Congratulations to Finlay, Adrian and all the team behind Cutting Loose for picking-up the jury prize for Best Short Documentary at the RiverRun International Film Festival in North Carolina (USA).

This well-attended, well respected festival in the heartlands of America is run as a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to the role of cinema as a conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints. The festival’s mission is to foster a greater appreciation of cinema and a deeper understanding of the many people, cultures and perspectives offered by our world through regular interaction with great films and filmmakers.

On that note, we welcome the people of North Carolina into the lives of Scotland’s prison population – their hairstyles, lifestyles, hopes and dreams.

Congratulations to Michael Pearce. DigiCult’s production Rite has won La Prix De La Realisation (Best Director Award) at the 28th Festival of European Cinema in Lille this week. In the words of festival representative Clara Mamelle:

“The Selection Committee and the whole team of the European Film Festival thank you for sending your short film for this 28th edition – without you, the selection would not have been the same!

Amongst the 1,916 films received, we selected those that seemed to us the very best: 62 short films of unmatched quality, mirroring both the diversity of styles, of registers, and of origins.

Beyond the pleasure that we, members of the organization, took in discovering your work, and later presenting it to the public of Lille, there is the pride of seeing the selection applauded by the audience throughout the week and several times by the different juries during the closing ceremony.

For the 28th consecutive year, the Festival is a great achievement, but this year has been exceptional and we want to thank you again, because the quality of the short films offered is undoubtedly the key to the success of this 27th edition and the enthusiasm of spectators at the Festival!”

The inaugural Van d’Or Awards in London (August 11th) was another great night for Scottish independent film. DigiCult’s Fixing Luka scooped the Best Director prize for Jessica Ashman and Best Film for Jessica and her producer Anna Odell.

Big congratulations to all the winners on the night, the nominees, organisers and sponsors including MovieScope Magazine who offered subscription and editing software packages to multiple winners. And Giles Consulting who sponsored the Best Direction award with a cash prize of £250, a princely sum in these days of economic austerity. Eat well Jessica!

Developed and produced through Scottish Digital Shorts, Digital Nation and 4Mation slates, an impressive number of DigiCult’s films continue to travel the world with summer and autumn screenings across UK, Mainland Europe, South America and North America.

Congratulations to the talent, cast and crews involved in all these productions:

Fixing Luka (W/D Jessica Ashman, Producer Anna Odell):

ANIMA MUNDI INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL (Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo, Brazil)

RUSHES SOHO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2011 (London, UK)

FiC BUEU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Bornholm Island, Denmark)

BORN SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL (Pontevedra, Spain)

WARSAW FILM FESTIVAL (Warsaw, Poland)

Rite (W/D Michael Pearce, Producers Ross McKenzie/Paul Welsh):

RUSHES SOHO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2011 (London, UK) – Winner of Long Form Award

Paris/Sexy (W/D Ruth Paxton, Producers Rosie Crerar/Paul Welsh)

GIMLI FILM FESTIVAL (Manitoba, Canada)

ODENSE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Odense, Denmark)

The Tannery (W/D Iain Gardner, Producers Anke Hilt/Richard Scott)

ANIMATOR FESTIVAL (Poznan, Poland)

More information on all these films can be found in  our catalogue.

Congratulations to Michael Pearce and the team behind DigiCult’s Rite for winning the Best Long Form Drama award at Rushes Soho Shorts (July 2011). Since completing the production in October 2010, Michael has continued to develop his writing and directing career, participating in the Torino Film Lab with the Jersey set thriller ‘Beast’.

Mike (Martin Herdman above) takes his estranged son out for his birthday; desperate to prove he’s a reformed man. But drink and the simmering violence of match day threaten to bring out the worst in him.

Rite premiered at the 54th London Film Festival. For more information on the film, please visit its catalogue page on the site. And click below for information on all the winning films from Rushes Soho Shorts website.

Jessica Ashman – writer/director of DigiCult’s recent stop-frame animation Fixing Luka – has been selected for the highly competitive B3 Talent Lab masterminded by producer Marc Boothe. The Cult applauds you, Jessica!

Fixing Luka is Jessica’s first short film, a project developed and produced by Anna Odell as part of Scottish Digital Shorts 2010 with funding from Scottish Screen, UK Film Council and BBC Scotland.

Within a month of completion in February 2011, the film was nominated for two BAFTA in Scotland New Talent Awards for Best Animation and Best Score, with Pete MacDonald winning for his excellent original soundtrack. Fixing Luka will receive it’s international festival premiere later in the year.

If you would like the opportunity to develop and produce your first professional quality animation or live action short, or write a feature film with support from DigiCult, applications are currently open for Incubator, our new programme for new and emerging talent backed by Creative Scotland. Deadline 29th April 2011.

Iain Gardner’s DigiCult 4Mations commission ‘THE TANNERY’ has won Best Animation at the Celtic Media Festival in Lewis. The film was produced by Axis Animation in 2010. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production.

Ruth Paxton’s ‘PARIS/SEXY’ continues its strong international festival run in May with further screenings confirmed in London, Riga and Perth (Australia).

Since the film won the UK FIlm Council Award for Best British Short at LSFF, Paris/Sexy has crossed the planet a few times with strong interest in Ruth’s material from programmers in Asia and Europe.

The win in January has helped Ruth secure London representation as a designer and writer/director and she has also been accepted onto The Bureau’s Save Our Scripts (SoS) development programme with a feature length project set in the Scottish traveling community.

Paris/Sexy was developed and produced by DigiCult through Scottish Digital Shorts 2008/09. The company’s new development and production programme – Incubator – will work with short and feature length writers and writer/directors for the first time in 2011. Submissions deadline: 29th April 2011.

A full listing of Paris/Sexy’s festival screenings to May 2011:

REVELATION PERTH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / Perth, Australia / July 2011

2ANNAS SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / Riga, Latvia / May 2011

BEST OF 8^TH LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / London, UK / May 2011

MOVIE MAYDAY, part of EAST END FILM FESTIVAL / London, UK / May 2011

TIMISHORT FILMFEST / Romania, Bucharest / May 2011

女艺术 NUYISHU FESTIVAL / Beijing, China / April 2011

9^TH INTERNATIONAL FILMMOR WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL / Istanbul, Turkey / Mar. 2011

ELECTRIC SHADOWS presents INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Special Programme / Beijing, China / Mar. 2011

4^TH LICHTSPIELKLUB KURSFILMFESTIVAL, ‘British Shorts’ / Berlin, Germany / Jan. 2011

8^TH LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / London, UK / Jan. 2011

REGGIO FILM FESTIVAL / Italy / Nov. 2010

ENCOUNTERS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Encounters Best of British / Bristol, UK / Nov. 2010

INVERNESS FILM FESTIVAL / UK / Nov. 2010

29^TH UPPSALA INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / Uppsala, Sweden / Oct. 2010 (IN COMPETITION)

XII^TH WT OS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / Bergen, Norway / Nov. 2010

FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU COURT METRAGES / Lille, France / Oct. 2010 (IN COMPETITION)

IV SHORTINI INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / Augusta, Italy / Sep. 2010 (IN COMPETITION)

64TH EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / UK / June 2010 (IN COMPETITION)

DRESDEN INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL / Dresden, Germany / April 2010

A big thank you to the exceptionally talented people behind ‘Fixing Luka’, DigiCult’s most recent stop-frame animation (Scottish Digital Shorts 2010). Two nominations for BAFTA in Scotland’s New Talent Awards (March 2011) secured one great win for the team – Pete MacDonald for Best Original Score – and many great tributes from the floor for Jessica Ashman (writer-director-animator) and Anna Odell (producer) after the film was nominated for Best Animation. DigiCult also wants to congratulate all the nominees and prize-winners recognised by BAFTA in Scotland this month. Well done one and all.