SHORTS Film Festival – Emerging Artist Winner

Dimi

On Saturday night at the Shorts Film Festival, local filmmakers Alexandra Blue (Producer) and Dimitrios Pouliotis (Director) won the BEST EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD for their short film Unfinished Thoughts. The film was up against films from around Australia, but it was fitting that a local team took out the prize for the Adelaide based Shorts Film Festival.

Unfinished Thoughts has also received a nomination for the prestigious Australian Directors Guild Awards for BEST DIRECTION for a short film. The black tie ceremony is to be held at the Maritime Museum in Sydney this Friday, and both Alexandra and Dimitrios will be in attendance.

This only adds to the string of good news the film has received lately. Unfinished Thoughts was also nominated for the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at Melbourne Queer Film festival last month, and although it did not win it secured the attention of some important audience members. Within a week Alexandra had been contacted by the National Film and Sound Archive who were keen to secure the short film for their collection.

Unfinished Thoughts is the story of Lucia and Fiorella who belong to a generation of strict upbringing back in the ‘Old Country’. Now as her life-long friend is at deaths door, time is running out for Lucia to reveal her true feelings for Fiorella before its too late. The script (written by Dimitrios Pouliotis) was based on a short story by Felix Calvino, and the dialogue is entirely in Italian.

Unfinished Thoughts was funded by The Media Resource Centre and South Australian Film Corporations ‘Next Step Initiative’ which gives one talented team $15,000 cash and $10,000 in kind to make a short film. The film stars veteran actor Chantal Contouri (of ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Thirst’ fame), who took time out from her restaurant ‘The BBQ Inn’ to take on the lead role. Interestingly, Chantal comes from Greek heritage, but speaks fluent Italian – which was perfect for the project. Chantal was the recipient of the South Australian Screen Awards BEST PERFORMANCE Award for her role in the film.