The BIFA’s came and went, and sadly, we didn’t win best short film. It was won by social realist drama ‘Soft’, about a group of hoodies terrorising a boy and his father.
We didn’t shoot a video at the awards as BIFA told us, strictly no cameras! It was star studded for sure, and with James Nesbit hosting, cracking very personal gags smattered with four letter expletives, I can see why there was a ‘no cameras’ policy. It was very entertaining though!
I was delighted that Danny Boyle’s outfit won ‘Best Film’ for Slum Dog Millionaire as it’s a film with aspiration and optimism. For me it stood out among the other films, although all the features nominated were excellent movies. Very high standard indeed.
The highlight of the evening for me, was meeting Col Needham and his delightful family. Col set up the IMDb many years ago and was one of the Jurors at the BIFA’s. After the awards, we bumped into each other and he shook my hand, confiding… ‘I don’t know if I should tell you this now it’s all over, but I voted for your film…’ What a nice guy!
At the awards, I also bumped into the very lovely Martin Butterworth from Creative Partnership who so kindly designed our poster for us. He was delighted that we had been nominated and reminded me that my original goal had been the Oscars… So it’s all fingers crossed for the shortlist which will be announced some time in December!
Onwards and upwards!
Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com
To win an oscar would be an astonishing achievement and would gold plate anyones CV. Not winning competitions can be a little disheartening but then the film was made and tailored for a specific goal, and those judges will be looking for the attributes gone fishing has been created for. This can only now be seen as a hugely succesful endeavour to have reached the level it has already and the winning post is now not to unrealistic.