Carpe Diem

Benjamin Cotgrove, Year 11 FILM 2009

Best Secondary Drama / Best Overall Secondary Production – QUEENSLAND NEW FILMMAKERS' AWARDS 2009

1st Place, FILM CATEGORY – MONASH IT CHALLENGE 2009

Teacher: Prue Miles

A short narrative production...

Synopsis

A girl believes that in life it is necessary for opportunities to come to her and for her to wait for their coming.  She believes she is only to wait and not to initiate, always sitting in the background. When she finds her special someone she believes it to be his duty to initiate with her and she never speaks to him. She follows him from day to day through various activities and takes pictures; her only souvenirs from the time she believes they spend together when they are not actually spending time together at all.  As the days pass she begins to realize the possibility that she will forever wait and her someone will never initiate with her.  Unfortunately her epiphany occurs too late in the piece and she is to shockingly find she has waited too long.  She then proceeds to show the audience metaphorically how she is letting go of her old ways of life and has acquired a new way of thinking in regards to the world and how it works.

excerpt from Premier's Media Release

NEW QUEENSLAND FILMMAKERS SHINE IN AWARDS NIGHT

Premier and Minister for the Arts

The Honourable Anna Bligh

10/08/2009

The Premier and Arts Minister Anna Bligh has congratulated the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries (QACI) for taking out the top award in the secondary school category in the 23rd Warner Roadshow Queensland New Filmmakers Awards (QNFA).

Ms Bligh said the QACI short film, Carpe Diem, about a young girl's internal struggle to talk to the object of her affections, was named the best overall secondary production in a competitive field.

"With this win QACI is well on its way to developing award-winning creative leaders of tomorrow," Ms Bligh said.

"These awards, coordinated and presented by Pacific Film and Television Commission, are the biggest industry sponsored new filmmaker competition in the country, recognising and encouraging the achievements of emerging Queensland filmmakers.

"Previous QNFA winners have gone on to great success at national and international film festivals, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

"Ivan Sen, director of Beneath Clouds, which won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival and at the AFI and IF Awards, was a QNFA winner, as were Michael and Peter Spierig, who have enjoyed international success with their first feature film Undead and are currently working on their second feature film Daybreakers."

More than 160 nominations were received for this year's awards, with winners selected by a panel of industry judges based on criteria including originality, creativity and technical skill.