Edition 2021

Welcome to this year’s Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica!

This year the Festival will take place on the second weekend of August. The 48 hours will start on Friday the 13th of August at 1800 hrs and go through to the Sunday the 15th of August at 1800 hrs. All times are local to your station.

As usual, this year there will be two categories: The 48 Hour challenge and the Open section.

48 Hour Challenge

The challenge is to make your short film in 48 hours from concept to sound mix! All films need to include 5 specific elements and not be more than 5 minutes long (including credits).

The 5 elements will be:

  1. A sound. For example: a drink can opening, a creaking door.
  2. An object. For example: a cardboard box, a roll of toilet paper, a silly hat.
  3. A famous quote. For example: “To be or not to be, that is the question”
  4. A famous character. For example: Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Gandhi.
  5. An action. This should be something that only takes a few seconds on screen. For example: falling out of bed, eating frozen food, blowing bubbles.

These 5 items will be chosen by 5 different stations, randomly selected from participating stations. If you are choosing one of these items, please choose something that is easily available at all Antarctic Stations, and/or not technically difficult to do. The idea is to build up a story around simple things, not to force people to go through a lot of effort to create props and stunt work.

The list of the 5 items chosen will be sent to all stations on Thursday 12th August.

This year the 5 elements are:

  1. Sound: THE FLUSHING OF A TOILET, chosen by Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station - United States.
  2. Object: a WIGWAM (Native American hut). Chosen by Arctowski – Poland.
  3. Famous quote: "please, draw me a sheep" - Saint Exupéry (Le Petit Prince). Chosen by Amsterdam Island – France.
  4. Famous character: “Donkey” (from Shrek, of course with the Eddie Murphy accent. Chosen by Macquarie Island – Australia.
  5. Action: to taste a glass of red wine. Chosen by Crozet Island - France.

Open category

This can be any footage filmed throughout the year but not shown anywhere to date.

Website

The website is made up of two areas:

  • a freely accessible public area where all the information and videos of the various editions of the Festival will be uploaded over time;
  • a private area, where each station has a reserved space where it is possible to receive all communications from the organizers and where the station can upload and manage all its information: videos, photos, votes, documents, etc. Participating stations will be sent personal credentials to access this reserved area.

At the end of the 48hrs

At the end of 48 hours, each station will be able to start uploading its films in its private area on the website www.wiffa.aq . The videos will remain private, and downloadable only by the other participating stations, but each station may decide to make their videos public on the website www.wiffa.aq .

Voting and Screening the films

Any participating station in Antarctica or the Southern Ocean can vote for their favourite films. One vote per station in each category to be submitted. For the vote, each station will find a form in its private area. The form must be downloaded, filled in and then uploaded in the reserved area on the website. Please have your votes submitted by Tuesday 31st August so they can be collated. Winners will be announced when this is complete. As per tradition, there is no actual prize beyond the glory.

WIFFA 2021 AWARDS

There will be an Award for Best Film in both the 48 Hour and the Open category, with the 48 Hour section also having a suite of creative awards recognizing individual areas of film-making. We have decided to focus these additional Awards on the 48 Hour section this year, as this has traditionally been the heart of the Festival.

  • Best 48 Hour Film
    • Best Use Of The 5 Elements
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
    • Best Costume
    • Best Art Direction
    • Best Editing
    • Best Soundtrack
  • Best Open Category Film

 

 

Organizers

Esther Rodewald & Helen Achurch
Davis Station (Australia)
Email: antarcticfilmfest@gmail.com

Happy Film Making to all!