Amateur Short Film Competition Sees Inaugural Staging
The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) is alerting potential entrants of the FiWi Short Film Competition that the entry deadline has been extended to Saturday, July 3, 2021 at midnight.
The amateur short film competition which is being hosted for the very first time, is the brain-child of the JCDC’s Drama and Theatre Arts Unit, and sees entrants examining one of five selected Jamaican proverbs and creating a short film based on their interpretation.
The competition is free for entry and is open to Jamaicans aged 17 to 45 years, who have never had a made a film or had a screen play produced.
Persons who are interested in entering should submit their one page treatment for a three to five minute film to drama@jcdc.gov.jm by the deadline. They are also being encouraged to consult the competition’s rule and guidelines the JCDC’s website at www.jcdc.gov.jm before entering.
“The JCDC’s Drama and Theatre Arts Unit is excited to host the very first Fi Wi Short Film competition, which has been a few years in the making. Our local amateur Film makers have continuously requested that we find a way to better include them in our national Drama competition and the recent global boost in video content creation caused by the pandemic inspired us to host this virtual short film competition. We hope that the competition will not only unearth the talents of some of our amateur film makers and give them a platform to showcase their work, but we will also be offering training opportunities with some leading industry experts,” said Mr. Shaun Drysdale, Drama and Theatre Arts Specialist at the JCDC.
“The Jamaican film industry is just bursting with talent, and so we hope our amateur film makers will seize this opportunity to get professional training and exposure from some of the best in the industry, while also competing for a chance to win up to $500 000 in cash and prizes. We are looking for creativity, we are looking for mood and tone, we are looking for pieces that are emotionally captivating, so we are asking our entrants to bring it in their treatments, we want to see the production on the page,” Drysdale said.
He further explained that once entries close, the treatments will be assessed and the top ten will be selected as finalists for the competition. These finalists will participate in a one day workshop where they will learn about directing, screen writing and cinematography from top experts in the industry. They will then be paired up with mentors who will guide them through the process of creating their films.
“As this is an amateur short film competition, we wanted to place importance on the basics, the foundations of making a great film, so that’s why we have only requested a treatment for the entry, we want to help our finalists build from the ground up. We are working with five mentors who are industry heavy weights: Kyle Chin who will be teaching our Directing Workshop; Natasha Griffiths, who will be teaching our Screen Writing Workshop; Robert ‘Krusha’ Harriott who will be teaching our cinematography workshop; and Letay Williams and Monique Robb who will also be assisting finalists during the workshops” Drysdale said.
Once the films are completed they will undergo another round of adjudication by local film industry greats such as: Lisa Tomlinson, Eka Patterson, Analisa Chapman, Brian St. Juste and Everaldo Creary, after which the winners will be chosen.
Drysdale also noted that in addition to the standard first, second and third place prizes, finalists will also have a chance to win various sectional awards such as: Best Director, Best Editing, Best Story, Best Cinematography and the Viewers’ Choice Award.
“The public will also have a chance to select their own winner with the Viewer’s choice award. Once completed, all of our finalists’ films will be uploaded to the various JCDC social media channels for the public to select their favorite short film,” Drysdale said.
