Best of Alberta

The Best of Alberta short film competition has done well honouring local talent for five years now. Launched in 2005 to commemorate Alberta’s Centennial year, this award celebrates short films by Albertans.

Each year, more than 100 short films are entered into the contest and the talent ranges from the green to the pros.

Christopher Petry was the first-ever winner of the contest, garnering acclaim for his short film When Jesse was Born, which explored a struggling family welcoming their third child into their messy, crime-filled lives in 1984 Vancouver.

Siblings Kirsten and Devon Bolton, partners in Burning Bridge Entertainment, won in 2006 for Shipwrecked. In the film, a 10-year-old boy happens upon a mini shipwreck and unearths its stories. The Boltons were former Strategic Marketing Partners for the 2009 Calgary International Film Festival.

Calgarian Cam Christiansen took home the award in both 2007 and 2008. First up was, I Have Seen the Future, a motion-capture 3D modelling short that brought to life Kris Demeanor’s song of the same title. The film went on to show
at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and to win Best Animated/Experimental Short Film at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival. His second winner was The Real Place, an animated short centered on fellow-Albertan playwright John Murrell, that uses both realism and fantasy in a tribute to his life and work. The film also showed at Sundance. (You can watch The Real Place at anlanda.com or on the National Film Board website — nfb.ca.)

The judging for the Best of Alberta short film competition is done live, meaning the judges watch all films with the audience, then deliberate and announce the winner the same night. But you don’t have to take their word for it — judge for yourself on October 3.

Back to the Calgary International Film Festival Primer