by Mike Wade

twitter:@iomnewspapers

Short films made by Manx filmmakers were shown during the Isle of Man Film Festival.

Five films were short listed to compete for the Isle of Man Arts Council prize, which is awarded to a short film which was either shot on the Isle of Man with Manx crew or were made off Island by Manx filmmakers.

Eventually, the prize went to a short second world war drama, ’Pitfall’, written and directed by Ramsey-born filmmaker Ben Desmond.

Set in Belorussia during the German retreat in 1943, Ben’s short film focused on a chance relationship between a young soldier and a Russian partisan fighter who were forced into working together in a fight for survival.

Ben was presented with the trophy by film critic and festival judge Mark Kermode, who also named ’Pitfall’ as the best film overall in the festival.

Mark said that he thought the film was extremely ambitious, well executed and managed to hit all of the notes it set out to achieve.

Other films made by Manx filmmakers featured documentaries, an animated short and a chilling horror story.

’A Happy Medium’ was made by local artist Eloise White, an animated feature which looked at mental health and the creative process.

Eloise was also short listed for the inaugural competition in 2016 with a production called ’Misophonia’.

Filmmaker and car enthusiast Scott Bradshaw had to cut down his hour long film, ’Car Wars’, to 15 minutes to fit the criteria for the Manx award. The film follows Scott’s personal challenge to build a car to compete in the Manx Historic rally.

Zoe Tweedy’s ’Nomad’ is a documentary about transgendered TT racer Michelle Duff, who reflects upon the definitive moments of her life. Manx-based Zoe has just completed a BA in Film at Queen’s University Belfast, graduating at the top of her class with a first class honours degree. ’Nomad’, which was shot in Canada, was also short listed for Best Documentary in the international competition.

Local filmmaker Richard Plumley’s short horror film, ’The Prey’, was entirely filmed in and around Peel, and is described as an old fashioned fairytale horror with a modern twist.

Zoe Guilford, a member of the organising team behind the festival, believed that the quality of the films included in the shortlist shows the depth of film-making talent that exists in the island

’In this - the second year that the Isle of Man Film Festival has held the competition specifically for Manx filmmakers - we’ve seen an increase in submissions, which demonstrates that independent filmmaking activity on the Island by locals is growing,’ said Zoe.

’Any of the short listed films could have won.

’We gave the Arts Council judges a really hard decision to make as they had so much to consider and each was so different from the rest.

’Ben was a worthy winner with ’Pitfall’. It’s so gratifying to see a local writer director develop his skills on the Island and come through to win with his debut offering.

’The fact that the film ended up getting chosen by Mark Kermode, the festival’s patron, as his ’Best of the Fest’, is a tremendous end to a successful event for Pitfall which we expect will go on and win at other festivals around the globe,’ she added.

’We’re delighted to have been able to screen and celebrate it first in the Isle of Man.’

The Isle of Man Film Festival took place over the weekend, and was sponsored by the Isle of Man Arts Council.

It featured film making work shops, a movie quiz and screenings of family favourite films, as well as screening of a selection of new, original short films.