After making up over half of the films screening in Mardi Gras Film Festival’s ‘My Queer Career’ emerging filmmaker showcase, AFTRS alumni have secured three of the program’s major prizes.
2018 BA graduate, Simon Croker, whose short film All Good Things screened on the night, has been awarded the prestigious Emerging Filmmaker prize. Along with the title, he has received $5,000 worth of camera equipment hire from Panavision to fund future projects. The short, which was produced as part of Croker’s studies at AFTRS, had its world premiere at Reeling Film Festival and has since screened at Brisbane International Film Festival and Flickerfest collecting several nods along the way.
Jamieson Pearce’s Strangers also screened and went on to take home both Best Film and the Audience Award. Jamieson will be receiving $3000 cash from Stephen Cummins Film Trust, $2000 worth of legal advice from JP Media Law, automatic entry into the Iris Prize, and $3,500 worth of editing support from Spectrum Films.
Also part of the lineup consisting of local up-and-comers were shorts Kids on Fire produced by Olivia Fay (Foundation Diploma, 2012), Boldly Go by director/writer/producer Christopher Cosgrove (Graduate Certificate Screen: Directing 2018), We’re All In This Together by director Logan Mucha (Graduate Diploma in Documentary, 2012) and St. Augustine by director/writer Thomas Wilson-White (Master of Screen Arts, 2017; Graduate Diploma in Directing, 2014).
Congratulations to the My Queer Career winners and emerging filmmakers who had work screen in the program.