Student Shorts 2003

Recap of Student Shorts 2003

Student Shorts 2003 was again held at AGO's Jackman Hall, and was the largest, most successful festival to date.

Over 700 people came over the two days to see some of the country's best student work. The festival was featured in NOW! and Playback, and was advertised on BRAVO! and Movieola.

22 sponsors helped us put this on, and we are thankful to each and every one of them for recognizing the need for this forum, and stepping up to help us out.

2003 was also the year of the Student Shorts Panel Series, generously hosted by The National Film Board of Canada. Thanks to everyone who came out to the three events we had scheduled to make it a very successful and useful event.

2003 was juried by Bruce McDonald, Tara Cates, Richard Crouse, André Bennett and Shane Smith.

We introduced the "Pepito" awards (as pictured to the left) this year, courtesy of Ivaan : Lord of the Rings and our own, Erin Tee.

The 2003 winners were:
Real Short winner: The Shadow Behind Directed by: Zuzana Hudakova
Animated Short winner: Visions of an Apocalypse Directed by: Amy Ratelle
Experimental winner: A Trip to the Zoo Directed by: Ben Roberts & Brett Bergmann
Narrative winner: Big Shoes to Fill Directed by: Michelle Porter
Best in Pile winner: Naked Faces Directed by: Steven Young

Thanks again to all the sponsors that helped make the awards ceremony so sweet.

Above all, it was the 2003 Afterparty that had the most buzz. After the final screening, over 200 people piled into the Artword Gallery and enjoyed some wicked food and booze as the award-winners were recognized.

Student Shorts 2003 was truly incredible. It took a lot of hard work to pull off, but in the end was a very positive event that drew over one thousand people in total to all the events and venues. Not bad for a bunch of student films eh? We can only hope that the short film format will continue to garner the audiences interest in years to come.