Dancescreen Award Winners Announced at Closing Night of Frame: The London Dance Film Festival

Photo pictured left: From left to right:  Michael Nunn OBE  (artistic director of BalletBoyz), Lynda La Plante CBE (author/ screenwriter and BalletBoyz patron), William Trevitt OBE (artistic director, BalletBoyz), Roberta Capotondi  (Sintonia), Oonagh Kearney (The Wake), Richard Curson-Smith (Rudolph Nureyev: Dance To Freedom),  Dr Emily Caston (representing Chemical Bros), Wilkie Branson (Little Dreams), Katharina  Jeschke director of IMZ/ dancscreen) and Arild Erikstad (president of IMZ/dancescreen).

The winning filmmakers for this year’s dancescreen competition were announced at the closing night award ceremony on 12th June of London’s FRAME: Dance Film Festival at Rose Theatre in Kingston Upon Thames. Launched in 1988 and administered by Vienna based IMZ Music + Media Centre in Austria, the dancescreen competition offers a bi-annual platform for international dance films with awards chosen by a specially selected jury of professionals across the fields of film, TV, dance, and video. There were nine awards with six competitive categories and three cash prizes for Best Student Film, the FRAME Muybridge Award for Technical Innovation and the overall Best Film of the festival with work from all competing categories eligible.

dancescreen Live Performance Relay and Camera Re-work Award
The short-listed films are:
Atvakhabar Rhapsodies (France) Dir: Vincent Massip Chr: Marcia Barcellos, Karl Biscuit
Sacre (Germany) Dir: Karsten Liske Chr: Sasha Waltz
A Swan Lake (Norway) Dir: Jeff Tudor Chr: Alexander Ekman

The winning film is: A SWAN LAKE (Norway)

dancescreen Animation Award
The short-listed films are:
Salt (Norway) Dir: Maria Lloyd Chr: The performers with Maria Lloyd Dancin'
The Camera (The Netherlands) Dir: Pieter-Rim de Kroon Chr: Marije Nie
Little Dreams (Belgium) Dir: Wilkie Branson Chr: Wilkie Branson
Wide Open - The Chemical Brothers (UK) Dir: DOM&NIC Chr: Wayne McGregor

The winning film is: LITTLE DREAMS (Belgium)
Special mention goes to Wide Open – The Chemical Brothers (UK)

dancescreen Screen Choreography Up To 5 Minutes Award
The short-listed films are:
The Song Of Guqin - Hand Dance (China) Dir: Alex Wu (Zhen Wu) Chr: MenYu Li, MenXuan Cui, LaiLai Hu, Qinjie Shen, Zhen Luo, Lang Liu
Spark (Germany) Dir: Boris Seewald Chr: Simone Schmidt, Althea Corlett
Tailored (Italy) Dir: Augenblick Chr: Augenblick
The Try Out, (UK): Dir/ Chr: Jessica Wright, Morgann Runacre-Temple

The winning film is: TAILORED (Italy)

dancescreen Screen Choreography Up To 15 Minutes Award
The short-listed films are:
Body Language Zone (Finland) Dir: Kim Saarinen Chr: Johanna Keinänen
Lay Me Low (Canada) Dir: Marlene Millar Chr: Sandy Silva
Solo Finale (Germany) Dir: Ingo Putze Chr: Christian
Spuck You (UK) Dir: Graham Clayton-Chance Chr: Nigel Charnock

The Winning film is: SOLO FINALE (Germany)

dancescreen Screen Choreography Over 15 Minutes Award
The short-listed films are:
Malta Kano, TX (Belgium) Dir: Frédérique de Montblanc, Dominic Walsh Chr: Dominic Walsh
Symmetry (The Netherlands) Dir: Ruben van Leer Chr: Lukas Timulak
The Wake (Ireland) Dir: Oonagh Kearney Chr: Cindy Cummings in collaboration with director and cast

The winning film is: THE WAKE (Ireland)
Special mention goes to Symmetry (The Netherlands)

dancescreen (D) – Documentary Award
The short-listed films are:
Grazing The Sky (Spain) Dir/ Chr: Horacio Alcala
Reborn (UK) Dir: Andrew Margetson Chr: Alastair Marriott
Rudolf Nureyev Dance To Freedom (UK) Dir: Richard Curson-Smith Chr: No choreograper

The winning film is: RUDOLF NUREYEV DANCE TO FREEDOM (UK)

dancescreen (Student) Award (with a cash prize of £500)
The nominations are:
Lola (Germany) Dir: Johannes Plank Chr. Alexandre Munz
Neutrois (UK) Dir/ Chr: Sam Bennett, Tom Bennett, Leah Smith, Charlotte White
Sintonìa (Italy) Dir: Mario Cirillo Chr: Alice Tudino

The winning film is: SINTONIA (Italy)

THE MUYBRIDGE AWARD FOR TECHNICAL INNOVATION (with a cash prize of £1,000)
The nominations are:
The Try Out (UK) Dir/ Chr: Jessica Wright, Morgann Runacre-Temple
Solo Finale (Germany) Dir: Ingo Putze Chr: Christian Spuck
Wide Open - The Chemical Brothers (UK) Dir: DOM&NIC Chr: Wayne McGregor
A Swan Lake (Norway) Dir: Jeff Tudor Chr: Alexander Ekman
Grazing The Sky (Spain) Dir/ Chr: Horacio Alcala

The winning film is: WIDE OPEN - THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS (UK)
Special mention goes to Solo Finale (Germany)

BEST FILM AWARD, with a cash prize of £1,000 The winning film is: LITTLE DREAMS (Belgium)

Many of the winning filmmakers were present to accept their awards with over 50 filmmakers in attendance throughout the festival from across the globe including South America, Russia, USA, Canada, Europe and many based in the UK.

This year’s judging panel consisted of Jan Younghusband (Head of Commissioning, Music & Events TV, BBC), Dieter Schneider (Commissioning Editor Theater & Music, ZDF/ Arte), Alistair Spalding (Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London), Pegah Farahmand (Editor Random Acts, Channel4) and Judy Flannery (Executive Director, San Francisco Dance Film Festival).

The awards ceremony, was followed by a special live performance by BalletBoyz, All The Best Bits, featuring audience favourites from their repertoire and Fiction by Javier de Frutos from their latest show Life.

Frame: Dance Film Festival presented by UK’s pioneering dance company BalletBoyz in association with dancescreen, screened 122 films with 11 World Premieres, 8 International, 4 European and 28 UK Premieres amongst the new work. Kyle Ridelout’s Eadweard provided the opening night film and classic dance films across the decades for all ages led by a celebration of Gene Kelly played to enthusiastic audiences at various venues across the town including Odeon Cinema, Wow Café and Bentall’s Store.

Kingston First offered public support which enabled the festival to expand many community events such as free outdoor dance classes with Big Dance Bus, Whirlygig Cinema’s world premiere of their Consequences performance piece in collaboration with The Cabinet of Living Cinema and Kingston University, and Oreet Ashery, in association with Stanley Picker Gallery, premiering the last film in her Genesis web series during her popular masterclass.

Panel discussion and industry events brought together representatives from Film London, NOWNESS, The Space, Advertising Producers Association, Soda Pictures, Dance on Screen Festival, Equity, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Royal Opera House, Dancers Pro, Rogo Scott Music, Kingston University alongside broadcasters such as Sky Arts, BBC, ZDF/Arte, and NRK Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Networking and pitching sessions offered opportunities to meet international guests with the participation of organisations such as the Arts Council England, British Council, Creative Skillset, BFI, One Dance UK, London Film Academy, Underwire Festival, SVT, IMZ International Music + Media Centre and FLAMIN’ London, Film London’s Artists’ Moving Image.

Summarising the achievements of the festival, BalletBoyz Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, Artistic Directors for the Festival said “We are delighted with the public and industry response to the first edition of FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival. It was great to see and share such an interesting and diverse range of films and to welcome so many film-makers from around the world to Kingston. We are already making plans for next year!”

#FRAMETheLondonDanceFilmFestival

Keep up-to-date with FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival at the Official Website and Twitter: @framefilmfest 

About FRAME
FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival takes place 9th to 12th June 2016 offering an opportunity for creative talent in the arts, dance and film worlds to share experience, show work, learn from other artists and enjoy the best that dance and dance film offers. FRAME Film Festival’s Artistic directors are Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, with Joe Bateman as Festival Director. Festival patrons are Lynda la Plante, OBE and Darcey Bussell, DB.

About BalletBoyz
Michael Nunn OBE and William Trevitt OBE, Founders and Artistic Directors of BalletBoyz met when they were dancers with the Royal Ballet; during their 12 years with the company they danced all the principal male roles in Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Mayerling and many more and created roles for choreographers Kenneth MacMillan, Twyla Tharp, David Bintley, Christopher Wheeldon and more. They co-founded BalletBoyz in 2001 and immediately made a huge impact on the dance scene creating the TV documentaries BalletBoyz and BalletBoyz II and curating the 4Dance season for Channel 4. Since then BalletBoyz has become one of the UK's leading dance companies making exciting, entertaining, award-winning art for stage and screen. The company tours nationally and internationally; their increasing number of awards include the Olivier for 'Broken Fall' (2004), the Rose d'Or and International Emmy ('Strictly Bolshoi' 2007), Golden Prague Grand Prix (BalletBoyz: The Rite of Spring 2010), and the 2013 Critics' Circle National Dance Award for Best Independent Company. BalletBoyz have pioneered the use of film and technology in performance and in 2016 will be the first dance company to release a full length feature film.

About dancescreen
First launched in 1988 and administered by IMZ International Music + Media Centre in Austria, dancescreen is now one of the world’s leading international dance film festivals, competitions and conferences. Each dancescreen edition has partnered with an existing dance film festival in the US, UK or Europe, with the aim of maximising local and international attendance, widening people’s perceptions of what dance on screen can be, and developing new audiences. The festival offers the dancescreen competition alongside an eclectic programme of film screenings, panels and pitching sessions and facilitates networking between directors, choreographers and potential buyers including broadcasters, festival curators and media or art institutions from all over the world.

In the mid-1980s IMZ recognised that there was a need to create a platform that would showcase a new genre and promote it to TV makers and programmers. With the support of broadcasters – from TV producers, commissioning editors and programme buyers – the first dancescreen was created as a forum for discussion, production and promotion. The festival immediately became a flagship for dance film and video activity. International dance film co-productions between broadcasting organisations such as the BBC and NHK are just one of the legacies of the initiative. Since its foundation the festival has been a vehicle to engage and inspire filmmakers, dance and video artists, distributors and broadcasters. Previous dancescreen festivals have taken place inter alia in San Francisco (in cooperation with San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2013), in Amsterdam (in cooperation with Cinedans 2010), in Den Haag (in cooperation with the Holland Dance Festival, Filmhuis Den Haag 2007), in Brighton (2005), in Monaco at the Monaco Dance Forum (2002) and in Cologne at the Media Park (1999).