With Christmas less than a week away, I’d like to share my favorite film from the 289 we’ve screened over the first 5 years of the fest. It’s from Belgium, 14 minutes long, and it was the first Oscar-nominated film that we had as an Official Selection. It was 2008, and the film is Tanghi…
With our submission deadline of December 15 less than 2 weeks away, the number of short films I’ve looked at since our last fest has just passed the 500 mark and we’ve received over 100 submissions so far from 26 different countries! As can be seen from these numbers and from reading my Film Selection…
Next up in the GPLT Movie Series, a winter series of feature films affiliated with the Reel Shorts Film Festival, is Starbuck, a heartwarming comedy from Quebec (French with English subtitles). Screening at 7:00 pm on Sunday, Nov 27 at Second Street Theatre (tickets $10; students $5), it’s a “sparkling crowd-pleaser” (Chris Knight, National Post)…
Traditional storytelling using one particular medium may soon be overtaken by transmedia storytelling which Henry Jenkins defines as “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding…
The easiest way to illustrate why filmmaking is the most collaborative art form is to look at one of my favorite films from past festivals: The Passenger. It’s a 7-minute short that was entirely self-funded and self-produced, as well as written, designed, modelled, textured, illuminated, animated, composed, recorded, mixed, edited, and directed by Chris Jones. …
With Halloween over, Christmas is right around the corner. For Star Wars fans, what could be better than the Blu-ray set Star Wars: The Complete Saga? Some changes have been made to the original movies which has infuriated die-hard fans, but the special features (deleted scenes, featurettes, spoofs and docs) have made it a huge…
Most people can rattle off a long list of famous actors, a much shorter list of famous directors, but maybe only a few producers.  What does a producer do, particularly when it comes to making films in Canada? Apparently, even producers can have a difficult time answering that question as can be seen in Anneli…
The beautifully animated One Rat Short from our 2007 festival won several awards at other festivals including Best Animated Short Film at the 2007 Cleveland International Film Festival. Written and directed by Alex Weil, it was the first short film produced by Charlex, the New York-based digital design and production studio he founded. At 9…
I love short films! Remarkably, they are like short stories. They pack a lot of “punch” in a limited amount of time. And you get to view a whole bunch in the same time you would view a full length feature film! On Saturday October 1, at 1:30 pm at Second Street Theatre, you will…
I’m excited to announce that submissions are now being accepted for the 6th Reel Shorts Film Festival. The submission deadline is 4:30 pm on Thursday, December 15. Details can be found on our Submit page. What can filmmakers expect from our festival? It is to be expected that programmers are a little biased about their…
Of the 16 National Film Board films we’ve shared with audiences over the course of our first 5 film festivals, the one that screened at our first festival Mar 23-25, 2007 was the most critically acclaimed, winning the Academy Award that year for Best Animated Short. Torill Kove wrote, directed, and produced THE DANISH POET, a…
Since our 5th festival ended on May 8th, I’ve been busy trying to wrap up that festival while already starting to program our 6th festival which will be May 2-6, 2012. In June, I attended 2 of the largest shorts festivals in North America: the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto and the Palm Springs…
So you want to be a director. Does that mean tuition of $32,000 (or more) awaits you? Not necessarily, but let me digress for a moment. Trevor Anderson is the Edmonton Writer/Producer/Director of The High Level Bridge which was in our festival a few short weeks ago. It was also at Sundance and at TIFF…
During the Youth Filmmaking Challenge workshops, which started in 2009, the students brainstorm ideas and then pitch them to the workshop leaders – Scott Belyea, Scooter Corkle, and Michael Bourree – who then pick the most feasible idea and help the students shape it into a script and shoot it. Scott edits the footage and…
CONGRATULATIONS to Jerome Sable, director of The Legend of Beaver Dam who won the 2011 Reel Shorts Film Festival Audience Choice Award. A record number of votes were cast (1,233) for the 56 eligible films and, for the first year ever, a film from our midnight Psycho Shorts film package won! With record attendance and…
Well, we’re about half-way through the festival now, and there’s still time to see some awesome screenings. I got out today to both the Gruff & Stuff screening and to see some of the student filmmakers in action down at Muskoseepi Pavillion and the Grande Prairie Museum. I wanted to share some of the photos…
Our souvenir program will go to the printers on Monday and it’s gorgeous! Our new look is complete – new logo, new website, new design for the program. It’s the completion of a lightning quick rebranding package put together for us by Chris Beauchamp of Beauchamp Creative. Why did we embark on rebranding?  A comment that…
I’ve watched over 600 short films, travelled to two of the major shorts festivals in North America (CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto and the Palm Springs International ShortFest) and two of the major film festivals in Alberta (Edmonton International Film Festival and Calgary International Film Festival), and watched dozens of submissions, and selected…
It’s been five years since Terry Scerbak launched the Reel Shorts Film Festival, and it’s been a great ride. We’re really excited to be launching a new brand for the fest that matches the high-caliber of our annual film program.