Press Release from The Savannah College of Art and Design

SAVANNAH, GA — The Savannah College of Art and Design is excited to announce the competition film lineup for its 14th annual Savannah Film Festival, scheduled for Oct. 29-Nov. 5 in historic downtown Savannah, Ga. From feature-length films to two-minute shorts, the annual festival presents a full range of cinematic creativity from both award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers.

Competitions will be held in the categories of narrative features, documentary features, professional shorts, animated shorts and student entries. The films come from almost a dozen different countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Portugal, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and United Kingdom. This year's competition films are competing for more than $80,000 in cash and prizes.

The highly anticipated 2011 Savannah Film Festival competition films include the following:

Animated Shorts

Bottle
USA, 2010, 5:25 min., Blu-Ray
Director/Producer/Writer: Kirsten Lepore
Synopsis: Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.

The Maker
Australia, 2011, 5:17 min., Blu-Ray
Director: Christopher Kezelos
Producers: Christopher Kezelos, Christine Kezelos
Writer: Christopher Kezelos
Synopsis: A strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.

Orange O Despair (Orange Ô Desespoir)
France, 2011, 3:35 min., Blu-Ray
Director/Producer/Writer: John Banana
Synopsis: What happens when a small sad orange decides to leave for the other side of the shop to meet a bunch of fun dancing pineapples?

Ripening
USA, 2011, 4:04 min., HDCam
Director: Jason Maurer
Animation: Jason Maurer
Synopsis: Ripening is a cathartic journey that explores the inner turmoil of a crumbling relationship and the fruitful outcome of the experience.

Salesman Pete and the Amazing Stone from Outer Space!
France, 2010, 6:55 min., Blu-Ray
Co-directors: Anthony Vivien, Marc Bouyer, Max Loubaresse
Animation: Marc Bouyer
Synopsis: Pete is a nice and clumsy salesman. But he's also a deadly super secret agent with a microprocessor implanted into his brain by some mad scientists from the government! He has to secretly stop a bunch of bad guys who stole a magic stone that can change anything into seafood.

Something Left, Something Taken
USA, 2010, 10:15 min., HDCam
Directors/ Writers/ Animation: Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter
Synopsis: Everyone who enters a crime scene leaves something behind and takes something away. 'Something Left, Something Taken' is a 10 minute animated dark comedy about a vacationing couples' encounter with a man they believe to be the Zodiac Killer.

The Thomas Beale Cipher
USA, 2010, 10:10 min., HDCam
Director: Andrew Allen
Producer: Jason Sondhi
Writers: Andrew Allen, Josh Froscheiser
Synopsis: Professor White, cryptographer extraordinaire, is on the trail of the notoriously uncrackable Thomas Beale cipher—a century-old riddle hiding the location of a fortune in gold that has tormented its pursuers since inception. But White is not alone—shadowy forces are tight on his tail.

Documentary Films

GROW!
USA, 2011, 50:33 min., Digibeta
Directors/Producers: Christine Anthony, Owen Masterson
Synopsis: Fed up with corporate America and its influence on a broken food system, a growing number of educated young people aim to solve some of the current system's inequities by growing clean, fair food. Mostly landless, they borrow, rent or manage farmland in order to fulfill their dreams of doing something meaningful with their lives.

PressPausePlay
Sweden, 2010, 1:14:00 min., Blu-Ray
Director: David Dworsky
Producer: Adam Svanell