Little Big Shots 2011 Launch

Outside The Cube at ACMI

Yes, I know that the internet is for up-to-the-minute events, and I should be blogging about things the day they happens - but I like to reflect a bit first. Otherwise, I will write rubbish. At least if I have time to think, it will be slightly higher quality rubbish.

Little Big Shots launch at The Cube, ACMI

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the unexpected benefits of volunteering for Little Big Shots was getting invited to the 2011 festival launch. So at 11am on Saturday, 4 June I went to the launch at ACMI in Federation Square. The launch began in the Gallery level of ACMI in The Cube. I turned up just after 11, but already there was a crowd of excited children and parents. Plenty of food was to be had, but the colourful cupcakes went in a flash, as you might expect. with so many kids around. You can see plenty of launch photos on the festival's Facebook page.

A cupcake, shortly before being eaten!

At 11:30am we headed upstairs to Cinema 2 for the launch. The Master of Ceremonies was Hilary Harper from 774 ABC Melbourne, who hosts the Saturday morning slot. After giving a lively introduction, there was a word from a City of Melbourne councilor and then from Chloe Boulton, the festival’s director. You can see that I took an atrocious photo of her, where she looks like two people. I don’t have steady hands, and my camera is showing its age – it is over seven years old. I’ll excuse myself by saying that Chloe does so much work, that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were really two of her! She also gave me a little mention during her speech when going through her list of thank yous. Since this was Chloe Boulton’s last festival, Nick Place, the festival’s founder and who is on the festival’s board, gave Chloe some much deserved kudos.

Chloe Boulton (Little Big Shots Festival Director)

Then we got to the announcement of the prize winners. Bella Noonan, one of the 2011 Little Big Shots children’s jury got to do the honours. There were two categories for Australian films – one for child-made films, and one for adult-made films.

Australian Child-made films

1^st Prize: How not to Get a Girl

2^nd Prize: Searching for Nessie

3^rd Prize: A Duck out of Water

Australian adult-made films

1^st Prize: Franswa Sharl

2^nd Prize: Lola the Magnificent

3^rd Prize: The Lost Thing

My memory has failed me, but I think one other film might have finished as an equal place getter in the adult-made films category. That’s probably a good reason to blog about these things in a timely manner! I will have more to say about the films themselves, when I do my next post on the Little Big Shots 2011 jury screening. 

The filmmakers of How Not to Get a Girl

After the prizes, there was a brief Q&A session conducted by Hilary Harper with the children filmmakers. One of the more insightful comments came from Reuben Morgan, who directed Searching for Nessie. Apart from his mother making the costumes for the teddy bears, pretty much none of the names in the film credits were real. Naturally, I suspected that some were made up – names like “William Tiddlywinks” and “Jack Rosebud” did cause some raised eyebrows, but it was amazing how much work he’d done. Voices, music, script, shooting were all done by Reuben. He said that he had at least 60 teddy bears, and had chosen them for their likeness to humans!

Franswa Sharl

The launch was rounded off by screening of all three child-made prize winning films as well as the 1^st and 2^nd prize winners for the adult-made films. I had seen all the films at least once, and Lola the Magnificent was a film that I definitely formed a higher opinion about on a second viewing. Finally, a short animated film from Canada, Ormie the Pig, was screened. I originally saw it several months before, when I was writing the synopsis for the Office of Film and Literature Classification, whilst volunteering for Little Big Shots. It is absolutely hilarious, and a great way to finish.

On that evening’s ABC news bulletin, there was a brief story on the Little Big Shots launch which included an excerpt from the interview with one of the actors in How not to Get a Girl. James Mathias, the actor who plays the hapless boy whose advances are repeatedly spurned, said tongue in cheek, I hope, that acting was excellent preparation for being a politician! James is a member of the Young Liberals, and has pre-selection ambitions at the next election. I overheard one of James’s teachers saying to James that since the school’s student council (which James is a member of), had recently incorporated the word “Union” in its title, that he had better expunge that from his resume. Using the word “Union” is not a good look for a Young Liberal! During the prize ceremony Q&A he also gave some behind the scenes insight into his shirt-ripping scene.

Little Big Shots also got some good coverage in The Age, and ABC Radio here and here. You can see the other press coverage here.