Leeds Film Festival has awarded Best British Short to Exchange and Mart we are delighted to announce!
Winner of the British Short Film Competition- Exchange & Mart, directed by Cara Connolly, Martin Clark
— Short Film City (@shortfilmcity) November 15, 2014To find out more from the directors Martin Clark and Cara Connolly check out this interview from their time at Sundance earlier this year.
Hopscotch were thrilled on Sunday night to hear Monkey Love Experiments announced as the winner for the best animation at BAFTA Scotland's award ceremony. Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson took to the stage and derided their own choice of evening wear before thanking everyone involved.
Executive Producers Carolynne Sinclair Kidd of Hopscotch Films and Paul Welsh of Digicult were there to help celebrate. Carolynne responded to the news:
"Will and Ainslie are world class animators and I'm well chuffed that BAFTA Scotland have given them the recognition they deserve."
Scottish Shorts are picking up awards as they hit the festival circuits around the world.
Monkey Love Experiments picks up an award at the EIFF 2014
Monkey Love Experiment, Wyld, As He Lay Falling, Seagulls and Exchange and Mart have screened together at the Edinburgh International Film Festival with Monkey Love Experiment winning the Outstanding Contribution to Short Film Award.
Monkey Love Experiment has also appeared at Anima Mundi, LA Shorts Fest and will appear at Ottowa International Animation Festival in September. You can follow updates on the film from Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson on their blog.
This follows the success of Exchange and Mart which has picked up the Audience Award at Glasgow Short Film Festival and the Freestyle Youth Jury Award at Hamburg. The short, written and directed by Cara Connolly and Martin Clark, has also appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, Berlinale, Sundance London, Nashville, Big Sur and LA Film Festival.
Keep an eye on Exchange and Mart facebook page for updates.
The Wyld team have also been celebrating with its win at the Bafta New Talent award where actress Julie Speers won for best acting performance.
Hopscotch Films are looking forward to future festival success for all films, many more we know about but can't yet announce.
We're very happy here at Hopscotch to announce that all 5 of the recently commissioned Scottish Shorts have now been completed. They're already making an impact on the global festival scene, with Exchange and Mart kick starting the year in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January , and screening in competition in Berlin and Glasgow in February. Seagulls will also be competing in Berlin in February and we're expecting a great festival run for all of the films. You can check out the festival screenings here: Sundance, Berlin, Glasgow
Executive producer Carolynne Sinclair Kidd said of the project: "I'm totally in awe of the writing, directing and producing talent that has come together to make these new short films. Every single one of the films has been crafted with love and enthusiasm and the results are outstanding. This is short form storytelling at its very best.'
To whet your appetite here are exclusive stills shots from the five films...
Exchange and Mart, written and directed by Cara Connolly and Martin Clark.
Seagulls, written and directed by Martin Smith.
Monkey Love Experiment, written and directed by Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson.
Wyuld, written and directed by Rory Alexander Stewart.
As He Lay Falling, written and directed by Ian Waugh.
Short drama Exchange and Mart, which was developed through the Scottish Shorts scheme, has been officially selected for the Sundance International Film Festival 2014. Congratulations to Cara Connelly (writer, co-director) Martin Clark (co-director) and producers Maeve McMahon and Phoebe Grigor as well as the talented cast and crew.
The team said:
“We are thrilled that our film has been selected for Sundance 2014. We had amazing commitment from our fantastic crew, and were honoured to work with such a great cast. We would like to thank Scottish Shorts for their help and support. Team Exchange & Mart can't wait to be standing in the Utah winter snow. Skiing for Scotland.”
Keep up to date with the film on facebook here.
Cast and crew of Exchange and Mart
Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson are already hard at work on their Scottish Shorts project, Monkey Love Experiments.
As you can see things are really shaping up!
Keep up with the guys' progress on their making-of blog here
Press Release:
The five teams of emerging filmmaking talent commissioned through the Scottish Shorts 2012/13 programme are announced today (01/03/2013).
Directors Ainslie Henderson and Will Anderson, Ian Waugh, Cara Connolly and Martin Clark, Rory Alexander Stewart and Martin Smith will make their films with producers Cameron Fraser, Richard Warden and Jim Webster, Phoebe Grigor, Paul Ryan and Sarah Drummond.
The Scottish Shorts programme is designed to discover and develop writers, directors and producers with fresh voices and the imagination to create engaging stories to share with international audiences. Films of up to 15 minutes will be produced, with budgets ranging from £10,000 to £20,000.
Individual members of the commissioned teams previous achievements include: Will and Ainslie were awarded the 2013 BAFTA, Best Short Animation for The Making of Longbird; Ian Waugh’s short Strayed recently competed for the Best Scottish Short award at Glasgow Short Film Festival 2013; documentary filmmakers Cara Connolly and Martin Clark previously co-directed The Boccia Brothers, which broadcast on BBC2 in 2012 and Rory Stewart is an alumnus of the Collabor8te programme alongside Martin Smith, whose previous short Tracks garnered him a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Short Film.
The programme is a collaboration between Hopscotch Films and DigiCult, with funding from Creative Scotland and draws on the experience of producers John Archer, Carolynne Sinclair Kidd and Paul Welsh, who act as executives on the programme. These producers bring an extensive mix of talent and experience to the programme, offering invaluable support and expertise to the chosen filmmakers, helping them to create high quality projects, equipping filmmaking talent with the skills to break into features and promote their work on a national and international platform.
12 teams of emerging writers, directors, animators and producers were considered by an expert panel before the five teams were chosen.
Over the last few months, the talent teams were given the opportunity to work with DigiCult and Hopscotch, plus experienced industry mentors from a range of disciplines, to develop their projects to commissioning stage.
After a rigorous selection process, five films were chosen by an experienced industry panel consisting of Shian Holt (GMAC), Matt Lloyd (Glasgow Short Film Festival), Paul Welsh (DigiCult), Carolynne Sinclair Kidd (Hopscotch Films) and Ross McKenzie (Creative Scotland).
Members of the panel commented on this year’s selections:
Matt Lloyd said:
“It was incredibly hard to choose from such a strong range of projects, all of which deserve to get made, however I'm really excited about the panel's diverse selection - five original and mature projects by significant emerging voices in Scottish filmmaking.”
Carolynne Sinclair Kidd said:
“I'm completely thrilled to find myself working with such an inspiring and talented group of filmmakers on an extremely diverse range of projects. The future of Scottish film is very bright!”
Paul Welsh said:
"The development phase of Scottish Shorts has been really rewarding. After three months of intensive work, the standard across the slate was exceptional. It was extremely difficult for the panel to select the final five films, such was the high quality of talent in the programme. I'm sure everyone involved has a big role to play in the future of Scottish film."
Shian Holt said:
“It was a real honour to be included in the panel for the Scottish Shorts selection 2013. The projects up for selection were of an extremely high standard, including lots of interesting story ideas and creative approaches. I would like to wish all the filmmakers every success.”
Details of the selected films and talent teams are as follows:
Writer/Director: Ainslie Henderson
Writer/Compositor: Will Anderson
Producer: Cameron Fraser (Kolik Films)
Will and Ainslie were recently awarded a BAFTA for their short animation The Making of Longbird. Previously the filmmakers, both recent graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, have contributed on each other’s projects. This would be the first time they’ve collaborated on a project from concept stage.
Writer/Director: Ian Waugh
Producers: Richard Warden & Jim Webster
Ian’s previous short Strayed recently competed for the Best Scottish Short award at Glasgow Short Film Festival 2013.
Writer/Director(s): Cara Connolly & Martin Clark
Producer: Phoebe Grigor
Coming from a background in documentary filmmaking, Cara and Martin previously co-directed The Boccia Brothers, which screened on BBC2 in August 2012.
Writer/Director: Rory Alexander Stewart Producer: Paul Ryan
Rory recently completed the Collabor8te programme as a writer.
Writer/Director: Martin Smith
Producer: Sarah Drummond
Martin Smith is an award winning filmmaker whose previous short film Tracks won the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Short Film. He recently completed Creative Scotland’s Accelerator programme where he developed his feature film script Shows.
Panel biographies:
Creative Scotland is the national agency for the arts, screen and creative industries.
Little Red Hoodie (2009) directed by Joern Utkilen
Hopscotch producers John Archer and Carolynne Sinclair Kidd have joined with Paul Welsh and Digicult to begin a new initiative for Scottish based filmmakers.
Scottish Shorts will develop talents of new producers, writers and directors to help create high quality live action and animated films. Initially ten talented teams with short film proposals will be selected and invited to attend workshops. Four of the films will be chosen to be produced early in 2013. We're looking for new talent who have the imagination to create thrilling, engaging stories to share with international audiences.
Submissions are now closed.
John Archer says:
"I'm looking forward to working with the next generation of Scottish filmmakers."
Paul Welsh adds:
“This should be a stimulating, challenging experience, one aimed squarely at lifting the work to the highest standard and helping position the talent nationally and internationally for future opportunities and success.”