“Bear Story,” an animated film about a family tragically torn apart directed by Gabriel Osorio, swept both the Audience and Jury prizes at TheWrap’s 4th annual ShortList Film Festival ceremony on Tuesday.
“1st Squad, 3rd Platoon” directed by Mike and Tim Rauch won the first Pepsi’s Creators League Prize.
The film by Osorio, from Chile, follows an old, melancholy bear who tells his life story through a mechanical diorama. The animated film mirrors the tragedy of families torn apart under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
In presenting the EPIX Jury Prize, the jury stated: “Thematically, Osorio has taken a very simple and familiar genre and subverted it to create a film that works as both an emotional tale of a Bear’s journey, as well as a political allegory that reflects upon Chile’s recent political struggles.”
The film also won the YouTube Audience Prize, which drew a record 15,000 votes from online viewers of the films at www.shortlistfilmfestival.com over two weeks. This is the first time a single film has won both prizes at the ShortList, founded in 2012 by TheWrap.
Co-directors Tim and Mike Rauch’s “1st Squad 3rd Platoon” follows Marine Lance Cpl. Travis Williams and his squad in August 2005 when they were sent on a rescue mission in Barwanah, Iraq. En route, their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Of Travis’ entire 12-person team, he alone survived. In the film Williams reflects on the experience and pays tribute to the men he left behind.
The head of Pepsi’s content studio, Ally Polly, presented the award and said that the power of their story had stayed with her day after day.
Both winning films and the ceremony can be seen on the EPIX channel on Aug. 20 at 7pmPST/4pmEST.TheWrap named the winners of its fourth annual ShortList Film Festival Tuesday night at the YouTube Space LA.
The ShortList Film Festival featured seven of the 12 finalist filmmakers from around the world in the awards category. And all five filmmakers from the new Pepsi’s Creators League category were in attendance representing the three finalists in the original film category.
Osorio majored in Fine Arts at Universidad de Chile. Later he specialized in 3D animation. After working in several commercials, movies, and television series, he decided to form his own studio: Punkrobot. Since 2008 he has been directing projects for children’s television (Flipos, Muelin y Perlita, Soccer Girls) and television spots. He enjoys directing as well as having an active role in the more technical aspects of the 3D department. Bear Story is his first short film. – Previous to TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival, the 10-minute film earned Best Animation and Audience Award at the 2014 Palm Springs ShortFest.
MTV’s Scream Connor Weil present Osorio with the YouTube Audience Prize, and “Love and Basketball” actress Sanaa Lathan presented him the EPIX Jury Prize.
Documentarian and jury member Brett Morgen read the Jury statement:
“Some filmmakers are more visually advanced than their ideas. Some have great ideas but lack the skills to execute. With Bear Story, Gabriel Osorio has proven that he is the complete filmmaker. He has taken his formidable skills that he acquired through years of directing children’s programming and commercials, and applied them to a heartbreaking and poignant tale of a Bear’s journey through life. Visually, the film has few peers. It’s near flawless execution in all areas of production is astonishing. Thematically, Osorio has taken a very simple and familiar genre and subverted it to create a film that works as both an emotional tale of a Bear’s journey, as well as a political allegory that reflects upon Chile’s recent political struggles. Bear story is a film that warrants your time and consideration and on behalf of the Shortlist jury, we are pleased to present Bear Story with this award.”
Osorio received a $10,000 budget to make a short film with world-class production partner 1st Ave Machine for a slot on Field Day – a new YouTube channel focused on experimentation: connecting creators to resources and opportunities, and allowing him to try something new with a platform to showcase his work. He also received from EPIX a $5,000 cash prize and two Los Angeles filming permits from FilmLA.
The Rauch brothers are directors of the Peabody Award-winning and three-time Emmy-nominated StoryCorps animated shorts. Their studio, Rauch Bros. Animation, creates hand-drawn character animation to entertain, inspire, and inform audiences of all types. They have produced work for Sesame Workshop, Warner Brothers, NBC and Amplify Education among others.
The Pepsi Creators League’s Ally Polly presented the prize to the Rauch brothers which included a $5,000 cash prize and an artist-in-residence status with a $15,000 living stipend, plus an invitation to be the next Artist in Residence at Creators League’s NY studio. And a Los Angeles filming permit from FilmLA.
Before the awards ceremony, TheWrap’s CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman moderated a lively panel discussion featuring the ShortList Film Festival’s members of the distinguished jury: documentarian Brett Morgen and president of production at Broad Green Pictures Victor Moyers. The finalist filmmakers included Ben Aston, Brian Bolster, Einar Baldvin, Frankie Shaw, Gabriel Osorio, Ian Samuels and Nils Bergendal. The panel discussed the art and role of film shorts in today’s changing media landscape, as well as the challenges of financing shorts. Other jury members included producer Alicia Van Couvering; WME agent Craig Kestel; and IMDb senior film editor Keith Simanton.
TheWrap ShortList Film festival was sponsored by EPIX, YouTube, Pepsi’s Creators League, MTV, Broad Green Pictures and FilmLA.
Special thanks Svedka Vodka, Don Q Rum, Icelandic Glacial Water for their partnership.