Have you made a film or video about some aspect of twentieth century warfare or one that has been inspired by a visit to one of the Imperial War Museum’s branches? Is there a family member whose wartime story you’d love to immortalise on the big screen? Are you looking for an idea for your college video, DVD or film? If so, why not contact the Imperial War Museum for more details about its annual Student Film Festival and Competition, now in its seventh year:

The Seventh Imperial War Museum Student Film Festival and Competition runs from November to the end of December 2007 and is open to any student studying full-time at a UK college (and foreign students under the special conditions set out in the entry criteria) whose film, DVD or video incorporates archive film from the Museum’s collection or is made in response to the IWM’s collections and exhibitions.

Each title accepted for the festival is screened in the Museum’s 200 seat cinema in London at least twice Three competition categories: ‘best documentary’, ‘best imaginative response to the subject of war’ and ‘winner of the audience poll’ Short-listed titles judged by a panel of established and respected professionals from the film and television industry. All participating filmmakers are invited to the prize-giving ceremony in the spring of 2008

For further information contact:

Toby Haggith or Matthew Lee
Public Services Office
Film and Video Archive
Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road
London SE1 6HZ
020 7416 5293/5294

The winners of the Sixth Imperial War Museum Student Film Festival and Competition are:

Winner of the Audience Poll

Liberating Dachau (2006)
Made by Genevieve Simms
A partly dramatised reconstruction of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, as recalled by the journalist Marguerite Higgins who was accompanying the American soldiers that discovered the camp.
MA Post-Colonial Literature, Centre for Advanced Studies, University of London

 

The Annie Dodds Award for the Best Documentary, sponsored by The History Channel

1) The Wellpark Story (2006)
Joanne Wall
In 1978 347 refugees left Vietnam on a crowded fishing-boat. As the boat began to sink in a storm, it was spotted by a British tanker 'The Wellpark'.... The story is told through interviews with the survivors and their rescuers, old photographs, archive footage and a little reconstruction. MA Documentary Practice, Brunel University.

2) No Mines Land (2006)

Sarah Barber and Daniela de Angel’s documentary follows a project in the summer to clear German mines, laid during the Second World War, from a popular beach area of Denmark.  Contains some swearing.
MSc ‘Science and Media Production’, Imperial College, London.

3) Terror and the Painted City: The Murals of Derry (2006)
Gareth Crabtree, Tina Nelis and Marten During.
A documentary about the murals in the Nationalist and Unionist communities of Derry, their meaning and social and political role in today’s society.
MA Cultural History of War, University of Manchester

The Best Imaginative Response to the Subject of War, sponsored by The Machine Room

1) The Long Weekend (2006)
Tom Purcell’s animated short based on the recollections of RAF regular Albert Whisker, who was posted to Christmas Island during the British atom bomb trials.
BA Animation/Graphic Design, Norwich School of Art and Design

2) ARP (2006)
Made by Dan Parkes and Fareed Khimani. 
A drama about a young A.R.P.warden stationed in the Brighton area during the Second World War who faces an unexpected crisis during a midday air raid. Diploma in Motion Picture Production,

Brighton Film School.

Judges' Commendation

Just Waiting (2006)
It is Yugoslavia in 1990, and a refugee boy and his father are desperate to be selected by the UN for deportation from the Padinska Skela Detention Centre for immigrants and criminals.
Directed by Hamy Ramezan and produced by Orpheus Reineke.
BA (Hons.) in Film Production, The University College for the Creative Arts.

To see pictures of the award ceremony click here

Screening of the Winners

Liberating Dachau, The Long Weekend, The Wellpark Story and Just Waiting will be screened at 2.00pm, 3.00pm and 4.00pm on the following dates:

14, 16-21, 27-31 December 2006; 1-5 January 2007

Sponsored by The History Channel and Blue Digital Services.