“Oui!” — France and Martinique Take Top Honours at 10th Anniversary Filminute Festival

LONDON - Oct. 8, 2015 - PRLog -- The 10^th anniversary edition of Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has concluded with the international jury awarding Best Filminute honours to French filmmaker Guillaume Renusson for his original and harrowing film ONE-MINUTE OF SILENCE.

In awarding top honours to ONE-MINUTE OF SILENCE the jury cited its “searing story, originality and resonance.” Commenting on his film, the first Best Filminute winner to be shot on a mobile phone, Renusson said, “I desired to write a story where the subject would be more noteworthy than the equipment to do it.” For a festival dedicated to powerful, moving stories above all else, his words resonate strongly with the Filminute team. ONE-MINUTE OF SILENCE was also the top choice of perennial Filminute commentator and (shorts) filmmaker Carlo Perassi who, in collaboration with Taste of Cinema and Filminute, reviewed all 10 years of shortlisted films at Filminute and chose his favourites for each year.

This year, Filminute attracted an audience from a record 154 countries. The public votes determined the People’s Choice Award which goes to Martinique’s Khris Burton for NANNY.  Burton is no stranger to Filminute audiences, having won the People’s Choice award in 2013 and serving on the 2014 jury. With NANNY, he treated Filminute audiences to a beautiful but intense fable featuring a powerful performance from Martinique’s Gloriah Bonheur. The film generated a flood of congratulatory and appreciative commentary from the public as well as many nods from the jury. Burton has proven himself to be a talented and canny director who not only understands his craft but understands how to leverage social media to build an audience around a film.

The Top Rated Film award, rating 4.8/5 stars, went to REMATCH, a moving story of domestic abuse by Romania’s George Molesag.

17 countries were represented on the 25-film shortlist this year, including a record five French films, as well as three British films and two each from Iran and the USA.

The 2015 7-member international jury, which included Cathy Schulman, Klaus Eder, Kevin Roberts, Anton Groves, Ignacio F. Rodo, John Ketchum & Sabaa Quao, also awarded 5 Jury Commendations to: Wojtek (Poland), Nanny (Martinique), 1-0 (Iran), Rematch (Romania), and The Crack (Uruguay).

Filminute also continued its tradition of partner awards with both Cineuropa and CineCoup. The Filminute 2015 CineCoup Prize, awarded by the popular Canadian film accelerator, went to L’Acte (France). The second annual Cineuropa Audience Award this year went to Rematch (Romania).

Filminute Co-Founder and Head of Jury, John Ketchum closed out the anniversary edition saying “Powerful stories resonate long after a film is finished. This is the hallmark of all great films, even films that are only one-minute long.”

“Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of Filminute over the past 10 years and stay tuned for exciting news as we move to expand the initiative in 2016.”

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About Filminute

Filminuteis the international one-minute film festival that challenges filmmakers, writers, animators, artists, designers, and creative producers to develop and submit the world's best one-minute films. www.filminute.com

Every year, throughout the month of September, the Filminute festival presents an extraordinary array of 25 films online, for viewers around the world to enjoy, share and discuss.