Best UK Graduate Fiction Shortlist

Below are the shortlisted entries for the Best UK Graduate Fiction Award and comments by the category juror Marc Evans.

Little Voices
Chris McFall, Chris Lang & Christopher Colton
University of Glamorgan

Quint is pre-linguistically deaf with an obsession for typography. After the death of his soul-mate, Quint works his way through his painful existence to send a tragic message of guilt. Little do those around him know it is to be his last.

“Repeated dialogue. Stunning sound design. Like a piece of music. Lovely framing. Nice casting/good faces. Manages to create a completely interior world with sound and pictures, an alternative reality. Loved the fragmented non-linear use of dialogue, repetition, the juxtaposition of colour and black and white to suggest memory and a fractured present. The red lipped “I love you motif” very cinematic. Hints of Bunuel. Terific atmosphere of foreboding created. Loved the spray art graphics at the end.”

The Beach House
Richard Standen, Tom Stanley, Josh Kiel, Liam Reardon, Chris Kentish & Sam Martin
UCA Farnham

River is a hearing child of deaf adults. He returns home to reconnect with his younger deaf siblings after the deaf of their parents.

“Nice still shot construction. A story told partly in signage – a bold idea that worked. I wished the script had not made reference to the deafness (“It’s hard being hearing” etc) and just played out the family dynamic which was lovely. Loved the situation on the beach, the abandoned family, the gold fish story. Confident story telling (although I missed writing on cup!). Good camerawork/choices, luminous photography. The film really won me over with its humanity and the book-ending of that upside down shot was a nice touch. (Loved the trailer too by the way!)”

The Water’s Edge
Richard Standen, Chris Thomas, Matezusz Szczésniak, Sidney Sonnerberg & Dion Thorpe
UCA Farnham

Robert is alone in an abandoned world. By day he watches the lake, and by night, he hides in his cave from unseen predators.

“Wonderful cinematic opening shot plus a great face to main actor, good eyes… hooks you in. Terrific atmosphere, use of music/sound design (especially composed and recorded – well done indeed). Good camera work, painterly lighting/framing. Nice design(eg.tin can image). Good make-up (especially that wound). When you first hear the actor’s voice it’d touching/effective. The story might be elliptical and strange but here is an example of storytelling through image and sound, the film-making is assured. Very impressive.”

Loose Ends
Kim Strobl, Tom Webb, Michael Butler, Amy Newstead & Jamie Foord
Central Film School London

On a climbing trip in Wales, two childhood friends have to face that tensions and rivalries might be all that is left of their friendship. As the day escalates, Glyn tries to keep up with the competition, which ends shockingly yet familiar.
Looking back, has he seen this all before.

“Wonderful titles, immediately engaging photography and music. I was immediately engaged and stayed so. Nice choices, eg. hearing opening dialogue in long shot. Lovely to hear Welsh introduced so casually and used so incidentally. Great cutting when Glyn first looses Iwan. Nature as a character, great. Nice jagged editing/use of shutter speed for emotional scenes as counter-point to pastoral scenes. Good CU camera work too, details. Acting was occasionally (too?) big but always energetic which is great given the subject-matter. A film of great spirit. Even though I saw it coming the end was poignant. It’s not so much about the twist though is it, more about closure and moving on. An accomplished work.”

Red Letter
Tom Marshall, Nicola Evans, Jonny Burns, James Neal & Thom Clarke
University of Westminster

After the death of his mother, Charlie moves to an isolated village in Wales. It’s not long until he discovers that the old lady living next door has a very sinister secret.

“A poignant horror film about death and longing reminded me of films like “Ginger Snaps”/”Carrie” which use the horror genre to explore the traumas of childhood and. Terrific opening – atmospheric. Great photography by throughout. Lovely Super 8 sequence. Superb framing on occasions, tracking (top shot of fairy cakes lovely), use of filters etc. The grad was nice. Good design work (the cottage full of sweets, the removals box that says ”kitchen”), story details. Nice night lighting. Editing, music good… Fantastic slow shot in school yard. Ths was a very accomplished film in all departments except that performances were all too big, which is a shame. Acting lets it down… it’s tough working with so many kids.The high horror bits were fine but the naturalistic bits could’ve een in lower acting key.The train and football sequence very cinematic.”

Overview

“In general the standard of all the films submitted to Ffresh this year was high. The short listed films were all excellent. There was some stunning photography on Water’s Edge, The Beach House and Red Letter in particular. Some good story-telling, editing and sound design. Little Voices was excellent in this respect – very inventive and atmospheric. Red Letter and The Water’s Edge showed terrific production values and the music for Water’s Edge was stunning, a real achievement. Loose Ends was a sophisticated piece of story-telling. Great editing, pace and sense of place, use of landscape. A good script, and a well directed film with engaging central performances.”