Understory winner on top
Filmmaker says festival proved a great opportunity, writes Kerstin Kehren
IN filmmaker Elizabeth Cullen’s short film Alone, a young woman is shown living in a place apparently devoid of other human life.
Unexplained marking that cover her body gradually disappear in the film. Cullen likens it to “a countdown on her body”. But a countdown to what? Earlier this year, Alone led to Cullen, 18, taking home the James Cook University Emerging Filmmaker and Best High School award at the 2015 Understory Film Festival.
“I (had) wanted to enter a film into a competition since I started making films last year ... I was very self conscious about all of my work and I didn’t really want to share it,” says Cullen.
“But my teachers at Cairns High suggested that I did enter it ... I learnt more about the competition and it sounded very exciting and a great way to showcase what I’d done. So I just went for it. I just thought ‘now’s the time’ and I'm so glad that I did.”
Entries are now being accepted into the Understory Film Festival 2016 and Cullen says she would encourage other filmmakers to enter next year’s festival.
“Even if you don’t win anything, you just get to meet so many talented filmmakers from around the region and get to see all their work and you just become so inspired by going to see their films and talking to them,” she says.
In late November, Cullen was given a full scholarship to attend Bond University and study film and television, having won two prizes at the Bond University Film & Television Awards (BUFTA) for Alone and a second film, The Artist.
The 2016 Understory Film Festival will be held at the Tanks Arts Centre on June 18 next year. Nine awards were handed out and 18 short films were shown at this year’s event.
The competition, which is open to both professional and emerging Far North Queensland filmmakers, requires the submission of a short film of no more than eight minutes.
The 2016 festival will also feature an inaugural award for a short film related to the Great Barrier Reef’s protection.
“The winner of that category (The Reef Starts Here Award), their film will be screened for education purposes,” production co-ordinator for the Understory Film Festival Jan Aird says.
Submissions must be made by May 6 at 4pm. Entries from high school students must be made by April 29 and be submitted through a Head of Department or Teacher Liaison.