TheWrap’s ShortList Winners Presented at YouTube Space LA
“Not It” directed by Pablo Orta wins the YouTube Audience Award and “Noah” by Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman wins the EPIX Industry Prize
Los Angeles (August 28, 2014) — TheWrap named the winners of its third annual ShortList Film Festival Thursday night at the YouTube Space LA. “Not It” by Pablo Orta took home the YouTube Audience Award and “Noah” by Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman won the EPIX Industry Prize, which was selected by the jury. Both winners and the ceremony can be seen on the EPIX channel on Aug. 31 in the first on-air presentation of the festival.
The ShortList Film Festival featured eight of the 12 finalist filmmakers from around the world. Audience and jury prize winners “Not It” and “Noah” both cost only $300 to produce.
Writer-director Pablo Orta’s “Not It” — which was shot in Mexico — follows a group of kids who draw straws to carry out an uncomfortable task. Previous to TheWrap’s Shortlist Film Festival, the four-plus minute film earned an Honorable Mention when it screened at Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara.
“You couldn’t compete with my mother’s ruthlessness when it comes to promoting me on Facebook,” joked Orta upon accepting his award from actress Rose McGowan and Derek Callow, YouTube’s Director of Partner Marketing.
Orta said he hoped that his short film shined a light on conditions south of the border. The filmmaker also said he will likely use the prize money toward his parents’ mortgage or a Masters degree.
Writer-directors Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman’s 17-minute “Noah” short follows a young man who destroys his relationship with his girlfriend while pasting together the information available to him online.
“It’s been insane,” said Woodman of the past year. “Noah” won Best Short at the Toronto International Film Festival and amassed over 10 million YouTube video views.
Woodman says he plans to reinvest most of the $5,000 prize into new projects, but the Toronto-based filmmaker said he also has an eye on a Brookstone massager he saw while in L.A.
Rose McGowan, who recently became a short film director, also used her moment at the podium to plead with writers and directors to promote filmmaking as art and implored the filmmakers to offer up meaty roles for women.
“I want you to give them dimensional roles,” said McGowan. “I’ve been in this business since I was fifteen years old. I have fallen victim to the hands of unimaginative, mean, and stupid directors and I’m gonna ask you to not be them.”
Before the awards ceremony, TheWrap’s CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman moderated a lively panel discussion featuring the ShortList Film Festival’s distinguished jury: producer David Friendly, filmmaker Rory Kennedy, Participant Media’s Robert Kessel, UTA’s Hailey Wierengo and producer Ron Yerxa. The panel discussed the art and role of film shorts in today’s changing media landscape, as well as the challenges of financing and distribution.
Yerxa described the difficulty in reaching a consensus on this year’s industry prize winner: “The jury had a very tough time deciding between all these remarkable short films — partly because the quality of all of them was so strong and partly because they were all so different in subject and style.”
TheWrap ShortList Film festival was sponsored by YouTube, EPIX, Cinedigm and MTV. ShortList winners received a $5,000 prize and pitch meetings at Cinedigm and one of EPIX’s movie studio partners.
Special thanks to Freixenet and Bombay Sapphire.
For coverage of the event visit: https://www.thewrap.com/tag/shortlist-2014/
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Michelle Lee
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