TORONTO, October 9, 2012 − Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, CineSiege is an externally juried showcase featuring outstanding student productions created in the Department of Film in York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Catch a rising wave of fresh young talent as CineSiege 2012 lights up the silver screen at TIFF Bell Lightbox on October 23.
The screening will feature top picks in three genres – riveting short fiction, provocative documentaries and cutting-edge alternative works – selected by five leading lights of the Canadian film and media scene. The winning titles will be announced at the event.
The jurors for this year’s program are: iconic Canadian producer Robert Lantos (Barney’s Version, Eastern Promises); Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Six Gestures); experimental filmmaker Rick Hancox (Waterworx, Moose Jaw); Karen Gordon, writer, story editor and film reviewer for “Metro Morning” on CBC Radio One; and Genie Award-winning documentarian Alan Zweig (A Hard Name, I, Curmudgeon).
Jurors will be on hand at the screening to introduce the CineSiege picks and explain why they were chosen.
The jury made its selections from a shortlist of 19 productions by upper-year students, nominated from the pool of 144 short films produced in the past year by undergraduate students in York’s Film Department. In addition to genre winners, recognition is also given to exceptional achievement in specific creative and technical crafts of filmmaking: screenwriting, cinematography, sound and editing.
Also in the nominee lineup this year are six works by first and second-year students. Faculty members in the Department of Film will choose an award-winner from each year.
"The remarkable productions competing for CineSiege honours are a glowing testament to the creative talent, hard work and professionalism of our students,” said Professor John McCullough, Chair of the Department of Film. “Year over year, they set the bar higher. My sincere congratulations to all the nominees.”
View an image gallery of stills from the nominated films on the YorkUFineArts Flickr page.
“We are grateful to our illustrious panel of jurors for giving so generously of their time and expertise to support the work of the next generation of filmmakers,” McCullough said. “And we are indebted to our event sponsor, Cinespace Film Studios, for their ongoing commitment to film education and exemplary support over the years.”
CineSiege finalists and prizewinners regularly go on to screenings and awards at home and abroad. Recent success stories include Pouyan Jafarizadeh Dezfoulian’s Morning will Come (2008), which played at the Los Angeles and Montreal film festivals, the International Experimental Film Festival in Bucharest, Romania, and won the audience vote for the Vtape Award at the 2009 Images Festival in Toronto. Mark Pariselli ‘s After (2009) was shortlisted for the prestigious Iris Prize, won Best Short Film at Italy’s 2011 Sicilia Queer Film Festival, and has screened at more than 40 other festivals worldwide, including Paris, Athens, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and in Germany and Switzerland. Gerald Patrick Fantone’s Play.Stop.Rewind. (2010) was an official selection of the Montreal World Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and Beijing International Student Film & Video Festival. Nikolas Tsonis’ Children of the Sun (2011) showed at Images and took top prize in the experimental category at the Savannah International Animation Festival in 2012. Emily Pickering’s What a Young Girl Should Not Know (2011) made waves at the 2012 Worldwide Short Film Festival and Janice Lee’s Faraway (2011) was presented at the Reel Asian filmfest and won a Toronto Film Critics Award in 2012.
CineSiege is made possible through the generous support of Cinespace Film Studios. The event runs one night only, Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 7pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox, 363 King St. West in Toronto. Admission is free.
For more information, visit the CineSiege 2012 website.
York University’s Department of Film is one of Canada’s leading centres for professional education in the field. The department has been the springboard for a generation of outstanding film artists. Distinguished alumni include Stargate co-creator, screenwriter and producer Robert Cooper; director/producer Larry Weinstein (Inside Hana’s Suitcase, Blindness, The Music of Kurt Weill); cinematographers Paul Sarossy (A Flesh Offering, Chloe, Adoration) and Mark Irwin (The Last Godfather, American Pie 2, Scream, Me, Myself & Irene); producer Bill Bannerman (Twilight: Breaking Down, Eclipse and New Moon) and directors Aaron Woodley (The Entitled, Toronto Stories, Rhinoceros Eyes), Bronwen Hughes (Over/Under, The L Word, Kids in the Hall), and Carl Bessai (Sisters & Brothers, Repeaters, Fathers & Sons, Mothers & Daughters).
What: CineSiege: A Celebration of York U Film
When: Tuesday, October 23 at 7:00pm
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox, 363 King St. West, Toronto
Admission: Free
Information: http://film.finearts.yorku.ca/news-events/events/cinesiege/2012/
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Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416.650.8469 | amy.stewart@yorku.ca
