Despite the SARS scare plaguing Toronto in recent weeks, overall public admissions at the sixth annual Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children were up more than 10% from 2002, making 2003 its most successful year to date.

Sprockets audience members chose John Kent Harrison’s A Wrinkle in Time, produced by Fireworks Productions, as the winner of this year’s feature film award. The animation award, also chosen by audience members, went to U.K. director Sarah Ball for Bob The Builder: A Christmas To Remember. The U.K. was also distinguished with the short film award for Angela M. Murray’s Divine.

The Young People’s Jury Awards were presented to Klaus Haro’s Elina and Morten Kohert’s Little Big Girl, from Sweden and Denmark, respectively. The winners of the Jump Cuts: Young Filmmakers Showcase were Marcello Sperandeo, Hunter Comerford and David Rendall. Judges for this year’s Jump Cuts include Semi Chellas, co-creator of CTV’s The Eleventh Hour; Darlene Lim, filmmaker and associate producer of CBC Kids’ Street Cents; and Shane Smith, director of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto.

The awards ceremony was held May 4 at Famous Players Canada Square.

CFC shorts fest set for June

The 2003 Worldwide Short Film Festival, brought to you by the Canadian Film Centre, is set to unspool June 3-8 in Toronto and has seen a serious increase in filmmaker participant interest.

Festival director Shane Smith says film entries this year are up 25% over last year, with more than 2,100 shorts submitted from more than 50 countries. This is the third year the CFC has produced the festival, and since it took over from founder Brenda Sherwood, interest from filmmakers and attendees has steadily increased. Last year, says Smith, attendance for the fest was around the 10,000 mark. He is hoping to see an increase of 25% in patronage as well for 2003.

Highlights of this year’s festival are an opening-night gala, which will include a screening of the 2003 Oscar-winning short This Charming Man. There will also be an animator’s perspective, a program of science fiction shorts (including George Lucas’ student film THX), a spotlight on the short films of Brazil and a collection of celebrity-directed shorts from the likes of Ewan McGregor, Hilary Swank and Canuck thespian Eric McCormack.

The festival’s Short Films, Big Ideas symposium, June 4-7, will run workshops and presentations, including Aardman Animation, Buy This, Pitchin’ and Where’s the Money, Honey?.

The fest will also mark the Canadian theatrical premiere of the Wachowski brothers’ The Animatrix, the further animated adventures and back story of The Matrix films.

-www.worldwideshortfilmfest.com

Submission deadlines

* The Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (Oct. 16-19) has announced a submissions deadline of July 2.

The 2003 edition of the festival will feature retrospectives of the animated works of London’s Oscar Grillo (Shadow Cycle) and Baltimore’s Martha Colburn (Evil of Dracula); National Film Board screenings of 30 years worth of independent film; and a keynote address by animator/animation historian John Canemaker (Bridgehampton).

-www.awn.com/ottawa/safo03

* Kodak has set a submission deadline of June 2 for student directors to submit their films for the Kodak Director’s Award, to be presented at the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival, Aug. 27 to June 7. The recipient of the award will win the title of Kodak’s best new Canadian student director, in addition to the more tangible prizes of a 10-day trip and pass to the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and a chance to have a clip of his/her film screened amongst other award-winning student productions at a Kodak-sponsored event, also at Cannes 2004.

Other WFF submission deadlines: June 25 for short film entries and July 25 for features.

-www.ffm-montreal.org

* The Aspirations Film Festival, a national student film fest, has put out a call for entries with the very near deadline of May 31. The festival kicks off in Waterloo, ON on Sept. 25-28, moving to Toronto sometime in October.

-www.studentfilm.ca