The Ffresh Festival: The Student Moving Image Festival of Wales
(Aberystwyth Thursday 16th – Friday 17th February, 2006)
News Report by Julia Smith
A festival so small it barely appears on the film industry radar, but to the ever growing number of media students in Wales it is definitely a landmark date. Started in 2002, the ‘Ffresh’ festival is the product of Aberystwyth University’s own growing media department. Accommodating only 500 students over its two day period, the festival also welcomes industry professionals to impart heir wisdom on the students, along with the public, who are welcomed to screen the students’ work. The festival covers many master classes in everything from casting to film certification. This year’s events show Skillset in attendance, along with the BBFC and the BBC, who led a master class in interactive media, discussing (of course) interactive Doctor Who episodes.
This year also saw the advent of live web streaming of events taking place in the ‘Great Hall’, the streams included the awards ceremony along with a master class with Mike Leigh. Unfortunately, Leigh announced sickness would prevent him from attending at the last moment. But despite this, the event was easily salvaged by the arrival of Marc Evans. Back from the Berlin Film festival where his film SnowCake was nominated for a Berlin Golden Bear, Evans led the students in a talk, along with showing footage of the eagerly awaited film, starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Although small, the festival definitely makes a mark on the students in attendance, 250 of which submitted films to acquire one of the festival’s eleven awards. With much to learn and much to show, the two days were packed with film education, showing that the true essence of film festivals lies in the learning about and showing of films, and not in the buying and selling.
Fiction
Moments of Silence by Nick Davies, Oskari Korenis, Rupert Rand
(International Film School Wales, University of Wales Newport)
Factual
Life Line by Sharon Harris
(Trinity College, Carmarthen)
Animation
Astronauts by Matthew Walker
(The International Film School Wales, University of Wales, Newport)
TV
Can I Buy You a Drink by Dennis Donoghue and Tara Cody
(The International Film School Wales, University of Wales, Newport)
Welsh Language
Tir Na Nog by Zachary Holbert and Sarah Louise Owen
(The University of Wales, Bangor)
Best of the Festival
Yr Ymwelydd by Twm Lewis
(University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
Audience Award
Cappucino, Heroin and Grunge by Gwenno Haf Jones
(Coleg Y Drindod)
Promos and Stings (Promotional material limited to a duration of 60 seconds)
Sub TV – Don’t Go Outside by Chris Lewis
Greenpeace – Double Decker Bus by Ross Smith
(joint winners from the Glamorgan Centre for Art and Design Technology)
Music Media [Sponsored by Buzz Magazine] (Music related media and music videos)
Seconds of Arc by Chris Owen
(North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Wrexham)
Interactive Media (examples of websites, interactive art etc.)
Insomnia by David Roe
(Swansea Institute of Higher Education)
Short Shorts (a fictional piece on to 3 minutes in length)
Subliminal Influence by Charlie Pastor
(The International Film School Wales, Univeristy of Wales, Newport)
|
