Director Nash Edgerton along with producer Lauren Edwards have just completed a week at Cannes with the short film Bear (co-funded by fxphd). Needless to say we are super proud of Nash and the film. Some 3,500 short films were entered this year and only nine made it into competition. Cannes is one of the most respected and highly sought after short film festivals in the world and it is a great honor to all the filmmakers involved to be even included in the annual French festival.
Fxphd has worked with Nash for many years on such films as Lucky, Spider, and many other projects. This is the first time Nash has been accepted into Cannes, but his previous films have been nominated and won in other festivals around the world. fxphd provided the visual effects for Bear and members of fxphd formed a unique group called “special ops” to complete a range of shots from major stunt work to rig removal. The film was shot at the end of last year on 35mm film on location. Efilm Sydney (who are located in the same complex as fxphd in Sydney) handled online and most importantly film scanning and grading. Most of the effects work was done in Flame, Nuke and AE. This term at fxphd members not in the special ops team will also see detailed behind the scenes work showing how the effects were completed.
Bear stars Nash Edgerton, Teresa Palmer and Warwick Thornton. The short is a sequel to Nash’s earlier film Spider – this time ‘Jack’ has a new girlfriend but he hasn’t quite learned his lesson! The film was shot by DOP Adam Arkapaw, and financed by fxphd, Billabong and the Movie Network Channels.
The Palme d’Or for Short Film was awarded this year to Cross (Cross Country) directed by Maryna Vroda and we congratulate that film for a well deserved win. The Palme d’Or for Feature films went to The Tree of Life directed by Terrence Malick. (Watch fxguide for an upcoming story with visual effects supervisor Dan Glass and his contribution to this amazing film).
Bear will next screen at the Sydney Film Festival.