I'm very pleased to announce this year's Filminute 2011 winners, beginning with the festival's BEST FILMINUTE which this year goes to Aritz Moreno (Spain) for his film LOOP. In spite of a very strong race featuring some fantastic films, LOOP still managed to come out a clear winner – testimony to the film's original narrative, subtle direction and overall completeness. Audiences the world over expressed gratitude and awe at what this film was able to deliver in 60-seconds all making it a very deserving winner!
This year's 5 Jury Commended films, in order of preference, go to REVERIE (Belgium), OBLIVION (Netherlands), HAMBURGZ (USA), NO MAN'S LAND (Australia), and DOT IN THE LINE (Pakistan). It's worth noting that the last spot on the Jury Commended list had 5 films vying for it and required a great deal of discussion before DOT IN THE LINE was chosen. The close contenders for that final spot were NAUFRAGO, followed by FAMILY PORTRAIT, LEVEL 13, and CARA O SELLO. This year's People's Choice Award goes to OBLIVION by Shariff Nasr (Netherlands). With audiences tuning in this year from a record 132 countries and festival engagement levels at their highest ever, the race was incredibly tight with OBLIVION narrowly beating out THE FALLEN, NO MAN'S LAND, with LOOP and REVERIE not far behind.
Finally, we like to extend special congratulations to this year's Top Rated winner NO MAN'S LAND from Dominic Chambers (Australia). For the first time in the festival's history a film has scored a average of 5-stars, underscoring one of the most powerful acting performances in a one-minute film we've ever seen.

Thank you to all the filmmakers for their fabulous films as well as for their incredible levels of interaction. Never before have we seen such keen enthusiasm and use of digital technology to promote and drive audiences to the films and festival.

And of course thank you to the ever loyal and expanding Filminute audience! I encourage you all to watch the winning films and the 2011 Awards video, as well as to follow Filminiute on our Facebook page where we will continue to share more insights about this year's festival and soon provide updates for Filminute 2012.

John Ketchum Co-Executive Director and Head of Jury Filminute

Filminute 2011, the 6th edition of the festival, kicks off this year on the heels of easily the most challenging and drawn out selection committee phase ever. Propelled by the strong work of our scouting and programming corps, and helped greatly by the fast-evolving world of social media, the team ended up making their way through a huge increase in the number of high quality submissions. But reach 25 they did, and what a collection it is – rich in performances and feats of original and powerful storytelling within the 60-second format. From hungry vampires and murderous weeds to moving explorations of the human condition and classic tales retold – the breadth and depth of the collection is remarkable.

This 6th edition also features 16 premieres – more than double the number of previous years. This development excites and motivates us a great deal as it underscores the continued growth and appeal of the format and festival amongst leading digital generation filmmakers from around the world.

Speaking of the world, the films this year hail from 18 countries on 6 continents and include: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and USA.

We've also assembled another dynamic international jury that includes luminaries from the film, digital media, art and advertising worlds: Emmy-award winning film producer & journalist, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy; Italian fiction and screenplay writer Carlo Pizzati; FIPRESCI Vice President & Turkish film critic Alin Tasciyan; Sid Lee Creative Agency Co-Creative Director and partner Eva Ven Den Bulcke; and VP, Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development Jon Snoddy.

Enjoy the festival, spread the news & share the links to your favourite films. This is how Filminute grows.

Good luck to all the filmmakers!

John Ketchum, Sabaa Quao
Executive Directors
Filminute

I’m very pleased to announce this year’s Filminute 2010 winners. After another record-breaking year that witnessed audiences from 124 countries, and a surge in traffic thanks in large part to our Facebook and Twitter pages, it once again came down to the wire in terms of determining Best Filminute and the People’s Choice. After a good debate, the award for BEST FILMINUTE 2010 goes to CHOOSE NOT TO FALL (UK) by director Matthew Marsh. This highly inspirational, philosophical and acrobatic film moved so many and is highly deserving of the festival’s top prize. This also marks the first time a documentary has won the BEST FILMINUTE distinction.

Filminute also asks the jury for commendations on five other films in the collection. This year’s Filminute Jury Commendations, in order of preference, go to AUTO MADAR (India), GOODBYE MR. NICE GUY (Romania), GUMBOOTS (South Africa), LOVE SUICIDES: PROLOGUE (Malaysia/Japan), and FLESH (Netherlands).

The race for the People’s Choice ultimately had 3 films jockeying for the top spot right up until the final bell. In the end, we’re pleased to confirm that the Filminute 2010 People’s Choice Award goes to A NEW PRAYER (Romania) by director Dorin Pene. This “Mel Brooks-ish, Monty Python-esque take at the gates of heaven” not only amassed the most votes but also garnered kudos from audiences and media around the world with whom the comedy resonated. The film was followed very closely in the voting by DARK VALLEY & GOODBYE MR. NICE GUY. ECHOES and GUMBOOTS rounded out the top 5 films as voted by the public.

Finally, we would like to congratulate DARK VALLEY (Iceland) by director Oskar Arnarson for winning this year’s Top Rated Award at Filminute as determined by visitor ratings on the website.

Thank you to all the filmmakers for their fabulous films and to you the audience for your fantastic and enthusiastic support of the Filminute festival. I encourage you all to watch the winning films and the 2010 Awards video, and to follow Filminiute on Facebook page where we will continue to share more insights about this years festival and soon provide updates for Filminute 2011.

John Ketchum
Co-Executive Director and Head of Jury
Filminute

On behalf of the entire Filminute team, I’m very pleased to announce the launch of the 5th Edition of the festival! It’s been another record-breaking year for submissions and we were particularly thrilled to see so many high quality films, an amazing number of which were made specifically for the festival. It certainly made narrowing down to the final 25 films very challenging. Needless to say, we are exceedingly happy with the results. It gives us great pleasure to see the festival and the one-minute format continuing to grow in leaps and bounds.

Audiences worldwide should be very entertained by this year’s very global and varied collection. From dark and threatening visions of the world, through to the most comedy of any of our annual collections, there’s truly something here for everyone. We may even go as far to say that the film are one reflection of what many of us are feeling in these uncertain economic times.

The films this year come from 18 countries including: Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, the UK and USA, with Poland, South Africa and Turkey seeing their first contributions ever to the exclusive shortlist.

Filmmakers will also no doubt be thrilled by the international jury assembled for Filminute 2010. This year’s acclaimed jury includes luminaries from the film, media, art and advertising worlds: Guardian contributor and film critic RONALD BERGAN; Academy Award-nominated director NEILL BLOMKAMP (DISTRICT 9); writer and director TANUJA CHANDRA; JAN LUMHOLDT of FIRPRESCI; MARK TUTSSEL, global chief creative officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide

Enjoy the festival, spread the news & share the links, and good luck to all the filmmakers!

John Ketchum,
Co-Executive Director, Head of Jury
Filminute

The Guardian, September 2009
“The running time of a movie often has little to do with how long it takes before your attention begins to wane, so thank heavens for the one-minute film festival.”
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Variety – July 8
“TORONTO -- Paul Haggis will sit on jury for the third Filminute Festival, a multimedia, multinational fest of one-minute films founded by Canadian expats John Ketchum and Sabaa Quao.”
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wired.com, August 25
“If those sprawling three-minute YouTube clips seem to drag on forever, Filminute, "the international one-minute film festival," might be right up your alley.”
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The Gazette, Canada.com, September 21
“This is my kind of film festival. Hell, this is probably everyone's kind of film festival.”
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Vancouver Sun, October 15
“Sock puppet warriors in a death-defying workout prove that a movie doesn't need a long, complicated script or high-profile actors to score big at the third annual Filminute: The International One-Minute Film Festival.”
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Time Out, Bucharest
“Fondatorul şi directorul executiv al Festivalului Internaţional de Film “Filminute”, John Ketchum, povesteşte cu mândrie şi poftă de cinema despre filme de un minut care schimbă faţa Internet-ului”
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Han Cinema (Korea) September 15
"Good Morning", a Korean/US co-production directed by Bu Kang Il, has been selected for Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, which runs from Sept. 1-30, 2008. Good Morning is one of the 25 films from 16 countries shortlisted after a review of more than 1,500 films.
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16 October 2007
“E' il festival cinematografico internazionale più breve del mondo, va in scena esclusivamente su internet, proietta solo cortissimometraggi di sessanta secondi, nemmeno uno di più.”
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