Osprey Short Film Awards 2022

Saturday 25th February 2pm, Theatre By The Lake
FREE ENTRY

What are the Ospreys?

Each year at the festival we celebrate local film making by showing a selection of short films. A panel of judges select the very best of these films and reward the talented film makers the prestigious Osprey awards. At the screening the audience also vote for their favourite film to win the Audience Award.

“I feel it's very important for those of us who are established in films to make sure that we put ourselves out to encourage the next link in the chain. It's not difficult to put oneself out and it was greatly enjoyable watching their films and sharing their pleasure at the awards.”
John Hurt, 2012

Official Selection 2023

Judges Award Winner

Moving With
Jonny Randall (8 mins 12 secs)

Moving With is a short film which captures the precious moment in time between mother and son and their local landscape. Featuring dance artist Lucy Nicholson and her son Benji in their home village of Staveley, we observe the two as they pack a bag and walk to their favourite spots, asking themselves along the way what can they hear?... what can they see?... how can they move?...

The film too poses an alternate perspective on how we can be with our children in natural spaces, what an outdoor activity can look like and how an appreciation of our natural world can be fostered. All of this is explored through dance in response to natural surroundings against the backdrop of the beautiful national park.

Audience Award Winner

The Chameleon Wolf
A Signal Starters Film (5 mins 2 secs)

A Signal Starters Film by Jorgie, Byron, Jon Joe, Ruby, Benjamin, Imogen, Isla, Darcy, Laila & Mila.

Set at Christmas time and narrated by two Brussel sprouts, the Chameleon Wolf tells the story of a flatulent wolf cub who gets lost in the forest, seeking out the assistance of other creatures before finding that it is his quirk which will help him find his way home.

This film was made by 8-11 year olds at a Signal Starters Film-in-a-week workshop. All parts of the project, from story development to forming the crew and shaping the edit, were co-created and produced by the young people involved.

Other Shortlisted Films

Paper Town
A Signal Starters Film (2 mins 32 secs)

A Signal Starters Film by Jorgie, Byron, Alexis, Levon, Thomas, Arley, Skyla, Benji, Lexi-Mae, Finley, Alisha & Layla.

Made by first time filmmakers aged 8-12 as part of the Signal Starters project at Signal Film and Media. Paper Town tells the story of a magical stranger who arrives to reinvigorate a lifeless town and its apathetic population.

All parts of the project were co-created & produced by the 90-95% first-time filmmakers, with students having attended free classes and workshops to learn filmmaking through the Signal Film & Media Charity.

The Constant Sound of Machines
Laurence Campbell (8 mins 35 secs)

Partially shot in Cumbria, this experimental film meditates on themes of time, generational change through environmental decline, dementia, and the processing of memory through sound. The Constant Sound of Machines started off as a study of how sound can map environmental decline in the UK, focussed on the industrial coast of the North-West. Off the back of this, the director took a journey from North England to Wales with his daughter, capturing footage along the way which would morph the film into a fictional account, framed as a ghost story. Also built into this is the story of a couple suffering from dementia.

Sections of the story are read by a grandmother and granddaughter, with this acting as a thread to link the narrative to two further works in a series of films by the director which also explore collective memory, social recall through storytelling/art and how auditory experience affects memory and dreams.

Following in Wainwright's Footsteps, Only Faster
Brian Melia, Geoff Cox, Karla-Bel McAlister (7 mins 31 secs)

Inspired by his wife Susan's journey across the Pennine Journey over 10 years with their cairn terrier Poppy, Brian Melia documents here his own experience of running the 247-mile route in an unbroken effort. Pioneered by Alfred Wainwright in September 1938, just as Europe was on the brink of war, the long, circular walk starts at Settle station, heading up the Eastern flanks of the Pennines to the Roman Wall and West along the wall as far as Greenhead before returning down the Western Pennines back to Settle.

Styx
Peadar Sweeney (9 mins 50 secs)

Filmed on Burgh-Marsh and Solway Firth at Anthorn, Styx is centred around the monologue of a lonely woman as she contemplates her life and future.

Untitled (2022)
David Rushton (9 mins 36 secs)

A film about the memories of German artist Kurt Schwitters during his final months in Ambleside, Untitled presents the Hanoverian artist's memories of Hannah Hoch while he worked on his Merz Barn in Elterwater.

Schwitters was best known for his Merz Pictures, but was also interested in poetry, sound, painting, sculpture and what would come to be known as installation art.

Upper Air
Theodore Simmons (7 mins 42 secs)

In this dramedy, a couple's weekend in the hills goes off track when they discover they are to spend it in the company of a mysterious and eccentric stranger.

Shot on location in the Lake District and Carlisle, the film explores how different people experience and idealise the region.

Virtue Signalling
John Lebbon & Chris Forshaw (4 mins 37 secs)

A satirical comedy centred around the virtue signalling behaviours of two Cumbrian men.

Wild Ennerdale – Nature
Mat Larkin (Scotland the Big Picture) (4 mins 58 secs)

A documentary film which shows the impact of the Wild Ennerdale partnership's work in Ennerdale, Cumbria which has allowed natural processes to shape the landscape of the valley over the past 15 years.


Filmmakers Network

As well as showcasing great short films we also hope the Ospreys will provide opportunities for film makers to meet each other and possibly collaborate on future projects. We have created a group on Facebook called the Osprey Filmmakers Network which we invite you to join if you have entered or film in the past of are thinking of doing so in the future, or perhaps you'd like to get involved in some other way.

Osprey Filmmakers Network: http://bit.ly/OspreysNet

Partners & Sponsors

The Osprey Short Film Awards at Keswick Film Festival proudly accepts entries via FilmFreeway.com, the world's best online submission platform. FilmFreeway offers free HD online screeners, unlimited video storage, digital press kits, and more.

If you'd like to sponsor the Osprey Short Film Awards or supply any prizes then please contact us.




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Over 260 beautiful holiday cottages in and around Keswick.

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Keswick Film Festival is supported by Film Hub North with National Lottery funding on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network.



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All programme and film details are correct at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.