The third annual Palm Springs International Short Film Festival has picked the best entries from among 200 films, six of which will automatically qualify for Oscar consideration. Though perhaps not quite Sundance, the fest is the largest North American showcase dedicated exclusively to short films, and one of the very few venues for their often cash-strapped auteurs to display a decidedly uncommercial product. It's also a place where the audience can see increasingly powerful consumer-level tools bringing a high level of sophistication to tiny-budget works.
This aspect is particularly evident in the festival's animation category. "Many of the animated films used what in the past were be considered very sophisticated technologies, what you only used to be able to do at animation studios," says creative director Paola Freccero. The winner in the animation competition, the Frankensteinian DNA by Italian filmmaker Giorgio Valentini, and the runner-up, Vuk Jevremovic's abstract The Wind Subsides, both used computer manipulation of traditional hand-colored cels.
Of similar interest was Caryn West's fully digital Here Dies Another Day, which scored second place in the video category in Sunday's awards. Made on the Sony digital Betacam, the movie is difficult to distinguish from one shot on film, says Freccero. The fact that the digital footage should transfer seamlessly to film-stock will work to its advantage in its bid for Oscar inclusion, since movies must be on film for the Academy to consider them.
Since the Oscar qualification criteria are somewhat arcane and expensive, the festival's automatic bid for its winners is a boon for small-time directors. And since Palm Springs is the only American shorts festival to offer this advantage, it draws a strong pool of entries. "Filmmakers haven't come because they been rejected by 4,000 other festivals," says Freccero.
Other winning films include Gayle Thomas' The Beauty of The Common Tool (film), Jennifer Kaufman's Chalice of Repose (video), and David Birdsell's Blue City (student).
