Toby lifts Young Film Maker at Newcastle cinema awards

Toby lifts Young Film Maker at Newcastle cinema awards

22 December 2020

LOCAL amateur film makers have showed their creativity in Newcastle Community Cinema’s Eat My Shorts film competition.

Newcastle Community Cinema laid down a challenge in August inviting participants  to make a two minute film with a U certificate in the form of Eat My Shorts Film Competition.

Four winners were announced last week from a shortlist of seven entries.

Ayeitia Mack, from Newcastle, emerged as the overall winner with her film called The Watchers and won a £300 cash prize.

Robin Cordner, from Belfast, was runner-up with his movie about the Dundrum Coastal Rowing Association called Danny Buoy while Newcastle freelance journalist Laura Barr, also from Newcastle, came in third with her film, Dreams, inspired by her daughter’s love of Irish Dancing.

Downpatrick teenager Toby Coole won the Young Film Maker prize for his film, Ping, about playing table-tennis during lockdown.

The 13 year-old student from Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle also won a £300 cash prize sponsored by Into Film.

Ayeitia is 20 and is a first year film student at Queen’s University Belfast.

She explained about her short film: “My film was about a detective who feels he is being followed and watched as he is getting cryptic messages from an unknown source. However, he soon realises who it is that has been watching him; it is you, the audience, that have been watching him all this time.”

Ayeitia has made two previous short films during her two years of my Moving Image Arts A-level along with a promotional video for a mental health charity that they used for social media purposes.

She was also selected for the 2017 BFI film academy in Belfast.

Laura won a £150 prize for coming third and is a student on the HNC Creative Media Production course with NI Film and Television School.

She described how she was inspired to show the effect of lockdown restrictions on her 

eight-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

“Charlotte attends both Irish Dancing with McCartney School of Dance and ballet at KD Dance Academy. Obviously these classes were cancelled and had to be delivered remotely on zoom,” she said.

“And although Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed the zoom classes, it didn’t beat getting out and seeing her dance friends and teachers and just having that free time, outside of the house to do what she loves doing.

“I thought it would be a nice idea to illustrate in the film Charlotte having a dream about being outside in a scenic place and dancing her heart out.”

Rob Manley,  chairman of Newcastle Community Cinema, told the online gathering as the results were announced: “NCC had to close during lockdown but we wanted to keep the love of film alive while people were at home. So we introduced Eat My Shorts to encourage everyone to pick up a camera and get filming.”

Judges included Castlewellan actress Niamh McGrady, Dr Jennie Carlsten, a film lecturer based in Belfast and Maria Brennan from member of 

access>CINEMA, based in Dublin.

Niamh said she was delighted to see films made by younger film makers, pouring in their creativity and ideas during lockdown.

“It was difficult to judge them because they all were brilliant in their own way with everyone putting in so much energy,” she added.

Broadband provider Fibrus sponsored the competition.