Watch all three shortlisted films created for AdFest’s young director short film competition
The Fabulous Four AdFest short film competition for young directors became a “Fabulous Three” competition when one of the directors was unfortunately disqualified for deviating from the script. But this did not dampen the enthusiasm and worthiness of this highly regarded section on AdFest’s annual program.
Every year, AdFest invites new directors and assistant directors to write a five-minute short film script inspired by the festival’s theme. This year they received 24 scripts from directors in eight cities. Tomoichiro Setsuda received this year’s Fabulous Four Commendation for his film ‘A Man’, making it most popular short film as voted by the Film Craft Lotus and New Director Lotus jury at AdFest 2014.
“Everyone loved this film. It has finesse, the casting was very nice. Overall I think the bar has been raised this year. Each of the directors made a very good effort in bringing their films alive. It’s not that easy to go about planning and getting a film ready in just one month,” says Hozefa Alibhai, Managing Director of 200 not out FILMS in Mumbai and Jury President of Film Craft Lotus and New Director Lotus.
The winning film “A Man” is directed by Tomoichiro Setsuda from Tokyo (pictured on the left).
This was a complicated idea of creating the future, by creating the present time now, which then became the past. The film was a loop of beautifully compiled vignettes focusing on a couple’s life together through experience in the future, the present, and the past.
“Deads” is directed by Keisuke Kuroyangagi also from Tokyo (pictured on right).
This is a zombie film about the living dead meeting the dead living. Its message was to tell humans to wake up. Through a beauty salon for zombies, the connection is possible for passionate people to transfer their passion to unpassionate people.
“Karen” is written and directed by Adam Graveley from Perth, Australia (pictured center).
Its focus was a guy in love with his smart phone. It’s something we can all relate to and reiterates exactly what we already know – that we simply can’t live without our phones these days, not even for a nanosecond.
“Overall I think the bar has been raised this year. It’s not that easy to go about planning and getting a film ready in just one month. The production quality, the music, the craft – I think these new directors are finding ways of getting finesse into their work. Each of the directors made a very good effort in bringing their films alive,” said Hozefa Alibhai.