Movie buffs had the ultimate trick or treat experience last Friday when the Sunshine Short Film Festival came to the Village cinema complex.
Budding filmmakers were thrown the challenge to show off all that Sunshine has to offer in five minutes or less, working to the themes of ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Halloween’.
Organisers then selected the top 15 films for a special Halloween screening and award ceremony.
Sunshine Business Association president Bruce White said the standard of this year’s entries was exceptional.
Year 12 Overnewton Anglican Community College student Andrew Coster was all smiles after winning a $6000 Academy of Design Australia scholarship for his stop-motion animation movie, My Story.
The 18-year-old Taylors Lakes resident spun a tale of a pirate’s adventures on the high seas, enlisting his six-year-old brother, Liam, to act as pirate Red Beard-No Beard.
Mr Coster, now in the middle of VCE exams, spent seven months developing his script, filming and editing the short film.
After his tertiary scholarship win, he’s one step closer to achieving his dream of becoming a filmmaker.
“When I heard it would get screened at Village cinemas, I was over the moon,” he said. “The first thing I did was tell my little brother.”
Jonathan Sulte won the judge’s prize for his film Botcha, about a man who may or may not have come back from the dead. People’s choice winners included Cabramatta Primary School, Benjamin Laut and Jack Rintoul.
