For Elsie | |
Director: | David Winstone |
Producer: | Peter Hort, Gemma Priggen, Olegar Fedoro, Blake Ritson |
Starring: | Blake Ritson, Olegar Fedoro, Eline Powell, Caroline Blakiston |
Music: | Gregory John Madge |
Cinematography: | Joseph Kelly Jones |
Editing: | Patrick Shead-Simmonds |
Runtime: | 23 minutes |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Language: | English / Russian |
For Elsie is a short film (23 minutes) written by Vincent Klueger and directed by David Winstone.
Released in 2011 by University of Westminster, the film was a Gold Medal winner at The 39th Annual Student Academy Awards. The ceremony was held in June 2012 at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA. Hence For Elsie became eligible for the Oscars 2013 in the Short Film category.
The film is a dark comedy about a disillusioned piano teacher Glenn (Blake Ritson), who once aspired to be a concert pianist. He is moving back to his parents' house and is on the brink of giving up the piano for good when a Russian gangster Kilov (Olegar Fedoro) offers him a unique opportunity: £10,000 if Glenn successfully teaches in just a day Beethoven's Für Elise to Kilov's daughter Mila (Eline Powell), who has never played piano. If Mila's visiting grandmother, who thinks she's been studying piano for two years, won't be pleased with the result, Kilov threatens to break Glenn's hands.