The winning filmmakers for this year’s dancescreen competition were announced at the closing night award ceremony on 12th June of London’s FRAME Dance Film Festival at Rose Theatre in Kingston Upon Thames.
Launched in 1988 and administered by Vienna based IMZ Music + Media Centre in Austria, the dancescreen competition offers a bi-annual platform for international dance films with awards chosen by a specially selected jury of professionals across the fields of film, TV, dance, and video.
There were nine awards with six competitive categories and three cash prizes for Best Student Film, the FRAME Muybridge Award for Technical Innovation and the overall Best Film of the festival with work from all competing categories eligible.
dancescreen Live Performance Relay and Camera Re-work Award
The winning film is: A SWAN LAKE (Norway) Dir: Jeff Tudor Chr: Alexander Ekman
dancescreen Animation Award
The winning film is: LITTLE DREAMS (Belgium) Dir: Wilkie Branson Chr: Wilkie Branson
Special mention goes to Wide Open – The Chemical Brothers (UK) Dir: DOM&NIC Chr: Wayne McGregor
dancescreen Screen Choreography Up To 5 Minutes Award
The winning film is: TAILORED (Italy) Dir: Augenblick Chr: Augenblick
dancescreen Screen Choreography Up To 15 Minutes Award
The Winning film is: SOLO FINALE (Germany) Dir: Ingo Putze Chr: Christian Spuck
dancescreen Screen Choreography Over 15 Minutes Award
The winning film is: THE WAKE (Ireland) Dir: Oonagh Kearney Chr: Cindy Cummings in collaboration with director and cast
Special mention goes to Symmetry (The Netherlands) Dir: Ruben van Leer Chr: Lukas Timulak
dancescreen (D) – Documentary Award
The winning film is: RUDOLF NUREYEV DANCE TO FREEDOM (UK) Dir: Richard Curson-Smith Chr: No choreograper
dancescreen (Student) Award, with a cash prize of £500
The winning film is: SINTONIA (Italy) Dir: Mario Cirillo Chr: Alice Tudino
THE MUYBRIDGE AWARD FOR TECHNICAL INNOVATION, with a cash prize of £1,000
The winning film is: WIDE OPEN – THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS (UK) Dir: DOM&NIC Chr: Wayne McGregor
Special mention goes to Solo Finale (Germany) Dir: Ingo Putze Chr: Christian Spuck
BEST FILM AWARD, with a cash prize of £1,000
The winning film is: LITTLE DREAMS (Belgium)
Many of the winning filmmakers were present to accept their awards with over 50 filmmakers in attendance throughout the festival from across the globe including South America, Russia, USA, Canada, Europe and many based in the UK.
This year’s judging panel consisted of Jan Younghusband (Head of Commissioning, Music & Events TV, BBC), Dieter Schneider (Commissioning Editor Theater & Music, ZDF/ Arte), Alistair Spalding (Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London), Pegah Farahmand (Editor Random Acts, Channel4) and Judy Flannery (Executive Director, San Francisco Dance Film Festival).
The awards ceremony, was followed by a special live performance by BalletBoyz, All The Best Bits, featuring audience favourites from their repertoire and Fiction by Javier de Frutos from their latest show Life.
Frame Dance Film Festival presented by UK’s pioneering dance company BalletBoyz in association with dancescreen, screened 122 films with 11 World Premieres, 8 International, 4 European and 28 UK Premieres amongst the new work. Kyle Ridelout’s Eadweard provided the opening night film and classic dance films across the decades for all ages led by a celebration of Gene Kelly played to enthusiastic audiences at various venues across the town including Odeon Cinema, Wow Café and Bentall’s Store.
Kingston First offered public support which enabled the festival to expand many community events such as free outdoor dance classes with Big Dance Bus, Whirlygig Cinema’s world premiere of their Consequences performance piece in collaboration with The Cabinet of Living Cinema and Kingston University, and Oreet Ashery, in association with Stanley Picker Gallery, premiering the last film in her Genesis web series during her popular masterclass.
Panel discussion and industry events brought together representatives from Film London, NOWNESS, The Space, Advertising Producers Association, Soda Pictures, Dance on Screen Festival, Equity, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Royal Opera House, Dancers Pro, Rogo Scott Music, Kingston University alongside broadcasters such as Sky Arts, BBC, ZDF/Arte, and NRK Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.
Networking and pitching sessions offered opportunities to meet international guests with the participation of organisations such as the Arts Council England, British Council, Creative Skillset, BFI, One Dance UK, London Film Academy, Underwire Festival, SVT, IMZ International Music + Media Centre and FLAMIN’ London, Film London’s Artists’ Moving Image.
Summarizing the achievements of the festival, BalletBoyz Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, Artistic Directors for the Festival said: “We are delighted with the public and industry response to the first edition of FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival. It was great to see and share such an interesting and diverse range of films and to welcome so many film-makers from around the world to Kingston. We are already making plans for next year!”
