Jim Poole Seeking Scotland's Short Film Talent

Scotland's premiere short film award is open again, for its seventh year, to showcase the very best of Scotland's short film talent. The Jim Poole Scottish Short Film Award was launched in 1999 by the Cameo Cinema to jointly celebrate its fiftieth birthday and to demonstrate a commitment to supporting emerging filmmaking talent in Scotland.

Now in its seventh year, the Jim Poole Scottish Short Film Award is the only award to cover the breadth, scope and diversity of the Scottish short filmmaking industry. Each year it receives an outstanding degree of press and industry interest with the Award acting as a marker of excellence, both nationally and internationally. Several of the winning films have gone on to make impressions on the world film festival circuit.

JUDGING PANEL

Last year, the award organisers received well over one hundred submissions, which they narrowed down to ten, judged by an exclusive panel which included Ewen Bremner and film theorist and lecturer John Orr. Highlights from last year’s shortlist included the Pilton Video production Watching, written by Julie Duff and directed by Erik Ferguson, which won the overall Award, IOTA, written and directed by Simon Dennis, which claimed the Audience Award, and Milk, written and directed by Peter Mackie Burns, which also won the Golden Bear in the 55th Berlinale International Short Film Competition.

Prizes for the Award total £1500. Winner of The Belmont Audience Award receives £500, and the overall winner receives £1,000 and complimentary delegate passes to the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The Jim Poole Scottish Short Film Award is produced and managed by Marquisde - a film production company based in Edinburgh - and is supported by Scottish Screen, Edinburgh International Film Festival and The Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen.

FOR RULES OF ENTRY, APPLICATION FORM AND MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.SCOTTISHSHORTFILMAWARD.ORG

by James MacGregor

Published 12 March 2006