SIX CRAZY8s FINALISTS ANNOUNCED &
PREPPING FOR PRODUCTION
For first time ever, more than half the
directors selected are women.
Gala Screening & Party
Saturday, March 27th, The Vogue Theatre

Vancouver (Mar. 8, 2010) – Crazy8s, Vancouver’s premier short film event, today announced the six BC filmmakers who will shoot, edit and debut their short films in eight days of frenzied creativity beginning just ten days from now. The directors are: Zia Marashi with CAT VS MAN; Liz Cairns with SAD BEAR; Angelina Cantada with SIKAT; Kellie Ann Benz with STUPID CHAINSAW TRICKS; Dwight Hartnett with THE EDUCATION OF WENDY WISCONSIN; and Arianna McGregor with TUNNEL.

Competition for the much-coveted opportunity to make a Crazy8s film was fierce this year - the 6 finalists beat out over 100 other hopefuls who applied with a five minute video pitch of their short film idea. After being selected with one of the 40 strongest video pitches, they pitched in-person to a jury of film professionals including Louise Clark (former VP of program development for CTV, responsible for such series as Corner Gas and Robson Arms), Sue Biely (media consultant and former shorts programmer for CBC’s ZeD,) Dylan Akio-Smith (Crazy8s Alumni and winner of Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival for “Man Feel Pain”) and Peg Campbell (awardwinning filmmaker and Emily Carr professor). They then survived the script workshopping round, where 12 semi-finalists were paired with professional story editors, and made the final cut based on the strength and originality of their final script.

“The quality of pitches and scripts has been very impressive this year”, says Crazy8s Executive Director, Erik Paulsson. “These six filmmakers are amongst the best emerging talent in British Columbia, and I can’t wait to see what they produce.”

The six successful teams are now furiously underway with casting their films and securing locations, permits and crews – because their eight Crazy days of production start March 18 and run through March 25. The finished films will be unveiled at a Gala Screening at the Vogue Theatre Saturday March 27. Tickets for the Gala Screening and Afterparty are on sale now for $20 through Biz Books or the Vogue Theatre.

“Crazy8s provides the one of the very few opportunities for our best emerging filmmakers to make a professional short film,” says Crazy8s Producer, Marc Stephenson. “Based on the quality of these films, many of these filmmakers will go on to make their first feature films. If you want to see the best short films in the province, come out to the screening.”

On the heels of last night’s historic first best direction Oscar to be won by a woman, Crazy8s also sees its own historic first this year – for the very first time more than half the films will be directed by women! This result can be at least party attributed a unique and sassy grassroots initiative earlier in the year, in which a number of prominent women in the local film community signed and forwarded a “Triple Dog Dare” letter, inviting and challenging women writers and directors to apply to Crazy8s, and to forward the dare on. The email quickly went viral - one applicant reported having received it from no less than 12 different women!

“Our hope was to encourage, motivate and DARE more women to throw their hats in the ring!” says Sue Biely, a participant in the initiative. “We’re thrilled not only that it energized women in the local community, and helped raise awareness of the underrepresentation of women as writers and directors in the film industry overall, but that we ended up such a strong representation of female finalists.”

For more on the announcement of the six finalists and their films, please see the latest Crazy8s 2010 podcast at http://www.crazy8s.cc/, also available for download through iTunes.

For more information, contact:
Diana Wilson
604-258-4030

For Tickets:
Biz Books, 302 West Cordova St.
The Vogue Theatre, www.voguetheatre.com or
by phone, (604) 569-1144

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