Ninety-second short from University of Northampton team is shortlisted for film award

An ultra-short film by University of Northampton students and staff has beaten more than 1,200 international entries to be shortlisted for a prestigious award.

Best Friends, a 90-second short set to poet and UON academic Jessica Tucker Boyd’s poem of the same name, has been selected for the Shooting People public vote in the DepicT! short film competition.

You can watch the film on the awards website.

The team behind the film are Acting & Creative Practice students Shannon Couchman, Lindsay Crawford, Emma Moules and Lois Gold, together with tutors Myles Horgan, Jessica Tucker Boyd and Lisa Lapidge. Myles and the students directed and developed the film.

Lindsay, who was camera operator for the shoot, said: “I usually make my own short films which I just keep to myself or post to YouTube, but having a film with a time frame and a goal was a really fun and different experience. It was more fast-paced compared to what I’m used to.”

She added: “It’s really exciting for the film to have been shortlisted. I think I’ll probably go into film once I graduate, so it’s a nice confidence boost.”

The DepicT! contest challenges budding film-makers from around the globe to create an original short film lasting no more than a minute-and-a-half.

Previous winners have had their work screened at international film festivals, been picked up by commercial distributors, carved themselves successful careers in the film industry and beyond.

The public vote opened on Monday 2 September and you can vote online.

Best Friends will be screened, along with all shortlisted films, at the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, which runs from Tuesday 24 to Sunday 29 September 2019, in Bristol.