IWFF Missoula

 

Love In Cold Blood continues to surprise us with the attention it receives. I should rephrase that: Lindsay Hazley and his tuataras’ tales continue to prove to the world that storytelling conquers all! The jury at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula definitely gave their seal of approval, awarding us with Best Newcomer (here we are on page 3): http://www.wildlifefilms.org/documents/2011%20IWFF%20Award%20Winners.pdf

Thanks guys!

Roscars

Last week we received a nice surprise in our email inboxes

“Wild Talk Africa takes great pleasure in informing you that the international jury of Wild Talk Africa has selected your film “ Love in Cold Blood“ as a finalist in the Roscar awards category for Best Newcomer Award.

Your film will now go into the final round of judging and the winners will be announced at the prestigious ROSCAR awards ceremony at Wild Talk Africa on 30^th March 2011. The festival runs from 28^th – 31^st March at the beautiful Spier Wine Estate just outside of Cape Town. As a Roscar finalist we encourage you to attend the festival to represent your film…”

 

It’s a shame we will have to forego this one… as it is far away and happening very soon and in the middle of work commitments. We would have loved to do the trip justice too, by having some extra time to SEE stuff in Africa… (and that is not going to happen for a while financially). But this doesn’t stop us from really really wanting to go!

 

Bygone scones

Tuatara scones by Nick Holmes, from scone day sometime in 2009! Henry and Mildred tasted pretty good, fresh out of the oven with apricot jam.

Happy New Year everyone!

I know I am a bit late on the uptake. Continuing with that theme, here is a long forgotten photo of scones made by our awesome classmates back in 2009 when Love In Cold Blood was hatching. They were pretty inspirational scones!

This year, Jane and I are continuing our -dare I say it- careers! Jane is at Natural History New Zealand, and I have found work on the other side of the planet, at Nautilus film in Germany, from April. The student filmmaking experience has come to an end, unfortunately, but (insert cheesy clichée about new beginnings here, as I’m lacking in inspirational things to end with!).

Here’s to friendships, scones, and inspiration in 2011.

Kära gamla ödlor

Love in Cold Blood is on Swedish TV at 7pm on Xmas Eve!!
http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=8742&selectedDate=20101224

De levde ihop i många år utan att något hände. Men plötsligt började Henry, 111, uppvakta Mildred, 80, intensivt. Och hon tycktes road. Nya Zeeland höll andan. Skulle de gamla ödlorna bli föräldrar på gamla dar?

Panda Awards Ceremony

Last night, Guy & Nick’s film, Carving the Future, our film Love in Cold Blood, and Mat Thompson’s film went head to head for the BBC Best Newcomer Award at Wildscreen. The UK nominee Mat won with Hudson’s Monarch. It’s about stag beetles and shows never-before-seen footage of their metamorphosis- so exceptionally well shot that the BBC is actually buying his footage…! It’s so impressive & inspiring what Mat has done by himself over a 2 year period- his film truly is beautiful and he deserves all the credit he gets. Jane and I are just thrilled to be nominated in the same category.
However… we did hear the Newcomer Award was extreeeemely hard to judge, and apparently we have impressed people by choosing to emphasize story, the “unseen art” that Jane and I both love. So once again- thanks to Lindsay Hazley for letting us find the big story of little old Henry & Mildred.

Hudson's Monarch by Mat Thompson

Of course Wildscreen is about so much more than our nomination! I’ve been immersed in stories of love, tragedy, controversy, and natural beauty, had a chance to listen to how “the industry” ticks, and had so many inspiring chats. We can never hope to go to everything here, but if I can recommend one thing that will change your outlook on life- watch a film called Green. There are so many reasons it won the Golden Panda last night.

Wild and worldly

Jane and I are thoroughly enjoying our time at Wildscreen so far. There isn’t much time for blogging- to give you an idea, just check today’s list of fantastic things to see and do- so this will be short and sweet. So far we’ve had a blast at the Parthenon Party, met dozens of like minded people, obtained a bit of insight into how ‘the industry’ all fits together, listened to inspiring talks, watched jaw-dropping er, stuff,  and heard about heart-stopping filming experiences from the planet’s most intrepid filmmakers. We’ve been to two very helpful workshops and dare I say it, actually enjoyed our Newcomer interview at the BBC. The only thing slightly disappointing is that the one and only Sir David Attenborough is not going to be making an appearance here, as he is busy filming in Madagascar as we speak (hardworking young man that he is).

But, as Fred Dagg would say- “we don’t know how lucky we are, mate!”

One Week to Go

On Monday, ah… tomorrow, Jane and I are flying to England. As you do!!

And in a weeks’ time we’ll be immersed in the world of Wildscreen. Without going through our entire movie credit list, thanks are due to all the DVD buyers, pub quiz fans, NHNZ, and friends and family for supporting us. I still fail to comprehend how lucky we are- we only get to be Newcomers once, so plan to use this opportunity as best we can.

By the way, in case any of our fans (haha!) have followed us all the way to Bristol, the public screening of Love in Cold Blood is here:

http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/2579/

Geraldine: genuinely generous

Last week LICB screened in the Geraldine Cinema alongside Sandy Crichton's brilliant film about falcons

Ines Stäger from the South Canterbury Branch of Forest & Bird organised another wonderful small-town screening for Love In Cold Blood last week. The locals dug deep into their pockets to support us in getting our film to Wildscreen. I’m running out of gratitude-related words. I love NZ.

While I’m at it, loving NZ, here’s a plug for my fantastic backyard: http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/save-the-mackenzie. It’s in danger of becoming much less fantastic in the near future if intensive farming is set up.

Cloudcatcher

A little off the the topic of Love in Cold Blood…but still  blog post worthy!:

Carla has just illustrated a childrens book by Sue Wootton called Cloudcatcher. The book had a fantastic launch at the UBS last night with a huge turn out of wonderful, enthusiastic readers. Congratulations Carla – it’s a truely beautiful book that I’m sure many children will cherish for a long time to come.