‘Affairs of the art’, which received an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Animated Short Film, was among the short films presented.
Louise Hankey, academic director of the British Council, said that “FILMETS will offer a selection of the best short films from the UK, a country with a long tradition in this film genre”.
Louise Hankey, Agustí Argelich and Josep Viñeta Balsells
FILMETS Badalona Film Festival was once again the gateway to Catalonia for the BAFTA Shorts 2022 awards, the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, which were announced on March 13 at a virtual ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Thanks to the collaboration established with the British Council, the UK’s organisation for cultural relations and creative opportunities, the 8 short films submitted for the BAFTA awards were screened at FILMETS on Sunday 23rd, which was a premiere in Catalonia.
Louise Hankey, academic director of the British Council, spoke at the presentation of the BAFTA session. Louise Hankey highlighted that “today FILMETS will offer a selection of the best short films that have been made recently in the United Kingdom, a country with a long tradition in this film genre.”
In the set of short films that could be watched at the Teatro Zorrilla the two award-winning films in the fiction and animation categories were included:
- ‘The black cop’, BAFTA Award for Best British Fiction Short Film 2022
- ‘Do not feed the pigeons’, BAFTA Award for Best British Animated Short Film 2022
This was the fourth consecutive year that the British Council and FILMETS have worked closely together on this initiative.
In this edition, 4 fiction shorts, 3 animation shorts and a documentary were screened. These are the 8 films that made up the ‘BAFTA, British Academy Awards’ sesión:
- ‘The black cop’, BAFTA Award for Best British Fiction Short Film 2022: it is a 24 minutes long UK production, of 2021. The director of the short is Cherish Oteka.
Plot: This docudrama explores the experience of an ex-policeman both as a victim and a perpetrator of racism within forces of law and order. Now, when racial prejudice within the police is a hot talking point, this documentary arrives at an appropriate time because it transports the audience into the normally closed world of the police, and explains it from an unkown perspective.
Comments: Cheris Oteka aims to use her film as a platform for often marginalised communities to tell their stories from their own perspective. She has worked with a wide range of organisations and broadcasters, including Tate, Stonewall and the BBC.
- ‘Do not feed the pigeons’, BAFTA Award for Best British Animated Short Film 2022: it is a 9 minutes long UK production from 2021, the director of which is Antonin Niclass.
Plot: A group of tired and lonely travelers wait for the last bus. Somehow, the pigeons around the place manage to create a magical connection between all of them, in that cold and depressing place, just for a brief and wonderful moment,
Comments: Antonin Niclass is an animation director with dual Swiss and French nationality who lives in Lausanne and London. He started out as a camera assistant in Switzerland, then he went to Belgium to study film and followed his passion for animation by enrolling at the UK’s National Film and Television School. ‘Don’t feed the pigeons’ is his graduation film.
- ‘Femme’: this is a UK fiction production from 2021, 18 minutes long. The directors of the short are Sam H. Freeman and NG Choon Ping
Plot: Jordan is a gay man who proudly uses the label ‘Femme’. But every time he leaves the house wearing lipstick, he remembers his father’s warning that the world would always be a dangerous place for a boy like him. After a heartbreak on a love affair in a nightclub, Jordan meets Wes, a drug dealer, on the street. Throwing caution to the wind, Jordan gets into Wes’s car and the night takes a hazardous drift.
Comments: Directed and written in tandem by Ng Choon Ping and Sam H. Freeman, the two directors deftly build and maintain tension in this powerful film that keeps the viewer hooked on the screen from start to finish. ‘Femme’ premiered at the SXSW festival in Texas and has won the British Independent Film Award for Best Short Film.
- ‘Affairs of the art’: this is a UK-Canadian animation co-production from 2021, 16 minutes long. The director is Joanna Quinn.
Plot: Beryl, a 59-year-old woman that works in a factory, is totally obsessed with drawing. Apart from her husband, Ifor, who is Beryl’s model and muse, the whole family is addicted to something: her son Colin is a technology geek and her sister Beverly is an extraordinarily narcissistic taxidermist. Obsession, seems to be a trait that runs in the family’s DNA.
Comments: Among other awards, ‘Affairs of the art’ has received Best Animation at the Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival and a Special Distinction for Animation at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. It has also received an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Animated Short Film.
- ‘The palace‘: this is a 20-minute documentary production from the UK from 2021. The director is Yo Prichard.
Plot: Every day, on the top floor of an iconic 1960s shopping centre, hundreds of regulars take their usual places at the London Palace Bingo Club. Some of them come for the cheap dinners and free tea and coffee, but many stay to relax, socialise, play bingo or dominoes, gossip and have a good time together. As the million-dollar redevelopment of this area of London progresses and a major transformation keeps undergoing, the club becomes the last bastion of the old neighbourhood.
Comments: Yo Prichard has produced documentaries for Netflix, Sky, Disco-veri, the BBC and Channel 4. ‘The palace’ is her first film as a director.
- ‘Night of the living dread’: this is a 2021 United Kingdom animation production and it is 11 minutes long. The director is Ida Melum.
Plot: When a power outage ruins Ruby’s bedtime routine, she finds herself stalked by some unwanted visitors. The only way for Ruby to get a good night’s sleep is to fase up to her visitors.
Comments: Ida Melum is a Norwegian animation director based in the UK and Sweden. She receives training as an actress and later studied animation at Middlesex University (London). ‘Night of the living dread’ is her graduation film from the National Film and Television School.
- ‘Three meetings of the extraordinary committee’: this is an 18 minutes long fiction production from the United Kingdom from 2021. Its directors are Max Barron and Michael Woodward, who introduce themselves together with the nickname of JONES.
Plot: When the citizens of the small farming town of Dobre vote to acquire a mythical creature, democracy is confronted with reality. A great satire on bureaucracy and belief, ‘Three meetings of the ex-traordinary committee’ is a story about the power of faith and the desire for a better life.
Comments: Michael Woodward and Max Barron, based in London and Mexico City respectively, work together under the nickname JONES. They have done commercials for brands like Samsung, Hyundai, Ikea, Mercedes, and Uber. Among others, they have received the CICAE Arte Cine award and have been nominated for the award for best young European director at Canes or the Michael Powell award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. His music videos have been viewed ‘online’ more than 50 million times.
- ‘Stuffed’: this is a 19 minutes long fiction production from the United Kingdom from 2021. The director is Theo Rhys.
Plot: ‘Stuffed’ is a musical about a taxidermist who dreams of dissecting a human, meets a man ‘online’ who is so scared of growing old that he volunteers for her experiment. Unexpectedly a romantic spark between them complicates their plans.
Comments: London-based filmmaker Yo Prich’s work includes advertisements for Shell, Mercedes and Rover Island, as well as the ‘Mot-herf***king pep talk’ series for Comedy Central. ‘Stuffed’ received the Audience Award and Jury Recognition at its premiere at the SXSW festival.
