Two New Zealand film-makers have made it through to the top five
in an international film competition organised by Tourism New
Zealand.
Academy Award-winning producer Barrie Osborne (The Lord of
the Rings) and a panel of judges named the five finalists of
the '100% Pure New Zealand Presents Your Big Break' short film
competition today.
The five finalists will now travel to Queenstown where they will
work with Osborne to shoot and direct their own short films
capturing the essence of the world's youngest country.
Post-production will be done at Wellington's world class Park Road
Post Production. Academy Award-winning director Sir Peter Jackson
will select the overall winning entry.
The competition website - www.your-big-break.com - attracted more than
two million views between 31 November and 15 January. Over 250,000
visitors watched videos or read scripts during that time. The
average time on the site was 3.5 minutes.
Around 1,100 aspiring directors from 30 countries around the
globe entered a screenplay for a three-minute short film that
captured the spirit of New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler said the
results of the competition far exceeded expectation, both in the
number of entries and web-viewing figures.
"This has been an extremely successful project in terms of the
number of entries and web traffic and at the end we will also have
five excellent short films capturing New Zealand's scenery, people
and culture which will be seen around the world," Kevin Bowler
said.
The judging panel chose four finalists. The fifth finalist was
voted for by "People's Choice". All these entries can be viewed on
www.your-big-break.com.
Tourism New Zealand is using the campaign as a way to generate
interest in New Zealand among its target market in the US, although
the campaign has been open to anyone from around the world.
After Jackson personally views and judges the five finalists'
films, he will select one overall winner whose film will air just
prior to the IFC Independent Spirit Awards in the US on March 5,
2010.
For more information contact:
Cas Carter - 021 915 410; casc@tnz.govt.nz
Background:
The Winners
- Kristi Simkins - Washington, US
- Andrés Borghi - Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Tim McLachlan - Auckland, NZ
- Rajneel Singh - Auckland, NZ
- Aya Tanimura - California, US (People's Choice)
The Film Independent Spirit Awards
The Film Independent Spirit Awards is a celebration honouring
films made by filmmakers who embody independence and originality.
Televised in millions of homes and covered internationally by the
press, the Spirit Awards has become the vanguard event in
independent film, recognizing the achievements of independent
filmmakers and promoting independent film to a wider audience.
Read the 'Your Big
Break' launch release