Wavescape Short Cuts Film Contest winners announced

In a brief award ceremony after the six finalists were screened as part of the Wavescape Festival, Red Bull Media House (South Africa), represented by Russell Martin, said that Red Bull Media House had always focused on extreme sport and action films, but were now keen to work with films and filmmakers who could also add compelling storytelling to the action genre.

The winner of Short Cuts contest gets the chance to work with Red Bull Media House on a collaborative project.

The winners were:

1st: Donkey Unleashed (Dane Staples)

Skate City (Jonathan Kyriakou)

No Life Wasted from JCDC on Vimeo

3rd: Lost 4 Words (Dan Mace)

Dan Mace received a GoPro Hero4 Silver Edition and a Quiksilver Syncro backpack, while Jonathan Kyriakou received a GoPro Hero4 Black Edition and a Quiksilver Syncro backpack.

Captured the imagination

The winner, Dane Staples, whose film Donkey Unleased captured the imagination of the jurors with its pace, music score, visuals and storyline, had scored first with six out of eight jurors.

The three runner-up finalists included:

Wake Skate (Wayne de Lange): http://vimeo.com/103408418
No Life Wasted (Joubert Cronje): http://vimeo.com/113866236
Next Dimension (Chris Rogers): www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lUU4lbehgY

In formulating the juror's statement Monica Rorvik, Film and Media Manager of Wesgro, said: "The jury had a tough job. We had to watch the 40 or so entries and narrow them down to our favourite 10, and then meet to discuss. Luckily, most of our favourites overlapped and while re-watching the shorts, we were able to easily narrow down to the winners. It took four hours of discussion. We enjoyed many even more the second time around.

"In the end the decisions made were subjective, because so many films were meeting and surpassing the brief in terms of cine, editing and sound. Story was very important, as that helped the jury to find films that might engage more with us and with audiences. The Wavescape Short Cuts brief highlighted that this was a search for films of adventure and story and authentic voices came out on tops with the jury."

For more information about the Wavescape Film Festival highlights 2014, go to www.wavescapefestival.com