Melanie Brunt’s 5 minute short film Bird has just received a Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival.  Bird recently screened at the San Gio Video Festival in Italy in July, where it was awarded Best Social Short Film at the festival. Bird is distributed by Ouat Media and was recently sold to Moviola.

The Not-So-Great Eugene Green has been nominated for an AFI Award for Best Short Animation Film. The animation was funded by Screen Australia and is directed by Michael Hill and produced by Melanie Brunt. This is the second AFI nomination for Melanie as director Erin White’s short film Dugong which Melanie produced, was nominated in 2007.

The Not-So-Great Eugene Green had it’s World Premiere in June 2009 at the Sydney Film Festival and is screening in July at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. For more information on the AFI Awards check out www.afi.org.au.

Lessons From The Night is having an amazing run on the international film festival circuit. It is screening at a total of 8 festivals in June and July, 2009 alone.

Starting at the Seattle International Film Festival, the short documentary then moved onto the Brooklyn International Film Festival, the prestigious Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival, then over to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Its festival run continued in Bulgaria at the In The Palace Short International Film Festival, then back to Brooklyn for a screening at BAM CinemaFest, before finishing up at the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.

Lessons From The Night is written, directed and edited by Adrian Francis, produced by Melanie Brunt and was funded by Open Channel’s Raw Nerve initiative. Keep up to date on its progress by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Michael Hill’s Screen Australia funded animation The Not-So-Great Eugene Green will have it’s world premiere screening at the Sydney Film Festival. It has also been nominated for the Yoram Gross Animation Award at the Dendy Awards. The Not-So-Great Eugene Green is screening on Saturday 13 June at 2pm and Sunday 13 June at 4:10pm at the Greater Union George Street Cinemas in Sydney. Visit the Sydney Film Festival website for tickets – www.sydneyfilmfestival.org

Melanie Brunt has 2 short films she directed screening at the 2009 St Kilda Film Festival – the 5 minute film Bird which stars Sarah Mortimer and was shot by Simon Ozolins, and Roadside which is part of the Little Deaths omnibus of short films written by Giula Sandler. Little Deaths won the Spaartan Award at the 2008 Digi SPAA and has been picked up by Odin’s Eye Entertainment. Bird screens in Session 1 on 27th May at 9pm and Little Deaths is screening on 28th May at 7:30pm at the Palace George Cinemas in St Kilda. Check out www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au for tickets and more information.