Student Shorts 2006 recap

Festival goers enjoying food at the Bishop and Belcher
Another year, another festival. But what a festival! With more than 400 submissions to choose from, it was impossible to select our customary 40 to 50 films to span across 4 programs.

So, after much debate, we decided that we had to add another day to the festival, as we had simply way too many films for the time allotted. 2006 saw Student Shorts feature a record 62 films from across Canada and from around the world.

With the added program, the festival ran from October 19th to 21st with screenings at the Innis Town Hall theatre.

Naturally, an extra day of programming meant an extra party, and we certainly delivered on this with an opening party at the Duke of York and our famous after party relocated to the Bishop and Belcher.

Hundreds of eager festival goers flocked to the parties to hobnob with filmmakers, distributors and sponsors. Thanks go out to both pubs and to Wellington Brewery for sponsoring the events.

Iain and Erin present a Pepito award

Our jury this year included Artist and Cinematographer Monica Guddat, Programming Manager Jason Beaudry and Distributor André Bennett.

Between them they had to decide which Canadian entries should win what award. This year we had generous awards for Narrative, Documentary, Animation as well as Experimental film categories.


The winners were:
  • Best Narrative: The Little Guide to Barber Techniques by Nick Wallace and Winston Hacking

  • Best Documentary: Confessions of a Drag Queen by Darren McAllister

  • Best Animation: Colourbars by Timothy Moore

  • Best Experimental: Unfinished Disposal by Andrea Bussman

Directors Gabriel Lopez and Marc Wiltshire of FLAMOUSSE! certainly enjoyed the after party...

An honorable mention also went to the stunning documentary, Tyler by Kim Dean.

This year we opened our audience choice award, "The Best in Pile" up to the international films as well.

Despite fierce competition (it came down to one vote believe it or not) the award went to Brendon Foster-Algoo for his film, The Rhythm of Youth.

Thanks to our sponsors for making 2006 our best year so far! With their help we managed to put together some truly incredible awards!

Alex makes sure our Movieola sponsors, David Miller and Shane Smith have enough to drink...
Our 2006 sponsors:
  • Movieola
  • Now Magazine
  • The NFB
  • Wellington Brewery
  • CFC's Worldwide Short Film Festival
  • Sim Video
  • Exclusive Video
  • The Documentary Organization of Canada
  • Mill Valley Water
  • Kodak Canada
  • Whirlwind Sound
  • Aden Camera
  • Images Film Festival
  • Hot Docs Film Festival
  • Ottawa Animation Festival
  • Deluxe
  • Ekoprint
Photos taken by James Shepherd