Surf Coast locals pursuing their Hollywood dreams

THREE young filmmakers have been awarded top honours at this year’s Anglesea Shorts Film Festival hosted by the Anglesea Movie Club.

On Sunday, filmmakers and fans flocked to the Anglesea Memorial Hall to watch the finalists’ films and see the winners announced.

In the junior category for those aged 13 and under, brothers Hugo and Morgan Littlefield won with their film The Boy and the Bot, while Ines Mullins-Gange took out the senior category for those aged 14 to 18 with her film, Two and a Half Minutes.

Ines said she was very surprised by the win.

“Everyone did an amazing job, and I’m just so speechless.”

 

For this year’s competition, Surf Coast locals aged 18 and under were tasked with creating a three-minute film with the prompt ‘key’.

A total of 12 films were selected as finalists by the panel of judges, which included experienced filmmakers Sean Cousins and Brad Clark, and president of the Anglesea Movie Club, Evelyn Wuchatsch.

“What that key represents was really up to their imagination, and it’s resulted in a fascinating and diverse range of stories,” Wuchatsch said.

All three winners had also entered the last year’s festival.

“We recognised their faces, and it was lovely to see that they’ve come on so much in just 12 months,” Wuchatsch said.

 

The afternoon was hosted by comedian Dave O’Neil, and the awards were presented by surprise guest Glenn Robbins, who is best known for his time on Kath and Kim.

“I think that really topped it off,” Wuchatsch said. “Having those two comedians involved… we were just thrilled.”

Surf Coast Shire major, Libby Stapleton, was in attendance and said it was a “thrill” to see the event’s return this year.

 

“It’s really important for us… to do everything we can to continue nurturing our creative sides… so that we can make sure that the Surf Coast remains a really vibrant and flourishing creative space,” she said.

While plans are not yet set for the next Anglesea Shorts Film Festival, Wuchatsch said there is a lot of interest.

“Everybody’s quite keen to do it, so I anticipate we probably will,” she said.