During the weekend of 10th to 13th October 2019 the Discover Film Awards showcased the shortlisted entries for the Craghoppers Film Prize 2019
Following a number of screenings at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square and The Odeon Covent Garden the prizes were awarded at a red carpet event at the hClub London
So here are our winners for 2019:
"We’re at a loss of words. Money wasn’t at the forefront of this. It’s all about Tony and Scrunch and the relationship between the two. Tony found his purpose and they’ve become life companions." John McFarlane -
Director
Tony and the Bull
John McFarlane
One night in the midst of a heavy fog out on the moor a face appeared in front of me like a ghost, frightened the hell out of me. A man with a kind of burnt out Paul Newman look about him says “I’m looking for my bull’.
Jumpcut to a week later and he came sauntering by with the bull.
We struck up a conversation and I knew that he was real, I immediately struck up a rapport with Tony, I respected and admired him and I knew that this was a story I had to capture on film. This story found me. It came to me out
on a desolate and isolated moor. I strongly believe that Tony and I met for a reason. This story was given to me for a reason.
"It's amazing, a real honour. This was our first festival and the first place we’ve shown it to anyone else so it was nerve-wracking. So, the award is the icing on the cake!" Christopher Holt - Director
3 Sleeps
Christopher Holt
The idea for the film came from a news report I read a number of years ago. It was a heartbreaking story of a group of children left home alone by their troubled mum for several days. When I started to research the idea I
uncovered an astonishing level of child neglect in the UK, 27,000 children are neglected every year and over 5000 are taken into care and separated from their siblings.
We shot the in the smallest flat in London over five of the hottest days on record. It was truly intense, most of the crew had worked with me before in TV and they were brilliant and despite the difficult working conditions they
were so professional and patient with the young cast.
The most important thing was I wanted to keep the takes as long as possible, I knew I could cut and combine takes to help Mollie’s performance, but I wanted to keep it as honest as I possibly could. In the end I used one take for
many scenes and never cut away unless I absolutely had to. This gives the film honesty and a vitality.
"Thank you very much to Craghoppers. It’s an amazing prize and we’re glad that they like our short-film. The fact they are making clothing from recycled plastic links directly to our topic, we’re glad they chose our
film." Marc Angele – Visual Effects Supervisor of The Beauty
The Beauty
Pascal Schelbli
The inspiration for ‘The Beauty’ started when when the Director, Pascal watched a film about plastic pollution and was shocked to see the whole beach was covered in plastic. However, he didn’t want to make a film to make people
feel like they are being told off, but rather make the audience reflect on their own plastic waste. The film became more like a ‘masterpiece’ which submerges the viewer into the beautiful oceans, before revealing the litter in the
sea. The whole process of the film took two years, a year and a half of which was spent purely on the visual effects.
"Thank you so much for the amazing news!!! I am excited to be attending the Discover Film Awards in October, meeting the team in person and of course watching the movies!" Andrew
Reid - Director
ASIA A
Andrew Reid
The idea for this film spawned eight years ago when I was paralyzed from the chest down. A malformation of my blood vessels (AVM) resulted in a rupture, which compressed my spine while I was sleeping, leaving me completely
paralyzed. Doctors told me I would never walk again but with dedication I regained movement. Today, I walk with a cane and continue to progress in strength and health.
My personal background is what inspired me to make ASIA A. As I spent many months in a hospital room focusing on my recovery, I was introduced to unique individuals of all ages who had been forced to endure life altering injuries
that left them disabled. It was their stories that inspired my recovery and ASIA A.
Andrew Reid was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and is a recent graduate from USC
"Make what you love – make short film that you want to see. The passion for that will carry you through even when it’s really hard!" Olive Nwosu - Director
Troublemaker
Olive Nwosu
Troublemaker is a drama about a small boy from Nigeria who is bored during the day, and ends up crossing a line and hurting his grandfather in the process. Inspiration from this film was Olive’s younger brothers who always had a
‘boy-ish’ energy when they grew up, and thinking about how sometime children can cross the line when finding their independence.
Olive shares that the biggest challenges when making the film was working in a remote location with no power or water, and trying to make her actors (who had never acted before) relax on camera and act.
Some of the challenges when making the film in a small village in Nigeria was working in a location with no water and power, and all of the people in the film had little or no acting experience.
