Lynfield College wins top prize at Silent Film Festival

Lynfield College students and staff on the red carpet prior to screening of Awards. Photo: Lynfield College

The red carpet rolled out for five Lynfield College finalists for the livestream of the International Youth Silent Film Festival (IYSFF) New Zealand Regional Finals last month.

With the usual venue, Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga unavailable due to Covid 19, the festival was forced to move online. But it was a bonus for the contestants to experience watching their films with friends and family and a few staff at Lynfield College on the night, via livestream to an international audience.

Of the top 15 films chosen as finalists, five were from Lynfield College Media Studies students.

Congratulations to these finalists and their wonderful films:

Year 13 students

• Isidora Alarcon Munoz: Charming Charles' Magic Show (Slapstick) 
• Dylan Bishop: Insufficient Power (Sci-fi) 
• Dominic Deocampo, Joana Victoria Panahon, Victoria Hendry:  Girl Scout Cookie Day (Horror) 

Year 12 students

• Luke Paton-Beverley, Johnny Tsang, Samaradh Gudipoodi: Mercí (Epic)  
• Daniel Wardadi (with Sophia Kwon, Carmell College): Lost in Time (Sci-fi)
• Ben Mason: Poster for Silence of the Shadow

The students planned, produced and edited their three-minute silent film as part of their film production assessment (worth 10 NCEA credits) in their Media Studies classes.

The six ‘Best Of’ awards for directing, acting, editing, cinematography, production design, best shot and poster design were also up for grabs. 

And the winners are…

Congratulations to Daniel Wardadi for his film "Lost in Time" which took out the top prize of $1,500 prize, and which also won Best Editing. Photo: Lynfield College

Congratulations also to Ben Mason who won Best Poster for "Silence of the Shadow" and received a beautifully framed poster. Photo: Lynfield College

The two top-placing New Zealand films, including Lost in Time will now go on to represent Aotearoa in the IYSFF Global Awards to be held in Portland, Oregon, in June 2021.

Lynfield College media students have a history of success at the IYSFF Awards. In 2018 at the NZ finals, they took out a raft of awards including Overall Winner (Harry Ashley, Kais Azimullah, Matthew Tribble and Josheph Hisayasu for ATTACK! Of the DEATH ROBOT) and Runner Up, with runner up film Overexposed (Harry Ashley, Raymond Feng and Shamir Sarif) going on to win 1st place at the IYSFF Global Awards in Portland in 2019.

Lynfield College would like to thank the Festival organisers, including Jannine Spiers, The Breeze FM, and the Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga for putting this festival together and creating a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand Media Students!

The screening and award ceremony can be seen at www.facebook.com/watch/baycourt.tauranga
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