The finalists for the 2016 short film international competition of the Isle of Man Film Festival have been chosen from over 100 submissions to online platform FilmFreeway.
The 12 that have been officially selected will screen on the morning of Sunday 11th September – the final day of the festival – in front of an audience at the Broadway Cinema in the Villa Marina, including the film reviewer for the BBC and The Observer, Mark Kermode.
The shortlist of films will be judged by a guest panel of industry professionals ahead of the festival when the category prizes will be chosen: Best Fiction, Best Comedy, Best Animation and Best Documentary. Each category winner will receive £250 and an IOMFF award.
At the Sunday screening, the audience votes for their top film, which also wins £250 and an award sponsored by Laurence Keenan Advocates & Solicitors. Then Mark chooses the Best of the Fest award which is sponsored by Pinewood Pictures and wins £250 and a tour of Pinewood Studios.
The 2016 shortlist of films is as follows (in alphabetical order):
- A/K (Comedy, France) Antoine Le Carpentier
- BORIS IN THE FOREST (Comedy, UK) Robert Hackett
- DOG DAYS (Fiction, UK) George Taylor
- HUGO BUMFELDT (Animation, Hungary) Eva Katinka Bognar
- HUMANS OF VARANASI (Documentary, UK) Hartley Woolf
- ICHIRO & THE WAVE (Documentary, Singapore) Isaac Kerlow
- JUST DESSERTS (Comedy, UK) Michael Yanny
- MINISTRY OF GUILT (Fiction, UK) Matthew Bartlett
- PERCHED (Animation, UK) Liam Harris
- THE CALL (Fiction, UK) Ethan Jahan
- THE WORLD’S FIRST BICYCLE (Animation, UK) Conrad Molleson
- TWINSBURG (Fiction, USA) Joe Garrity
Congratulations to all the shortlisted filmmakers. And to everyone who entered the competition, the standard was incredibly high and we wish we could screen them all!
