enough to receive presents - the latter gets a surprise.

11. Invité, L' (QC) Colin Racicot, Drama, 13:00

Synopsis: Antoine, a lonely fisherman, makes an unusual encounter while fishing on the frozen lake.
Antoine, un pêcheur solitaire, fait une rencontre inhabituelle en allant pêcher sur le lac gelé

12. Halbschlaf (Switzerland) Johannes Hartmann, Drama, 8:00

Synopsis: Confusion through dream and reality...
Une confusion du rêve et de réalité.

13. Collection of Walt, A (USA) Greg Yagolnitzer, Animation, 3:00

Synopsis: Walt struggles with everyday tasks.

14. Tempus Fugit (QC/France) Fred Grivois, Comedy, 11:30

Synopsis: We do not negotiate with terrorists. Unless there is money to be made...
On ne négocie pas avec les terroristes. Sauf s'il y a du blé en jeu…

15. Dead Grass, Dry Roots (USA) John Negropontes, Drama, 24:00

Synopsis: A peaceful cattle rancher must abandon his pacifist beliefs in order to save the life of a young man condemned to hang.

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

MyFilmmaker.com Screening for the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

MyFilmmaker.com Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada, the United States, Singapore, Israel, Mexico and Australia.

Sunday, 1 October, 2011 7PM/19h dimanche, le 1 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

13 Films, Approximately 110 Minutes

Buy Tickets for the screening!

1. Hunger Pains (Canada) Oliver Lauder, Short, 1:00

2. Castoffs (Australia) Nathan Campbell, Short, 4:30

Synopsis: A homeless robot wanders the city streets, ignored by others; lacking any purpose, he spends his time collecting the strange, glowing shards that accumulate in back alleys and laneways.

3. Common Ground (Australia) Hollie Fifer, Documentary, 14:00

4. Choking Hazard (Australia) Ella Macintyre, Short, 2:00

5. Sun and Moon, The (USA) J. J. Rubin, Short (Teen), 5:00

Synopsis: When Moses is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, his reaction is not like most.

6. Lemons and Lemonade (Canada) Milton Ng, Comedy, 6:30

Synopsis: An entrepreneurial eight year old with a lemonade monopoly finds that business sense only goes so far when it comes to selling himself to the girl next door.

7. Rusted Pyre (Canada/USA) Laurence Cohen, Drama, 13:30

Synopsis: Ginny and Sally venture out in the middle of Winter a ways out of town to endure a rite of passage in a secluded, abandoned old car.

8. Morning Mrs. Meth (Israel) Eli Arenson, Drama, 4:30

Synopsis: Fictional portrayal of a young Methamphetamine Abuser.

9. Summer & Its Rain (Singapore) Joshua Simon, Drama, 10:30

Synopsis: In a world that has lost its' color, a young woman uses music to restore vibrancy to her life.

10. Daddy's Little Girl (Canada) Shawn Gerrard, Drama, 14:00

Synopsis: 8 year-old Katie Halson struggles to keep the secrets of her white supremacist father as police investigators search their home.

11. 1000 Things (Canada) Bryce Bladon, Short, 3:30

Synopsis: When Chris and Carla find out their best friend Josh is about to die, they set out to help him complete his bucket list.

12. Récits d'Hyperinflation (QC) Karim Haroun and Julien Cadieux, Drama, 12:00

13. Combi Borracha, La (Mexico) Luis David Rojas, Drama/Comedy, 19:30

Synopsis: Alexis drives the 'Drunken Bus', a service that provides transportation for young inebriated party-goers, with the purpose of preventing them from driving under the influence, until he meets Miguel, the most obnoxious, perverted and hilarious drinker.

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

TextbookVideos.com Teen Film Screening at the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

TextbookVideos.com Teen Film Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by teen filmmakers from Quebec, Canada and the United States.

Sunday, 2 October, 2011 5PM/17h dimanche, le 2 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

14 Films, Approximately 101 Minutes

Buy Tickets to the Screening!

1. Sebastian's Adventure (USA) Nat Motulsky, Animation, 2:00

2. MeJohn (USA) Phillip Bernardino-Gomez, Documentary, 5:00

Synopsis: An eccentric man goes through life collecting strange items such as pantyhose, his own brand of miniature cars, and anything else he believes that has a special value to it.

3. Adventures of Floating Boy and Flying Girl, The (USA) Jimmy Peguero, Animation, 5:00

Synopsis: A stop motion fairytale. Floating boy floats through the world, unloved and unnoticed, until he meets flying girl, another lonely soul.

4. Cut (USA) Molly Cinnamon, Short, 4:00

5. Freeriders (USA) Troup Wood, Documentary, 7:00

6. Send Me to Babylon (USA) Jeremiah James, Short, 3:30

Synopsis: Only a few humans remain... Who will survive?

7. Play Time (USA) Roxy Shih, Drama, 5:30

8. An Inconvenient Route (Canada) Rocket Lai, Animation, 3:30

Synopsis: A polar bear gets tired of melting icebergs in the Arctic and sets out to move to Toronto, but finds it in an even worse state than the North Pole.

9. Claret (Canada) Izzy Traub, Drama, 11:00

10. Onion Skin (Canada) Joseph Procopio (Drama) 12:30

Synopsis: A high school student turns heads when he decides to avoid text-messaging a girl in this comedy-turned-romance about the power of letter writing.

11. Suffocation (USA) Nick Lieberman (Drama/PSA) 2:00

12. 36, The (USA) Nic Weinfeld (Drama) 7:00

Synopsis: The best of us act humanely no matter the circumstances.

13. Untermensch (Subhuman) (USA) Michael Aloyan (Drama) 12:00

14. I Love Burgz (QC) Leave Out Violence Filmmakers (Documentary) 24:00

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest the 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Tribute Magazine Screening at the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-06T18:20:00.001-07:00

Tribute Magazine Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada and the United States.

Saturday, 1 October, 2011 9PM/21h samedi, le 1 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

11 Films, Approximately 117 Minutes

Buy Tickets to the Screening!

1. Oh Hey! Drunk Driving PSA (Canada) Bryce Bladon, PSA, 1:30

Synopsis: Two intoxicated men contemplate how to get home.

2. Hiding the Past (USA) Kanyon Iwami, Documentary (Teen), 4:00

Synopsis: The tattoo removal process and how people's lives are affected negatively and positively through their decisions to get a tattoo.

3. Gisèle, Darling (QC) Cécile Gariépy, Comedy, 6:30

Synopsis: What do you hold dear?

4. Little Brother (USA) James Morrison, Drama, 12:00

Synopsis: A young soldier returns home for his sister's wedding only to find that she's been left at the altar. With only one night in town before he must return to duty, he does his best to console her, but his focus shifts when he encounters her fiance.

5. K.O. (USA) Dan Basone (Drama) 15:30

Synopsis: Kelly Olmeda, a former boxer, now trainer has experienced plenty of pain in the sport that he loves.

6. Paper Dreams (USA) Datev Gallagher, Drama, 8:30

Synopsis: Ramona longs to reconnect with her estranged mother, but fear of rejection stands in Ramona's way, until she meets an outspoken young boy named Hennery...

7. Carny (USA) Kevin Lonano, Drama, 11:00

Synopsis: The Psycho-Fugue Circus executes one of their own for murdering the Headline act.

8. Closures (Canada) Michael McLaughlin, Drama, 14:00

Synopsis: A man, frozen by old sorrow, finds himself adjusting to life inside a local mental health facility. With the help of an altruistic nurse, he is free to fall in love with life all over again.

9. Flicker (USA) London Donoho, Drama, 10:30

10. Redemption of Jackson Gaines, The (Canada) John David Morrison, Drama, 13:00

Synopsis: Jackson Gaines, a rancher scarred by deep personal loss, is driven to violence to protect the woman he loves.
Jackson Gaines, un propriétaire de ranch qui est traumatisé par une perte profonde, est conduit à la violence afin de protéger la femme qu'il aime.

11. Flagpole (USA) Matt Kazman, Comedy, 21:00

Synopsis: When Zack fantasizes about Maddy in English class, it precipitates a series of events that eventually lead to the encounter he’s been waiting for.

If you need more than 6 Tickets, we suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!:

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening!

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

En Primeur Screening at the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

En Primeur Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Saturday, 1 October, 2011 7PM/19h samedi, le 1 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

12 Films, Approximately 109 Minutes

Buy Tickets to the Screening!

1. CMHA Depression PSA (Canada) Adrian Halter, PSA, 0:30

Synopsis: Depression affects millions of people across North America and the easiest way to help is by talking.

2. Volition (USA) Maqui Gaona, Drama (Teen), 5:00

Synopsis: How much control do we really have over our future? Do we live our lives with free-will or are bound by predetermination?

3. Play Lunch (Australia) Tamara Small, Drama, 10:00

Synopsis: Eat, play, love... football.
Manger, jouer, l'amour... football.

4. Daniel and Damien (Australia) Zoe Andrikidis, Drama, 9:30

Synopsis: His best friend was the worst thing for him.

5. Teddybear (USA) Marcus Liberski, Drama, 4:00

Synopsis: A young couple struggles with the consequences of having a baby.

6. Blind Luck (Australia) Amy Wang, Drama, 13:30

Synopsis: A blind man and his brother are convinced there is treasure buried near their mother’s grave.

7. Bust (QC) Daniel Daigle, Drama, 11:00

Synopsis: Adam joins Julien in a motel room after a mysterious call in the middle of the night. Julien's incomprehensible speech and stressful ways alerts Adam that something is wrong.
Adam rejoint Julien dans une chambre de motel au milieu de la nuit sans se douter de la gravité de la situation.

8. Miss Lucky Misfortune (USA) Thomas E. Mann, Drama, 9:30

Synopsis: Mallory is having a very bad day until a mysterious man gives her a clover leaf emblazoned lighter that will change her life forever.

9. Sanjari (The Dreamers) (UK) Matt Maude, Short, 4:00

Synopsis: A concerned husband follows his sleepwalking wife.
Une femme se lève de son lit. Endormi, elle quitte son appartement et somnambule dans les rues de la ville. Son mari, concerné, la suit et son inquiétude augmente.

10. Laisse Don' Faire (QC) Patrice Laliberté, Comedy, 7:30

Synopsis: Guillaume is a young ordinary man who just wants to relax and have a drink in a bar... But life just doesn't want this for him!
Guillaume est un jeune homme bien ordinaire qui veut seulement prendre un verre tranquillement dans un bar... mais la vie en a décidé autrement!

11. Noble Cause, A (Canada) Karl Kimmel, Drama, 11:30

Synopsis: A US army private is questioned by a malevolent Colonel about his role in an incident in Iraq that lead to the deaths of two fellow soldiers.

12. Something Wrong (UK) Michael Donaghy, Drama, 23:00

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Tribute.ca Animation and Music Screening for the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

Tribute.ca Animation and Music Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring animated films and music videos by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada, the United States, Serbia, Poland, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Saturday, 1 October, 2011 5PM/17h samedi, le 1 octobre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

26 Films, Approximately 101 Minutes

Buy Tickets for the screening!

1. Toy House (USA) Yunjeong Ko, Animation, 2:00

Synopsis: A young boy, inspecting an abandoned carnival one night, is lured through the gates by an entrancing pixie.

2. Sadako (USA) Andy Mai, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: Stories say that if you make a thousand paper cranes, a wish will come true. Sadako Sasaki became gravely ill after the bombing of Hiroshima. During her time in the hospital, she begins folding paper cranes. This is her story.

3. Waterton Lakes – Dreamer (Canada) Kevin Caners, Music Video, 4:00

Synopsis: Considered a hidden gem of the Rockies, Waterton Lakes National Park comes to life in spectacular form.

4. Just Can't Trust a Drunk Ninja (Canada) Greg Doble, Animation, 3:00

Synopsis: A cautionary tale that humorously warns us about the dangers of drunken, uncoordinated, weapon carrying Ninjas.

5. Of Hope and a Memoried Day (USA) Nicholas Reynolds, Animation, 3:00

6. CUEB (USA) Alex Knoll, Animation, 1:30

7. Yeku Remixed (QC) Simon Lardie, Music Video, 5:00

Synopsis: Music video about a luminous being called Yeku who lives a mystical relationship with nature.
Vidéo clip à propos d’un être de lumière nommé Yeku qui vit une relation mystique avec la nature.

8. Divorce, A (Australia) Beini Huang, Animation, 4:00

Synopsis: A man trawls through his memories to try and make sense of his divorce.

9. Twilite – Fire (Poland) Marcin Mikulski, Music, 2:30

Synopsis: We can't hide from our problems. They'll always catch us.

10. Fin de Loup, Une (QC) Antoine Gaumont Lampron, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: A hungry wolf in maximum security prison is hounded by mirages of fine cuisine.
Dans une prison à sécurité maximale, un loup affamé se fait jouer des tours par des hallucinations culinaires.

11. Bit Epicure (Canada) Rosa Aiello, Animation, 5:30

12. Break of Reality - Spectrum of the Sky (USA) S. V. Broadbent and Tami Tamar Sasson, Music Video, 5:30

Synopsis New York based group Break of Reality performs their intense song Spectrum of the Sky in their first produced Music Video. Enter the world of a dark forest where familiar characters Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, and the Hunter inhabit new roles.

13. How the Coyote got his Cunning (USA) Claire Niebergall, Animation, 3:30

Synopsis: A fable about the creation of the world, the ranking of all its creatures, and the world's first (failed) all-nighter.

14. Kill Matilda - Faultlines (Canada) Nathan Skillen, Music Video, 3:00

Synopsis: A dark and intimate close-up look at Kill Matilda aggressively experiencing their life falling apart.

15. Mon Monde (USA) Chrystin Garland, Animation, 2:30

16. Face Shop, The (USA) Noella Borie, Animation, 6:00

Synopsis: Neil is an 11 years old boy who has lost his face. His monster friend, Manny, brings him to a face shop in order to get him a new face.
Neil est un jeune garçon de 11 ans qui a perdu son visage. Avec son ami monstrueux Manny, il se rend au 'Sans visage', un magasin qui ne vend que des attributs faciales.

17. Wrecking Ball (Australia) Guy Verge Wallace, Animated Music Video, 3:00

Synopsis: As a family's repressed emotions take a sinister material form, and the analog world in which they live is corrupted by the digital, the family falls apart.

18. 5 Minutes Each (Canada/Serbia) Vojin Vasovic, Animation, 10:00

Synopsis: A metaphorical story about the constant struggle of the artist to reach those five minutes of limelight.

19. Turn Up the Volume (Canada) Miles Jay, Music Video, 3:30

20. History of Denim, The (UK) Drew Roper, Animation, 4:30

Synopsis: Johnny Roper, a foundry factory worker from the Black County (Mining Region), West Midlands, tells us his story of how he created Denim, and had his invention stolen!

21. Bird (USA) John Balcome, Animation, 5:30

22. Haleiya (QC) A. J. Korkidakis, Animated Music Video, 3:30

Synopsis: Where do memories go when we don't want them anymore? The journey of an abandoned moment from the past, searching for a new home, told through a series of photographs and stop motion animation.

23. Icare et le Géant (QC) Simon Leclerc, Animation, 1:30

24. Clocked In (USA) Ike AhLoe, Animaton, 9:00

Synopsis: The battle to remain conscious and find humanity in an otherwise hostile work setting reaches a destructive and hopeful climax.

25. LipDub at Calvin College (USA) Rachel Kuyvenhoven, Music Video, 4:00

Synopsis: A four-minute one shot video of students going about their regular activities, such as rock climbing, swimming, and working out, while also singing along with the song So Much Love by The Rocket Summer.

26. Girl and the Fox, The (USA) Tyler Kupferer, Animation, 5:30

Synopsis: When a mysterious fox starts killing Ilona's chickens, she has no choice but to track down the strange creature in order to ensure the survival of her family.

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Oasis HD Screening at the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

Oasis HD Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by young filmmakers from Quebec, Canada, the United States and France.

Friday, 30 September, 2011 9PM/21h vendredi, le 30 septembre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

10 Films, Approximately 115 Minutes

Buy tickets for the screening!

1. Empty Playground, The (USA) Philip Giordano, Drama, 4:30

Synopsis: A man struggling with inner demons entertains a young girl on a playground.

2. Agent 6 (USA) Jason Kent Carpenter, Drama, 9:00

Synopsis: An agent must make the decision between delivering the enemy device to home base, or go back and save the girl he left behind.
Un agent doit prendre la décision entre la prestation dispositif de l'ennemi vers la base ou de revenir en arrière et sauver la fille qu'il a laissé derrière.

3. Exonerated (USA) Jeremy Goodman, Drama, 7:30

Synopsis: Suddenly released from prison after sixteen years, when his sentence is reversed, Spencer eats his first meal outside in a changed world that hasn't abandoned it's preconceptions about him.

4. On the Ring (USA) Santiago Garza, Drama, 6:00

5. When the Water Rises (USA) Patrick Gines, Drama, 9:00

Synopsis: Often, the events in our life that seem most disastrous at first are the ones that we are most thankful for in the end.

6. Jake Arrives (USA) Max Azulay, Comedy, 11:30

Synopsis: After his younger sister's untimely death, Jake returns home to lend support to his mother. A comedy about family, Los Angeles, and bundt cake.

7. FTW (Canada) Tyler Funk, Drama, 5:00

Synopsis: Mallory is determined to win the local 100 meter qualifier, even though no one believes in her, not even her Mom.

8. Américaine, L' (QC) Domingo Lamarre, Drama, 14:00

Synopsis: A man loses himself in the world of cinema.
Oscar vit une aventure passionnée dans une salle de cinéma avec une Américaine

9. Blink (Canada) Miles Jay, Drama, 19:00

Synopsis: A young man loses himself in a new social network.

10. Finding Fathers (France/USA) France Costrel (Documentary) 29:00

Need more than 6 Tickets? We suggest a 10 Ticket Bundle!

Support the Festival! Buy a Pass!

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Journées de la Culture Free Screening for the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-09-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

Journées de la Culture presents:
A Free Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring films by young Quebec filmmakers, the opening screening is designed to show high school students the kinds of films that they can aspire to produce at the CEGEP level.

Friday, 30 September, 2011 1PM/13h vendredi, le 30 septembre, 2011

Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.

17 Films, Approximately 65 Minutes

The screening is free, but seats are limited.
Please contact us to reserve a seat.
Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Support the Festival! Buy a Festival Pass!

1. Au Coeur de la Foret (Canada) Katty Yew Ngan Lun, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: A little girl named Sun-mi desperately searches the forest where she originally lost her dog.
Une petite fille prénommée Sun-mi cherche désespérément dans la forêt où elle a perdu sa chien.

2. Nodin (Wind) (Canada) Nodin Wawatu, Animation, 3:00

Synopsis: Nodin expresses his Ansihnabe cultural pride through Hip hop dancing.
Nodin exprime sa fierté d'être anishnabe par la danse Hip hop.

3. Interférence (QC) Julie Vaillancourt, Animation, 1:00

4. Amis, Les (QC) Olivier Brisson, Animation, 2:00

Synopsis: Friendship.
De l'amitié.

5. Carrottes D'Eliott, Les (QC) Tanya Grenier, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: A naive young boy tries to grow carrots in his driveway but makes many mistakes.
Un jeune garçon naif tente de faire pousser des carottes dans son entrée de stationnement, mais fais plusieurs erreurs.

6. Déboires (Setbacks) (QC) Delia Gunn, Animation, 3:00

Synopsis: The misadventures of Delia on one shining night.
Les mésaventures de Delia un soir de fête.

7. Monde a Découvrir, Un (QC) Renaud Plante, Animation, 4:30

Synopsis: A young boy goes to a library and discovers a universe that will follow him until the end of his life.
Un jeune garçon entre dans une bibliothèque et découvre un univers qui l'accompagnera jusqu'à la fin de ses jours.

8. Point Final (QC) Katia Shannon, Drama, 6:00

Synopsis: For factory foreman Andy, supervising the work floor is as unpleasant as his presence is to others. When time suddenly comes to a standstill, he is confronted with himself and the possibility of change.

9. Cobaye en Fuite (QC) Steve Ouellette, Animation, 1:00

Synopsis: A caged monkey yearns to escape his laboratory prison.
Un petit singe pris en cage dans un laboratoire va tenter de retrouver la liberté.

10. Lumière dans la nuit (QC) Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Drama (Teen), 11:30

Synopsis: A young actor and his wannabe musician BFF share deep thoughts on an October night in nowhere Ottawa. A blunt pep talk captures the now-or-never urgency of following your dreams and treads the fine line between cool blasé and cheesy optimism.

11. Il Était Encore Un Fois (QC) Roxanne Baril-Monfette, Animation, 1:30

Synopsis: Mister Fox finally gets his cheese only to find that Mister Crow has encased it in a metal container!
Maître Renard, parvenant à obtenir son fromage tant désirée, ne se douta point que Maître Corbeau, cette fois-ci, le lui offrirait dans son emballage métallique.

12. Switching Worlds (QC) Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron, Animation + Drama (Teen), 5:00

Synopsis: The story of a young man obsessed with the women depicted in mangas and animes (Japanese cartoons).

13. Fokker, Le (QC) Anthony Boulay, Animation, 1:00

Synopsis: One quiet evening at the aircraft museum, a rambunctious little boy decides to steal a plane to go flying in the clouds.
Une soirée tranquille au musée de l'aviation, un petit garçon turbulent décide de voler un avion du musée d'aviation pour se promener dans les nuages.

14. Petites Chimères, Les (QC) Philippe Grenier, Gabrielle Authier, Edith Jorisch, Jean-François Sauvé and Antoine Turcotte, Animation, 3:00

Synopsis: A young woman's house comes alive!
Les souvenirs d'une jeune fille s'animent au moment où celle-ci s'apprête à quitter sa maison et son univers

15. Conte de L'Orpherline, Le (QC) Katerine Lefrançois, Drama, 7:30

Synopsis: A lonely and melancholic young orphan girl is intrigued by a mysterious music that comes out of the forest.
Seule et mélancolique, une jeune orpheline est intriguée par une mystérieuse musique provenant de la forêt.

16. Icare et le Géant (QC) Simon Leclerc, Animation, 1:30

17. Medium Saignant (QC) Marilou Beauchamp-Lalonde and Jean-Carl Boucher, Drama, 11:00

Synopsis: Thomas is 16 and his grandmother just passed away. As the family gathers for supper to mourn the deceased, Thomas father tries to teach his son a lesson on life while using steak as a metaphor.
Thomas a 16 ans et vient de perdre sa grand-mère. Lors du repas en l’honneur de celle-ci, le père de Thomas lui explique le fonctionnement de la vie à l’aide de métaphores sur la viande.

Buy a DVD of the Screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

Virgin Radio 96 presents the Canadian Heritage Opening Night Screening for the YoungCuts Film Festival

2011-08-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

Virgin Radio 96 presents:

The Canadian Heritage Opening Night Screening
for the Tenth Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Featuring great short films by Quebec's best young Anglophone filmmakers...

Friday, 30 September 2011 7PM/19h vendredi, le 30 septembre, 2011
Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.
17 Films, approximately 93 minutes

Buy tickets to the screening:

1. Batminton (QC) Sarah Quirion, Animation, 0:30

2. Generation Segregation (QC) Emily Johnsson, Documentary, 3:30

3. Ballad of Shadows (QC) Ben McKinnon, Experimental Short, 4:30

4. Snowball (QC) Eric Bent, Animation, 1:00

Synopsis: A young man becomes the target of a snowball thrower while making a snowman. Will he ignore it....or get back at him? (Somewhat based on a real event)

5. Echo (QC) Nicolas Bacon, Drama Short, 5:00

Synopsis: The life of a young man is threatened by a masked individual in the middle of the California desert.
La vie d'un jeune homme est menacée par un individu cagoulé en plein désert californien.

6. Disconnected (QC) Alberto D'Onofrio, Drama (Teen), 12:30

Synopsis: Mark, a seventeen-year-old schizophrenic boy, struggles to live with his condition.

7. Solstice (QC) Caroline de Konick, Animation, 3:30

8. Our Subject is Hair (QC) Vincent Toi, Documentary, 8:00

9. Little Black Boxes (QC) Sophie Choquette, Animated Music Video (Teen), 4:30

10. Blacksmith (QC) Francis Martineau, Short Drama, 4:00

Synopsis: Written, shot and edited in 24 hours. A blacksmith prepares his workshop for a blind date with a mysterious woman. This movie is the perfect example of how a great story can be created under pressure.

11. FrAME (QC) Vincent Toi, Drama, 7:00

12. Waning (QC) Gina Haraszti, Experimental Drama, 8:00

Synopsis: Waning is a short fiction film using spacial montage to address the narratives of memory and loss. The story follows an aspiring model who one day meets a photographer with a unique portfolio, seeking beauty in death.

13. Switching Worlds (QC) Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron, Animation + Drama (Teen), 5:00

Synopsis: The story of a young man obsessed with the women depicted in mangas and animes (Japanese cartoons).

14. Foodsploitation (QC) Adam Bagatavicius, Experimental Comedy, 6:00

Synopsis: A food exploitation fantasia.
Une fantaisie de nourriture exploitée.

15. I'll be Waiting Outside (QC) Fanny Pascual, Short Drama, 5:00

Synopsis: During an interview with an employment agency, Matthew, a young dropout without ambition, bares his soul when given the chance to talk about himself to someone who will listen.

16. Haleiya (QC) A. J. Korkidakis, Animated Music Video, 3:30

Synopsis: Where do memories go when we don't want them anymore? The journey of an abandoned moment from the past, searching for a new home, told through a series of photographs and stop motion animation.

17. Imprint (QC) Jason Ambrus, Science Fiction, 11:00

Synopsis: In a not-too-distant future, powerful conglomerate, the Global Space Agency plans to launches a highly-classified single-manned mission into the depths of the solar system.

Need more than 6 tickets? We suggest a 10 ticket bundle:

You can also buy a pass for the entire festival (all 9 Screenings):

Buy a DVD of the screening:

For information about the screening or alternative ways to buy tickets, passes or screening DVDs contact us at the YoungCuts offices: Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591

YoungCuts Film Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary (Official Selections Press Release)

2011-08-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

Press Release
For Immediate Distribution

YoungCuts Film Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to celebrate its 10th anniversary with the announcement of 2011’s Top 100 short films by the world’s best young filmmakers 25 and under. Oasis HD will present the films at Montreal’s Guzzo Spheretech theatres from Friday, September 30th to Sunday, October 2nd.

The Festival starts with a free screening 1PM on Friday, presented as part of les Journées de la Culture. Featuring films by young Quebec filmmakers, the opening screening is designed to show high school students the kinds of films that they can aspire to produce at the CEGEP level.

Virgin Radio 96 presents the festival’s Opening Night Canadian Heritage screening at 7PM on Friday, in a session that features Quebec’s best young anglophone filmmakers. Oasis HD presents the 9PM screening which concludes with a fantastic documentary, Finding Fathers, an emotional journey by American war orphans to visit their fathers’ graves in Normandy.

On Saturday October 1, Tribute Magazine and En Primeur present screenings at 5PM, 7PM and 9PM featuring great films from Quebec, Canada, the United States and the World, including the always popular Animation and Music screening at 5PM.

On Sunday October 2, TextbookVideos presents the best films from teen filmmakers at 5PM, including I Love Burgz, a film about Little Burgundy produced by the charity Leave Out Violence. At 7 PM, MyFilmmaker.com presents great films from Quebec, Canada, the United States and the World. The festival concludes with the Oasis HD Grand Prix selection, the best films from the festival, at 9PM.

The festival presents at least one filmmaker award per screening. Every year, festival judges evaluate more than a thousand films from 30 countries before selecting the top 100 films. This year’s Top 100 includes films from 10 countries in 10 different languages. La Ville de Montréal, le Bureau du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Montréal, the Mirror and 24 Heures also sponsor the YoungCuts Film Festival.

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival selections are:

1000 Things (Canada) Bryce Bladon
36, The (USA)    Nic Weinfeld
5 Minutes Each (Canada/Serbia) Vojin Vasovic
Adventures of Floating Boy and Flying Girl, The (USA) Jimmy Peguero
Agent 6 (USA) Jason Kent Carpenter
Américaine, L'    (QC) Domingo Lamarre
Amis, Les (QC) Olivier Brisson
An Inconvenient Route (Canada) Rocket Lai
Au Coeur de la Foret (Canada) Katty Yew Ngan Lun
Ballad of Shadows (QC) Ben McKinnon
Batminton (QC) Sarah Quirion
Best Christmas Ever, The (USA) Kai Winikka
Bird (USA) John Balcome
Bit Epicure (Canada) Rosa Aiello
Blacksmith (QC) Francis Martineau
Blind Luck (Australia) Amy Wang
Blink (Canada) Miles Jay
Break of Reality Spectrum of the Sky (USA) S. V. Broadbent and Tami Tamar Sasson
Bust (QC) Daniel Daigle
Carny (USA) Kevin Lonano
Carrottes D'Eliott, Les (QC) Tanya Grenier
Castoffs (Australia) Tom Campbell
Choking Hazard (Australia) Ella Macintyre
Claret (Canada) Izzy Traub
Clocked In (USA) Ike AhLoe
Closures (Canada) Michael McLaughlin
CMHA Depression PSA (Canada) Adrian Halter
Cobaye en Fuite (QC) Steve Ouellette
Collection of Walt, A (USA) Greg Yagolnitzer
Combi Borracha, La (Mexico) Luis David Rojas
Common Ground (Australia) Hollie Fifer
Conte de L'Orpherline, Le (QC) Katerine Lefrançois
CUEB (USA) Alex Knoll
Cut (USA) Molly Cinnamon
Daddy's Little Girl (Canada) Shawn Gerrard
Daniel and Damien (Australia) Zoe Andrikidis
Dead Grass, Dry Roots (USA) John Negropontes
Déboires (Setbacks) (QC) Delia Gunn
Diaspora (Canada) Aadhi Vive
Disconnected (QC) Alberto D'Onofrio
Divorce, A (Australia) Beini Huang
Echo (QC) Nicolas Bacon
Empty Playground, The (USA) Philip Giordano
En Route (Canada/USA) Colin Levy
Exonerated (USA) Jeremy Goodman
Extraordinary Fight of Atticus Walker and the Monster in his Mind, The (USA) Michael Karman
Face Shop, The (USA) Noella Borie
Fin de Loup, Un (QC) Antoine Gaumont Lampron
Finding Fathers (France/USA) France Costrel
Finding Soil (USA) Tavarius Eberhart
Flagpole (USA) Matt Kazman
Flicker (USA)    London Donoho
Fokker, Le (QC) Anthony Boulay
Foodsploitation (QC) Adam Bagatavicius
FrAME (QC) Vincent Toi
Freeriders (USA) Troup Wood
FTW (Canada) Tyler Funk
Generation Segregation (QC) Emily Johnsson
Girl and the Fox, The (USA) Tyler Kupferer
Gisèle, Darling (QC) Cécile Gariépy
Halbschlaf (Switzerland) Johannes Hartmann
Haleiya (QC) A. J. Korkidakis
Hiding the Past (USA) Kanyon Iwami
History of Denim, The (UK) Drew Roper
How the Coyote got his Cunning (USA) Claire Niebergall
Hunger Pains (Canada) Oliver Lauder
I Love Burgz (QC) Leave Out Violence Filmmakers
I'll be Waiting Outside (QC) Fanny Pascual
Icare et le Géant (QC) Simon    Leclerc
Il Était Encore Un Fois (QC) Roxanne Baril-Monfette
Imprint (QC) Jason Ambrus
Insecurity (USA) Mallory Mahar
Interférence (QC) Julie Vaillancourt
Invité, L' (QC) Colin Racicot
Jake Arrives (USA) Max Azulay
Just Can't Trust a Drunk Ninja (Canada) Greg Doble
K.O. (USA) Dan Basone
Kill Matilda - Faultlines (Canada) Nathan Skillen
Laisse Don' Faire (QC) Patrice Laliberté
Lemons and Lemonade (Canada) Milton Ng
LipDub at Calvin College (USA) Rachel Kuyvenhoven
Little Black Boxes (QC) Sophie Choquette
Little Brother (USA) James Morrison
Lumière dans la nuit (QC) Pierre-Luc Lafontaine
Medium Saignant (QC) Marilou Beauchamp-Lalonde and Jean-Carl Boucher
MeJohn (USA) Phillip Bernardino-Gomez
Miss Lucky Misfortune (USA) Thomas E. Mann
Mon Monde (USA) Chrystin Garland
Monde a Découvrir, Un (QC) Renaud Plante
Morning Mrs. Meth (Israel) Eli Arenson
Noble Cause, A (Canada) Karl Kimmel
Nodin (Wind) (Canada) Nodin Wawatu
Of Hope and a Memoried Day (USA) Nicholas Reynolds
Oh Hey! Drunk Driving PSA (Canada) Bryce Bladon
On the Ring (USA) Santiago Garza
Onion Skin (Canada) Joseph Procopio
Our Subject is Hair (QC) Vincent Toi
Paper Dreams (USA) Datev Gallagher
Patrick the Artist (Canada) Aidan Jeans
Play Lunch (Australia) Tamara Small
Play Time (USA) Roxy Shih
Point Final (QC) Katia Shannon
Récits d'Hyperinflation (QC) Karim Haroun, Julien Cadieux
Redemption of Jackson Gaines, The (Canada) John David Morrison
Rusted Pyre (Canada/USA) Laurence Cohen
Sadako (USA) Andy Mai
Sanjari (The Dreamers) (UK) Matt Maude
Sebastian's Adventure (USA) Nat Motulsky
Send Me to Babylon (USA) Jeremiah James
Snowball (QC) Eric Bent
Solstice (QC) Caroline de Konick
Something Wrong (UK) Michael Donaghy
Suffocation (USA) Nick Lieberman
Summer & Its Rain (Singapore) Joshua Simon
Sun and Moon, The (USA) J. J. Rubin
Switching Worlds (QC) Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron
Teddybear (USA) Marcus Liberski
Tempus Fugit (QC/France) Fred Grivois
Toy House (USA) Yunjeong Ko
Turn Up the Volume (Canada) Miles Jay
Twilite – Fire (Poland) Marcin Mikulski
Untermensch (Subhuman) (USA) Michael Aloyan
Volition (USA) Maqui Gaona
Waning (QC) Gina Haraszti
Waterton Lakes – Dreamer (Canada) Kevin Caners
When the Water Rises (USA) Patrick Gines
Wrecking Ball (Australia) Guy Verge Wallace
Yeku Remixed (QC) Simon Lardie

About the YoungCuts Film Festival
Founded in 2001, the YoungCuts Film Festival’s goal is to advance the careers of up-and-coming filmmakers. This international festival selects the best independent short films produced by young people 25 and under. The event runs from September 30th to October 2nd at the Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada.
HYPERLINK "http://www.youngcuts.com" www.youngcuts.com

-30 -

Source : Jay Moulton, Chairman, YoungCuts Film Festival
Information: Michael Ryan, Festival Director, YoungCuts Film Festival, 514-285-4591, mike@youngcuts.com

You can download a PDF of this press release HERE!

And we're back! Normal YoungCuts blogging will now resume!

2011-08-31T08:54:00.001-07:00

And we're back! Normal YoungCuts blogging will now resume!

Here at the YoungCuts offices we have been ridiculously busy working on a project producing 100 short films about key concepts in Introductory Economics for www.TextbookVideos.com. (We are about half done that project which involved filming more than 20 professors from 12 different states/provinces across North America.)

In addition, the Canada Post strike really set us back. The day the strike ended, we got 10 films for the Festival and we foolishly thought that was the accumulated back-log. Then we got 20 the next day and found out that the strike had stopped the films where they were for 2 weeks. So every day for the next two weeks, we got more and more films!

When we finally dug our way out, bleary-eyed and fatigued, we had a list of some amazing films to program. Many of the films that we rejected this year would have won awards at previous YoungCuts Film Festivals. The Teen category is particularly strong with a number of films that could play at any Festival anywhere in the world against competition with decades more experience.

We have finalized our Top 100 list (which goes over 100 ~~just a smudge~~ a lot) and we are preparing to release our official press release. Full screening details with lists of what films are playing when are next, but for the moment, we can confirm the following:

All the screenings will take place at the Guzzo Mega-Plex Sphèretech 14, 3500 Côte-Vertu, Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada on the following dates and times:

Oasis HD Presents:
The 10th Anniversary YoungCuts Film Festival

Friday, September 30th:

1PM: Journées de la culture FREE screening

Featuring films by young Quebec filmmakers, the opening screening is designed to show high school students the kinds of films that they can aspire to produce at the CEGEP level.

Limited seating please contact us to reserve seats. (Mike@YoungCuts.com or 514.285.4591)

7PM: Virgin96 presents the Canadian Heritage Grand Opening screening

Featuring Quebec’s best young Anglophone filmmakers, as well as young Quebec filmmakers creating films designed to be accessible to an Anglophone audience.

9PM: Oasis HD screening

The opening night concludes with a fantastic documentary, Finding Fathers, an emotional journey by American war orphans who visit their fathers’ graves in Normandy.

Saturday, October 1st:

5PM: Tribute.ca Animation and Music screening

7PM: En Primeur screening

9PM: Tribute Magazine screening

Sunday, October 2nd

5PM: TextbookVideo.com Teen screening

Featuring the best films by Teen filmmakers.

Includes two incredible films The 36 and Untermensch (Subhuman) as well as a film about Montreal neighbourhood Little Burgundy called I Love Burgz produced by charity Leave Out Violence.

7PM: MyFilmmaker.com screening

9PM: Oasis HD Grand Prix Screening

Featuring the very best films of the YoungCuts Film Festival.

For more information about the YoungCuts Film Festival, keep an eye on this blog, and our web-site, follow our official Twitter feed or contact us at Mike@YoungCuts.com 514.285.4591.

(And this is the very unofficial twitter feed of our Festival Director)

We are also sponsored by:

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Onion Skin

2011-07-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Onion Skin

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Joseph Procopio's short film Onion Skin as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

Onion Skin

*****

Our Heroine

This week, we will be announcing some of our favourite Teen films leading to the announcement of all the films that will play in our Teen screening.

Announced so far as Best Teen films:
Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron's Switching Worlds
Jeremiah James' Send Me To Babylon
Nic Weinfeld's The 36
Phillip Bernardino-Gomez' MeJohn

*****

With Friends Like These...

Onion Skin

Joseph Procopio

Directed and Written by Joseph Procopio

While maybe just a touch long, Onion Skin is an incredibly mature film from such a young filmmaker.

(Of course since this is Joseph's 10th film, he has a bit more experience than most 16 year old directors.)

The film is incredibly well-filmed and well-framed with a touch of magic realism.

Our judges especially liked the way that the friends of the two main characters acted as a disapproving opinionated Greek chorus.

*****

... Who Needs Enemies?

Runtime: 12 min: 27 sec

*****

The Rise of Thumbs...

Completion: March 2011

*****

The Death of Romance

Country of Origin: Canada (Ontario)

*****

Our Hero

Synopsis: A high school student turns heads when he decides to avoid text-messaging a girl in this comedy-turned-romance about the power of letter writing.

*****

The Note

Filmmaker Bio: Onion Skin is 16 year old Joseph Procopio's 11th film - a 10-minute narrative romantic short about the power of letter writing. Following a Casting Working Workbook Talent search in Toronto, Joseph discovered 5 new performers that he directed for Introduction to the screen in Onion Skin. He also hired seasoned character performer Jacqueline Tarne for the role of Wisdom.

*****

Wisdom

Onion Skin was produced with the help of a beginner high school/college crew and extras from 7 schools across Ontario. Joseph is currently writing his feature film directorial debut, while hoping that Onion Skin will help secure representation or the interest of a theatrical distributor. Joseph has been directing without pause, directing 11 short films since his debut at the age of eight with his film, Nine Times Eight. To date Joseph's 10 films have received 36 First Prizes and have screened at over 100 festivals worldwide.

*****

Making Eye Contact

Production Notes: Pre-production of Onion Skin began with a full screenplay beak-down, production strip-board, and an official Casting Workbook announced audition courtesy of Susan Forrest Casting. Film Office Location Permits and Front Row Insurance was then secured for a six day shoot on location at Villanova College in King City, and at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

*****

Eye to Eye

Filmmaker Age: 16

*****

Fireworks

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Screenings will be at the Guzzo Spheretech beginning on Friday, September 30th. The Teen Screening will be on Friday September 30th at 1PM. This will be a free screening presented as part of Les Journées de la Culture (Culture Days). The screening will end with presentation of the award Best Teen film. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including Onion Skin!

*****

Connection

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: MeJohn

2011-07-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
MeJohn

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Phillip Bernardino-Gomez' short film MeJohn as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

MeJohn and Painting

*****

The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th.

We are in the process of finalizing our Top 100. There is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.

These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.

This week, we will be announcing some of our favourite Teen films leading to the announcement of all the films that will play in our Teen screening.

Announced so far as Best Teen films:
Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron's Switching Worlds
Jeremiah James' Send Me To Babylon
Nic Weinfeld's The 36

*****

MeJohn

Phillip Bernardino-Gomez

Directed and Written by Phillip Bernardino-Gomez

This film is a part of Reel Voices, a 12-week summer internship program of the San Diego Asian Film Foundation that empowers local high school students to learn the art of documentary filmmaking, become socially conscious storytellers, learn Final Cut Pro editing, and experience all stages of production and post-production.

MeJohn is a fine short doc in the tradition of Errol Morris. It neither praises, condemns or judges. It lets MeJohn tell his story and assists him to tell it well. It helps that the director has chosen a fascinating subject for his film.

*****

Runtime: 5 min
Completion: September 2010
Country of Origin: USA (California)
Synopsis: An eccentric man goes through life collecting strange items such as pantyhose, his own brand of miniature cars, and anything else he believes that has a special value to it.

*****

MeJohn's storage room

Filmmaker Bio: I was born and raised in San Diego. I am an aspiring cinematographer. I spend most of my days playing video games, listening to music, reading, playing basketball and watching B horror movies (Yay Thankskilling). Some people think that my life has been hard, but I find my life to be funny. I graduated last year from Garfield High School, which is my 5th high school in 4 years, and I watch MMA religiously. Because of the standards I set for myself, I always wanted to go to USC (dreams do come true sometimes), so I'm going to transfer there from a community college.

Filmmaker Age: 19

*****

MeJohn and his treasures

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: The 36

2011-07-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
The 36

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Nic Weinfeld's short film The 36 as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

*****

The 36

Nic Weinfeld with Cast and Crew

Directed and Written by Nic Weinfeld

The 36 is an earnest, well-executed story of human decency and bravery.

The judges admired the acting by the entire cast and the well-framed cinematography.

The black and white aesthetic gives the film historical gravitas.

*****

Touching Up

Runtime: 6 min: 48 sec
Completion: June 2011
Country of Origin: USA (Maryland)
Tagline: The best of us act humanely no matter the circumstances.

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of hate and religious persecution in the Spring of 1945, an old Polish woman is given the opportunity to do nothing, or the right thing, when a young Jewish girl is attacked outside her window.

*****

Checking the Script

Filmmaker Bio: Nic currently attends boarding school at Interlochen Arts Academy. There, he majors in Motion Picture Arts, taking an array of film classes: everything from lighting to film genres. When at home, Nic is constantly collaborating with local professionals and holds an internship position at Discovery Communications. He believes his expertise to be in directing and cinematography. His passion for the art continues to grow.

Filmmaker Age: 17

*****

The 36 Behind the Scenes

Director’s Statement: "I was inspired by the “Lamed vav Zaddkim” a concept in Judaism that the fate of the world rests, at any given time, in the hands of 36 righteous people. They are put on earth to perform the healing of the world. They do not know they are one of the 36, nor does anyone else. They just go about their everyday lives, doing what is right and good. They go unnoticed because of their humble nature and commonplace vocations. They will always be among us.

My film is set in 1945 Poland, after the Holocaust camps were liberated and WWII came to an end. The protagonist of the story is an older, Aryan, Polish woman who witnesses the harassment of one liberated Jewish woman passing through her town. She must make the decision whether to bring a Jew into her home despite the common prejudice that her neighbors hold towards them. Her actions towards this Jewish woman in her time of need was a rare act of kindness representative of that of the righteous 36.”

*****

Jennifer Weil

Fantasia 2011: The Unjust (First Sound on Sight review)

2011-07-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Leading up to this year's Fantasia Film Festival, I wrote a couple of blog posts about my favourite discoveries from Fantasia. I contrasted that list with Ricky from Sound on Sight's list from 2010 of the of the best films ever screened at the Fantasia Film Festival.

Fantasia 2011

Ricky was kind enough to contact me on Twitter to say, "@Llakor your blog is great. If you ever want another site to publish on, hit me up with an email."

Well, flattery will naturally get you everywhere with me, so I wrote up a review of The Unjust which you can find here.

The Unjust Poster

The Unjust aka Bu-dang-geo-rae
Written by Hoon-jung Park
Directed by Seung-wan Ryoo
South Korea, 2010
Fantasia imdb

In brief, while the film is a little rocky to start because it takes a while for the filmmaker to introduce all the characters and get all the plates spinning, once he does the film hits its groove and accelerates to a bleak but inevitable (and satisfying) conclusion.

The middle section of the film reminded me a lot of Changing Lanes or L.A. Confidential or Romanzo Criminale except where those films flinched and went with bullshit Hollywood happy endings, The Unjust keeps its artistic integrity and gives us the truthful ending no matter how dark and unhappy that ending turns out to be.

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Send Me To Babylon

2011-07-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Send Me To Babylon

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Jeremiah James's short film Send Me To Babylon as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

Living in a Post-Material World

*****

Send Me To Babylon

Jeremiah James

Directed and Written by Jeremiah James

Send Me To Babylon is a compact little story in the Oh Henry tradition dressed in the bloody rags of a post-apocalypse Zombie story.

Done with economy and minimal but real effects, the film is a great example of what Teen filmmakers can accomplish especially when they limit their canvas.

*****

Runtime: 3 min: 12 sec
Completion: November 2010
Country of Origin: USA (Texas)
Synopsis: Only a few humans remain... Who will survive?

Filmmaker Bio: Jeremiah James is a senior at Cypress Ranch High School in Houston Texas. He is hoping to study cinematic arts at USC, UT or FSU. He is the director of Cornerstone Cinema.

Filmmaker Age: 17

*****

Looking for a Meal

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Foodsploitation

2011-07-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Foodsploitation

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Adam Bagatavicius' short film Foodsploitation as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Quebec Film.

Foodsploitation Title Card

*****

The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th. While we will only announce our full selection of our Top 100 around July 15th and while there is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.

These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.

*****

Foodsploitation

Adam Bagatavicius

Directed and Written by Adam Bagatavicius

Foodsploitation is the best kind of experimental film.

It tells a coherent story. It's fun and funny. It rather gently satirizes horror films while simultaneously asking a serious question about how much we think about the food we eat and how we prepare it.

Our only mild criticism is that the film is just over one minute too long. Not that it isn't entertaining at 6 minutes, But if it was 5 minutes, it would be one of our 5 nominees for Best Short Short film and have an excellent chance to win the category.

The Chef: Hallway Horror

*****

Runtime: 6 min : 6 sec
Completion: April 2011
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)
Ligne du Film: Une fantaisie de nourriture exploitée. Spécialiste de cuisine crue et d'humiliation gastronomique, aucun ingrédient n’est à l’abri du Chef.
Tag Line: A food exploitation fantasia. Specializing in cringe cuisine and gastronomic humiliation, no ingredient is safe from The Chef.

The Chef: The Gripping Hand

*****

Synopsis: Le Chef prend les aliments d’un sac d'épicerie en otage et les pousse au-delà de leurs limites de douleur et de plaisir. Filmé du point de vue de chaque ingrédient, le niveau de l’utilisation fluctue de la terreur à la titillation; la Noix de Coco est empalée, la Carotte subit une circoncision malpropre, l'Oignon pleure à cause du chatouillement torturé et les Bleuets sont écrasés sous une pression extrême.

Présentant Tante Jemima à ses débuts dans le film Blaxploitation et mettant en valeur Le Chef dans son plus grand rôle au retour de son incarcération à la suite de ‘Pains sur le Bunsen Burner', préparez-vous pour une conclusion explosive qui laissera vos yeux avec une infection intestinale et incapable à tout jamais de regarder la nourriture de la même façon. Où a dormi VOTRE épicerie la nuit dernière?

*****

The Chef's Egg Guillotine

Synopsis: The Chef holds a bag of groceries hostage, and pushes them to the furthest reaches of pain and pleasure. Shot from the perspective of each ingredient, the exploitation meter ranges from terror to titillation as Coconut is impaled, Carrot undergoes a sloppy briss, Onion weeps from tickle torture, and Blueberries crack under the pressure.

Introducing Aunt Jemima in her Blaxploitation film debut, featuring The Chef's biggest comeback role since his incarceration following 'Buns on the Bunsen Burner', get ready for an explosive ending that will leave your eyes with gastro, and never able to look at food the same way again. Where did YOUR groceries sleep last night?

*****

Chef the Ripper

Filmmaker Statement: The Chef's Twitter Account

*****

The Chef Decapitates Ginger

Filmmaker Age: 25

*****

The Chef Slices, Dices, He Julienne Fries

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Screenings will be at the Guzzo Spheretech beginning on Friday, September 30th. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including Foodsploitation!

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The Chef's Taste Test

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Snowball

2011-07-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Snowball

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Eric Bent's animated film Snowball as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Animated Film.

Mission Complete While Under Fire

*****

Snowball

Eric Bent

Directed and Written by Eric Bent

Sometimes simple is best.

It is always tricky to tell a complete story in the context of a micro-short.

Snowball manages this tricky feat using simple animation techniques. (Note that by simple, we don't mean undifficult.)

While not exactly the same technique and used for humour rather than drama Snowball reminded the judges of great dramatic animated films from Montreal done in a similar style - most notably The Street.

Back to the Enemy

*****

Runtime: 1 min: 5 sec
Completion: 2010
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)

Synopsis: A young man becomes the target of a snowball thrower while making a snowman. Will he ignore it....or get back at him? (Somewhat based on a real event)

Turning to Face the Enemy

*****

Filmmaker Bio: Eric Bent is an animator, visual artist and (sometimes) musician originally from Aylmer, Quebec but now based in Montreal. He is currently undergoing his final year in the Film Animation Program at Concordia University, but plans to continue making films well after he graduates.

Filmmaker Age: 23

Filmmaker Statement: This film is based on something my older brother did to a neighbour's kid when we were young. I figured it would be a funny idea, and the simplicity of it made it ideal and easy to animate considering the technique (charcoal on paper).

*****