OIFF and the winner is…

OIFF 2011 Winners - My Dad Vs. Yours Parktown & Valkaline Productions-Photo by Ming Wu

We can’t say enough about how honoured we were to be part of the Ottawa International Film Festival. The 2011 Music Video Challenge went amazing- there must have been about 300 people in Babylon to support local filmmakers and musicians. People were sitting on the floor, at the bar and in general so enthusiastic about the screenings. They were broken up into two screenings with a short intermission for the judges to formulate their responses.

Judges L to R Jen Traplin, Bill Welychka, Joni Sadler and Luke Ciekelski - Photo by Ming Wu

Speaking of which, our judges were awesome! Jen Traplin of Live 88.5 FM, Joni Sadler music director of 89.1 CHUO FM, Bill Welychka of Much Music fame, and Luke Ciesielski who won last year. Our own Rock Lotto organizer Samantha Everts hosted the event.

Festival organizer Nina Bains with event host Samantha Everts - Photo by Ming Wu

The competition was pretty fierce with really poignant touching films like Poetry in Motion with Brandon Wint by Partus films that easily have made it into any Canadian festival short film. Some included Robots! Everywhere! arts and crafts DIY-style from first time filmmakers. Others just rocked and were super sexy like the Peptides film that used public content archive video to put together a hot clip. 2010 Winner Luke said that he would have hated to go against this year’s competitors because he definitely wouldn’t have won. The films were judged by creativity, uniqueness, story-telling ability, sound and visual with it being a tight race in the end with Atherton’s hip-hop ode to Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim coming in as runner-up.

But the winner wasssssssssssssssssss… My Dad Vs. Yours “Happy Wanderer” with Parktown and Valkaline Productions! Luca proudly announced that he’d just finished shooting a video for Zebrassieres over the weekend.

A total highlight was asking the audience mid-way through if they were considering making their own films to compete next year. The answer? “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” Exactly what we wanted to hear.

We hope you enjoyed the night, but if you couldn’t make it check out the video links below for some of what you missed. (*not all are available online- apologies!)

For more photos from the event please click here to see photos by Ming Wu.

Click for full Flickr set of event photos!

Rock Lotto in Metro and more!

Check it out! We were interviewed about the Music Video Challenge for OIFF last week! They asked us what it took to make a “winning” music video.

Click here!

Article in Apt 613 too!

And heard talking about OIFF on 93.1 CHUO FM!

Promo Video

A little late, but whatever! It gives you a great idea of what it’s about.

Music Video Challenge Winners Announced

Check out all the amazing local talent that will be showcased on August 21st at Babylon 6-9:30 p.m.:
Please click on the band names below to listen!
Sound of Lions, The Peptides, Knives for Kids, The Joynt, Atherton, Paramedics, Robots!/Everywhere!!, Betty Burke, Doll, BBrandon Wint feat Claude Munson, Evan Buchanan &Graeme Peto, The Murder Plans, My Dad vs. Yours

Our own event organizer has been asked to host! Samantha Everts has been involved in the music scene as a concert promoter, radio DJ and journalist for the last 8 years. Her work has appeared in Metro, CBC Radio 3, Capital Xtra, Ottawa Magazine and many more. she’s thrilled to have been invited to host the event.

This was last year’s Music Video Winner by Adam Saikaley.

Film-mania

The Ottawa International Film Festival program has just been released guaranteeing Ottawans an incredible array of films to be enjoyed, especially with so many films premiering.

Aaron Ryder of Memento and Donnie Darko will be giving a talk after screening his films!

Not to be outshone by Hollywood features, the OIFF has selected some Canadian indie films (shorts and feature-length), digital shorts and documentaries that will certainly have people buzzing that this festival could become the next TIFF.

We’re so excited to be a part of this!

Official Logo!

You can expect to see this bad boy all over the OIFF press and posters in the coming weeks.

It kind of looks like a drum skin, a target and an eye all at the same time! It’s got that whole collaborative circle-thing going on too symbolizing how the music scene is supportive despite clashing colours. What do you guys think??