Juanita Wilson’s IFTA winning short film ‘The Door’ has been nominated in the categories of Directing and Best Actor and Connor Clements’ short film ‘James’ receives a nod in the Scriptwriting group of Warsaw’s third annual Grand Off Film Awards.
‘The Door’ from director Junaita Wilson (producer, Rory O’Shea Was Here) has seen nominations for Juanita for Best Director and for Igor Sigov (The Last Armoured Train) at the GRAND OFF - World Off Film Awards. ‘The Door’ is a film whereby a door is thought to be a universal symbol of life, of death, of entering the next life. The film’s main character Nikolai, played by Sigov, gives us what he sees as the facts, yet he himself is trying to make sense of them in his own mind. The story moves forwards and backwards in time, revealing the events retrospectively as the viewer bears witness to the universal tragedy of Chernobyl through the eyes of one man. It is produced by Louise Curran (co-producer, One Hundred Mornings) and James Flynn (Ondine) and the director of photography is Tim Fleming (Wide Open Spaces).
‘The Door’ has already enjoyed much success having won the Best Short Film award at the 2009 IFTA awards ceremony, winning the Bilbao Film Festival, taking the top prize in the Best Short Film category at the Academy-affiliated Foyle Film Festival and the prestigious Clare Lynch Award at the Cork Film Festival. The film also screened at the prestigious Edinburgh and Munich film festivals and the Telluride Film Festival.
‘James’, a short film written, produced and directed by Connor Clements has garnered a scriptwriting nomination. The short film recently won its 20th award - the Jury Prize for Best Short at the Image+Nation at the LGBT Film Festival in Montreal. The director of photography involved is Declan Keeney.
‘James’ explores how a young man grapples with the impulses and thoughts about being gay. The film won the Best Northern Irish Short at the Belfast Film Festival and was placed second in the Best First Irish Short at the Galway Film Fleadh. The film also won Best Short at the Gaze Dublin International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. At the Palm Springs Shortsfest, the film won the Jury Award for Best Student Short and was also placed second in the Best Student Cinematography category.
The GRAND OFF - World Off Film Awards seeks to celebrate the best independent filmmakers from all over the world. The Award Ceremony is held in Warsaw every year and this year’s awards saw the submission of more than 700 works. This year’s festival kicked off on Thursday, November 19th and runs until Saturday, November 21st when the award winners will be announced.
For more information about the festival visit www.grandoff.eu/
