A south east London pair’s anarchic short film – nominated for six major awards, including a Bafta – will be screened at cinemas across the country.
Manoman, an 11-minute movie about a man called Glen who accidently unleashes a miniature primal self at a therapy session, was directed by Surrey Quays resident Simon Cartwright.
From Friday, February 26, it will be one of seven shorts showcased at the ICA Cinema in London and on big screens around the country.
Penge-based producer Kamilla Kristiane Hodol is excited about the prospect.
She told us: “It is a fantastic opportunity to be seen with so many great films. It’s a really interesting combination of films. It is just across the board great. It is really exciting for so many people to see such a wacky film.”
Manoman was Kamilla and Simon’s final project at the National Film and Television School and took around 16 months to make.
The reaction to it has been overwhelmingly positive, getting nominations for prizes at Sundance, Edinburgh, Cannes and the American Film Institute festivals as well as the British Independent Film Awards and a Bafta.
The nominations put Kamilla and Simon in esteemed company. Former Bafta short film nominees and winners include Chris Morris (Brasseye, Four Lions), Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy, 50 Shades of Grey), Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) and Paddy Considine (Tyrannosaur).
Kamilla, originally from Norway, said: “It was really surprising because the film is quite dark and experimental in its way of expressing its subject matter and in terms of its technique.
“For us, it was it was just tremendously exciting that it was embraced in this way and people liked the weirdness and what we were doing.
“It means a lot for the director who had one chance to embrace his inner self and what he wanted to say.”
Manoman uses a combination of puppetry and digital animation which, unusually, saw it nominated for Best Live Action Short Film (AFI Fest) and Best British Short Animation (Bafta) awards.
Making the film in this style was tricky, but it gave an overall effect that had the freedom of live action and the imagination of animation.
Kamilla said: “It gives this energy of spontaneity and impulsiveness which you just can’t do in stop-motion or, for that matter, digital animation unless you are doing motion capture.”
The short film format gave Kamilla and Simon more room to experiment than a full-length feature would have.
“Doing this in a feature format, you would have to raise the money and it is a ridiculous concept to buy into without it being proven,” she said. “Shorts give you the platform to express yourself. We couldn’t have done a feature of this because people wouldn’t have bought into it.”
BAFTA Shorts 2016 will screen in selected cinemas across the UK from the end of February. Go to bafta.org/film/awards/shorts-tour-2016
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