Little Big Shots is a short film festival for kids from kids. It started off in Melbourne and now the festival opens in Melbourne and continues to tour Australia and the rest of the world. Little Big Shots started off as a competition where young people (15 and younger) entered their films into the multiple categories and there are prizes awarded to the favourites. But the big thing for everybody entering is a chance for their movie to be shown at the festival.
2013’s Little Big Shots screened at Australian Centre for the Moving Image. There were heaps of packages like ‘Forever Young’, ‘LBS Up Late’ and ‘Big Kids Flicks’. Little Big Shots is not just for littlies. They have some pretty moving short films.
My three favourites are:
The short funny music video Reloaded was about a man experimenting on crazy creatures. I won’t give it all away but the whole city gets destroyed then it is rewound like on TV.
*Spoiler alert: read no further if you don’t want to know the final twist !
Julian was hilarious but it took more than a 5 year old to understand it. A young girl that sat in the chair next to Julian in class was a sheep and couldn’t and didn’t tell the teacher about a boy annoying her constantly. The teacher had a very short wick, so he sent him to the Principal’s office. Now there is a little bit of blackmailing but it really doesn’t get funny until the Principal makes an announcement and at the end says something like this “and let us follow in his footsteps and report any misbehaviour. Remember to thank Julian Assange”.
This is about a young person in a war-torn country that wishes for peace. He makes good out of bad and shows the world he hasn’t given up. In Missing, it made hints throughout the whole film about his missing leg, and the animation was incredible. I think it was stop motion but it was hard to tell. The people had newsprint faces and it was an extraordinary mix of colours, textures and patterns
(this is not in order that I liked them)
Overall, Little Big Shots is a great experience and I’d love to see the new films next year!
artkidtallulah 