Firefly Gold
The award for the best film of the 2011 Framepool/ LBB/ FireFlies Challenge goes to Motherless Child by Christopher Watson-Wood from the UK. The short-film deplores man's effect on nature, or more specifically wildlife. It is primarily based on archive material from Framepool, in particular animal shots against blue screen. Those are composed into urban life scenarios. Christopher Watson-Wood started his career as a visual effects artist and worked on several major films, including the Academy-Award nominated The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by Terry Gilliam.

Firefly Silver

The award for the best film of the 2011 Framepool/ LBB/ FireFlies Challenge went to Motherless Child by Christopher Watson-Wood from the UK.

Gianni Manno was awarded second place. The French filmmaker also comes from the visual effects industry and loves to experiment with images and technology. In his short-film What Could I Do? he places coloured visions into footage of impoverished living conditions - and indicates that helping others is not a question of realising superficial dreamlands but to ease peoples' lives with essential little things. During the award show yesterday evening, the Firefly Silver winner received a gift coupon for postproduction services worth €4000.

Firefly Bronze
Homeless by Malte Ollroge and Christoph Hars was also one of the jury's top three films. The German directors enhanced their own shots with footage to explain the background of their protagonists. "The footage enabled us to tell a comprehensive story in a very short amount of time. A lot of work was actually done by the footage itself. It was our very first experience with stock footage and it opened totally new creative possibilities for us," said Malte Ollroge and Christoph Hars, explaining their work. The film is about two houseless people and a businessman, who realise that their "homeless" situation is not that different. However, against traditional clichés the homeless people are feeling a lot sorrier for the businessman than vice versa.

Top Five
The top five films are completed by two more entries from the UK: Frank by Cassie Earl and Charlotte Humphreys as well as The Good Samaritan by Ryan Vernava. All ten best films on the shortlist were showcased yesterday evening during the screening at the Cinéma Star in Cannes. The award show ended with a party.

The awards took place in Cannes on the evening of 23 June 2011.

For more, go to www.framepool.com.