Thank you to all the filmmakers who participated in the First-Time Filmmaker Sessions Volume 7!
The festival platformed hundreds of films, each project worthy of recognition and celebration. We want to extend a giant thank you to everyone who took part and a special congratulations to all the incredible talent that went into making these projects.
First-Time Filmmaker Sessions is designed to be the entry into the Lift-Off Global Network. A platform for the avant-garde, FT Sessions isn't about selecting the 'best' or most 'commercial' projects; it is about providing a screening opportunity for everyone, connecting these new and emerging voices with new audiences. An option we hope highlights and educates each month!
Jury's Overall Winner
Dreamer
Director/Writer/Producer: Luna Atoms
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Synopsis:
Dreamer tells the story of a boy’s ambition whilst he daydreams in class.
Season Award #16 Shortlist
Audience Choice Winners
I love you
Director/Writer/Producer: Zakhar Shestiaiev
Country of Origin: Ukraine
Synopsis:
A boy confesses his love to a girl, but can't say the words.
Going Nuts
Director: Colin Reddin
Country of Origin: Ireland
Synopsis:
A squirrel is getting organised for hibernation in his beloved house built into a tree. Dusting down shelves, fixing crooked picture frames and preparing his Acorn collection for later. He settles down but is awoken with a thud shaking the whole house. A lumberjack has taken an axe to his tree. Comical slapstick ensues as the Squirrel retaliates against the much larger Lumberjack; however, no amount of cartoon violence will bring his treehouse back.
Robot Robot Robot Robot Robot
Director/Writer/Producer: Rob Paul,Eric Myles
Country of Origin: Canada
Synopsis:
A man accidentally orders 5 robotic doppelgangers and find himself in a futuristic dating dilemma
But the snowfall continued
Directors/Writers: Ahura Najjar,Amirhossein Nazerian
Producer: Hossein Rafieian
Country of Origin: Islamic Republic of Iran
Synopsis:
“A young woman picks up an elderly man from the street, who appears to be a laborer, to help with the chores around her house. However, once they enter the house, the old man's behavior gradually becomes strange and unexpected. His presence not only complicates the tasks at hand but also challenges the woman's world, confronting her with secrets she never anticipated."
Before I Fell
Director/Writer: Ben Harris
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Synopsis:
After a breakup and personal downfall, Lewis spirals through grief and memory, revisiting the past in search of meaning-before confronting a life-altering choice at the edge of the sea.
The Meeting
Director/Writer: Ibrahim Mohammed Hassan Abouelsoud
Producer:Aysar Imad Saleh
Country of Origin: Egypt
Synopsis:
A meeting with a gang ends with the death of two of them.
Everything is in Nature
Director/Producer: Daniel Bones
Director: Antonio Apolinário
Country of Origin: Brazil
Synopsis:
A couple lives an intense and destructive passion, where desire and pain are confused in a dance of silences and confrontations. Between the accumulated weight of emotions and the search for freedom, they discover that love can be an irresistible spell — and also a prison.
Cherry Eclipse
Director: Archil Kukhianidze
Country of Origin: Georgia
Synopsis:
An alchemist in the kitchen crafts a unique vegan delight.
The Grass is Greener
Director/Writer/Producer: Nathaniel H DIetz
Producer:Vicky Nguyen
Country of Origin: United States
Synopsis:
A despondent college student grapples with the recent loss of his significant other, and comes across a peculiar chair that will help him see that the grass is greener on the other side.
Notes for a good use of the ruins
Directors/Writers: Alice Visconti,Oreste Crisostomi
Country of Origin: Italy
Synopsis:
A young woman (Alice Visconti), after the death of her mother and her printer father, finds herself having to face very serious economic problems, a debt of over a million euros. With the complicity of an artist friend (Paolo Liberati) and an old family friend (Oreste Scalzone) she follows a journey, back in time, of mourning which takes shape with the creation of a performance/installation within the family typography.
An ancestral, intimate and introspective journey which, in the need for memory and desire for the future, is summarized in the metaphor of the "shipwreck".
Violet
Director/Writer: Derek Yang
Writer: Isabella Pollard
Producers:Finn Beardmore, Jasmine Gabriel Winoto
Country of Origin: Australia
Synopsis:
Arthur, a struggling playwright, recasts Georgia as the new lead of his make-or-break stage adaptation. As he grows closer to the aspiring actress, he must overcome his checkered past with her predecessor, Violet, or risk losing his new flame.
Lift-Off Season Awards #16
The Lift-Off Season Awards is an annual event that celebrates the very best of indie film. Following each Lift-Off film festival, films that have excelled in their respective category are short listed for a Season Awards Nomination. At the end of the year, once all the 12 city-based festival have taken place, the shortlisted nominated films are reviewed again by the jury and Official Nominations are designated. Click here for more information about the Lift-Off Season Awards.