Three standout short films have taken home awards in Birmingham, involving a wolf, skateboarding, and a big dance number. Here’s a nice story, very local to where I’m sat writing about it. The Flatpack Festival has been taking place in Birmingham these past few days, and indeed runs through to the end of this week. ... Sound Of Movement snags Birmingham filmmaking award, includes hugely ambitious dance sequence
Three standout short films have taken home awards in Birmingham, involving a wolf, skateboarding, and a big dance number.
Here’s a nice story, very local to where I’m sat writing about it. The Flatpack Festival has been taking place in Birmingham these past few days, and indeed runs through to the end of this week. It’s a series of filmmaking events taking place in the UK’s most idyllic city (hey, I’m biased!), and over the weekend, the Reel Brum Award was given out.
Admittedly not yet as prestigious as the Academy Awards, but very much on the road to getting there, the Reel Brum Award is for short films made by local filmmakers. I was one of the panel of judges this time, and in lieu of any movies made by Kevin Costner and Jason Statham, I delved into a few very enjoyable hours of short movies.
The winners have now been announced too, and they’re all really good for different reasons.
Third place went to the beautifully-shot and upbeat documentary Skater Uktis, of which you can find out more here. I’d actually seen this one before at a Reel Brum film gathering earlier in the year, and have a lot of time for it. It follows Muslim women and far better skateboarding skills than I could ever demonstrate, smashing preconceptions over the head as it does so.
Second place is a big up yours to those turning to generative AI for their animation. The Big Bad Wolf is a stop motion animated film, made by a man with a superb tank top who’s rightly and inevitably on the radar of Aardman. Set in the Black Country, it’s a very funny short about the friendship between a little big and, yep, a wolf. It’s already got dozens of awards to its name, and it’s not hard to see why. More on it here.
And the winner? Sound Of Movement, a film that keeps growing before your eyes. I remember the crowdfunder for this popping up over a year ago, and it’s awash with talent and memorable moments. Huge congratulations to all involved.
For Midlands filmmakers, I can’t recommend getting involved with the Reel Brum community enough. And I’ll be talking to one of those involved with it at my next live Birmingham show in just under a month.
More details on my own live events here. For now, huge congratulations to all involved in the submitted films.
