The Big Mountain Short Film Festival is a short film festival based in Ohakune, New Zealand designed to encourage and celebrate creative short film making and storytelling. Entry is free and open to filmmakers internationally, who are encouraged to use maximum creativity on minimum budget. In addition to screening short films, the festival also features professional guest speakers offering tips and techniques on an assortment of topics of particular interest to low and no-budget filmmakers.
The festival was run as a three-day event in 2006 and 2007, before being reformatted as a single-day event, beginning in 2008.
The first annual Big Mountain Short Film Festival was held on October 20–22, 2006 at the Ohakune Cinema on Goldfinch Street in Ohakune. It was co-founded by filmmakers Jeff Bollow and Bret Gibson as a way to encourage and inspire filmmaking in New Zealand.
From the beginning, the Big Mountain Short Film Festival was conceived as an entirely free event, both for filmmakers submitting their films, and for audiences attending the festival.
The festival screened 34 short films from 14 countries, 6 educational interviews with industry professionals, the full presentation of the ATOM Award-winning Making Fantastic Short Films, and two live presentations.
Short films were screened in two distinct categories. Program A included short films made with budgets of over $1,000 or which are made with professional equipment and crews. Program B included short films made with budgets of less than $1,000 which are made with home video cameras and personal computer editing systems
| Award | Title | Director | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) | Domestic | Katie Hides | Australia | |
| The Flurry (Audience Favourite) | Elemenopee | Natalia Amoore | Australia | |
| Best Director (Program A) | Big Bad Wolves | Rajneel Singh | New Zealand | |
| Best Story | Crossing | Riad Galayini | USA | |
| The Rumble (Best short film made for under $100) | Coucou Clock | Francois Cailleau | France | |
| Best Emerging Director (Program B) | The Hit | Campbell Cooley | New Zealand | |
| Best Animation | Coucou Clock | Francois Cailleau | France |
The festival returned to the Ohakune Cinema on October 19–21, 2007. It featured 28 short films from 15 countries, educational content from New Zealand and international filmmakers, and live Q&A with Paul Davis, producer of New Zealand feature films "Sione's Wedding" and "We're Here to Help".
| Award | Title | Director | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) | Boletos Por Favor | Lucas Figueroa | Spain | |
| The Flurry (Audience favorite) | Night of the Hell Hamsters | Paul Campion | UK/New Zealand | |
| Best Director (Program A) | Before and After Kissing Maria | Ramon Alos | Spain | |
| Best Story | Before and After Kissing Maria | Ramon Alos | Spain | |
| The Rumble (Best short film made for under $100) | 7 of Diamonds | Ollie Neas & Sam Bigwood | New Zealand | |
| Best Emerging Director (Program B) | Schaffenskrise | Felix Krisai | Austria | |
| Best Animation | Coffeeee | Nolan | Canada |
In 2008, the festival shifted gears, and returned to Ohakune as a single-day event on October 25, 2008. It featured 28 short films from 13 countries.[1]
| Award | Title | Director | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Mountain (Best Short Film Overall) | Against the Wind | Dan Masucci | USA | |
| The Flurry (Audience Favourite), tie | Half a Horse | Hewison Dickson Faulkner | New Zealand | |
| Dictaphone Lament | unknown | unknown | ||
| Best Story | Half a Horse | Hewison Dickson Faulkner | New Zealand | |
| Best Cinematography | Against the Wind | Joe Masucci | USA | |
| Best Animation | It Was a Dark and Scary Night | L Dickenson & S C Jaffe | New Zealand |
In 2009, the festival returned to Ohakune as a single-day event on October 24, 2009.
| Award | Title | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Director | E Finita La Commedia | France | |
| Best Story | Coffin Call | England | |
| Audience Favorite | AIE | Belgium | |
| Best Animation | Glonk! Klank | France | |
| Best Short Under $100 | Space Junk | New Zealand |
The 5th Annual festival is scheduled to return to Ohakune Cinema as a single-day event on October 23, 2010.
In addition to the international films featuring emerging and famous filmmakers from around the world, the following people have participated in the festival, either as speakers, live presenters, featured filmmakers or interview subjects: