France’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the world's premiere cinema event dedicated to short films, celebrates New Zealand this year with an extraordinary retrospective.

France’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the world's premiere cinema event dedicated to short films, celebrates New Zealand this year with an extraordinary retrospective.

In its 33rd year, Festival International du Court Metrage Clermont-Ferrand has chosen New Zealand as its spotlight country and will show a retrospective of New Zealand short films across six programmes.  Nearly 50 films will screen, representing the extraordinary depth and breadth of short films made in New Zealand since 1988. The festival opens today in the city of Clermont-Ferrand.

This is the 23rd year the Festival has run an international competition and this year New Zealand film Choice Night was selected to compete out of a total of 5,362 submitted films. Choice Night will compete for top honours against 78 of the world’s best short films.

Set in Wellington, Choice Night, is written by Paul Stanley Ward, directed by Christopher Dudman and produced by Vicky Pope. The film is about a fifteen year-old-boy who has everything before him. The catch is - he has to choose between the two things he wants the most. Last year Choice Night screened at A-list festivals Melbourne, London and Valladolid, receiving Best Short Film at Cinema Tous Ecran in Switzerland.

The New Zealand Retrospective at Clermont-Ferrand includes one of New Zealand’s oldest and most successful short films; Kitchen Sink by Alison MacLean which originally screened there in 1990, and The Six Dollar Fifty Man, which was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination earlier this year. The films are a mix of independently funded films and films financed through the New Zealand Film Commission.

The New Zealand Ambassador to France, Rosemary Banks, will attend the Festival to celebrate the mutually successful creative relationship between New Zealand and France. The New Zealand Embassy in Paris has also supported two filmmakers to attend the festival and the associated market - Meihana Durie whose film Warbrick is a short drama based on the true story of Joe Warbrick and the 1888 New Zealand Natives rugby tour of Great Britain; and Shahir Daud whose film Double Happy is the story of a 15 year old boy who carries a backpack filled with homemade fireworks, a pocket knife and a polaroid camera, and before the end of the day, will have used them all.

The Festival programme has this to offer on the retrospective:
‘New Zealand short films are an enigmatic 15 minute window into another world. They provide a temporary escape from reality into the beautiful, humorous, macabre and sometimes violent Kiwi psyche - at times with haunting clarity. In this specially curated selection, you'll find a beginner’s guide to some of the best short film offerings from top New Zealand filmmakers. They include tales of alienation, coming of age, death, revenge and sexual awakenings.

33rd Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2011 New Zealand retrospective opens:  4th – 12th February 2011.

Please see the festival website for more details:  www.clermont-filmfest.com

Festival International du Court Metrage Clermont-Ferrand – New Zealand Retrospective Films

30 Love - Rollo Wenlock - 2009
Accidents - Paul Swadel - 1999
Another Story about a Guy Betrayed by his Dog - Justin Webster - 2010
Aphrodite's Farm - Adam Strange - 2008
Berik - Daniel Borgman - 2010
Betty Banned Sweet - Michelle Saville - 2008
Big Bad Wolves - Rajneel Singh - 2006
Blue Willow - Veialu Aila-Unsworth - 2005
Brave Donkey - Gaysorn Thavat - 2009
Break - Shona McCullagh - 2005
Careful with that Axe - Jason Stutter - 2008
Careful with that Crossbow - Jason Stutter - 2010
Careful with that Powertool - Jason Stutter - 2009
Changing of the Guard - Joseph Robert Lee - 2005
Choice Night - Christopher Dudman - 2010
Day Trip - Zoé McIntosh - 2010
Delores - Adam Stevens - 2002
Donuts for Breakfast - Felicity Morgan-Rhind - 1999
Double happy - Shahir Daud - 2010
Fog - Peter Salmon - 2006
Hitchcock - Reuben Sutherland - 2005
Huhu Attack - Patrick Gillies - 2010
Kitchen Sink - Alison MacLean - 1989
Little Angel - Suzie Jowsey Featherstone - 2010
Mokopuna - Ainsley Gardiner - 2009
Mondo Nuovo - Shona McCullagh - 2007
Nature's Way - Jane Shearer - 2006
No Ordinary Sun - Jonathan Brough - 2004
Poppy - James Cunningham - 2009
Redemption - Katie Wolfe - 2010
Rip, Drip, Tear - Janette Goodey - 2009
Roof Rattling - James Blick - 2010
Röyksopp - Reuben Sutherland - 2009
Run - Mark  Albiston - 2007
Sand Dancer - Valerie Reid - 2006
Stroke - Christine Jeffs - 1994
Sure to rise - Niki Caro - 1994
Take 3 - Roseanne Liang - 2008
Tama Tu - Taika Waititi - 2004
Taua-War Party - Te Arepa Kahi - 2007
The Graffiti of Mr Tupaia - Christopher Dudman - 2008
The Lethal Innocents - Kirsty Cameron - 2006
The Lounge Bar - Harry Sinclair / Don McGlashan - 1989
The Six Dollar Fifty Man - Mark Albiston / Louis Sutherland - 2009
This Film is a Dog - Jonathan Ogilvie - 1996
This is New Zealand (Opening Film) - Hugh MacDonald - 1970
Tide - Steven Chow - 2010
Va Tapuia - Tusi Tamasese  - 2010
Vostok Station - Dylan Pharazyn - 2009
Warbrick - Meihana Durie / Pere Durie - 2009

Media release: NZ Film Commission