Rondo Award nominated shorts

Rondo Award time is upon us again. I can't believe a year has already passed again. In recent months the amount of online awards has taken on epic proportions, however, the Rondo IMHO still is the only award to aspire to if you are interested in horror and fantasy. Just being nominated for it it a huge honour, winning one is going to be the equivalent of an Oscar if you are in any shape or form associated with producing or reviewing genre movies.

In past years I may have plugged the occasional article, book or website that I felt was due the Rondo, but I now know too many of the talents involved due to the beauty that is Twitter or Facebook that it simply would not be fair to highlight one over the other.

All I know is that if you are reading this blog, you are the kind of person who needs to vote: So steer over to the Rondo website and cast your vote until April 03.

What I do want to highlight here, though, is the category 9. Best Independent Production (film, documentary or short) as Andrea Ricca has recently contacted me.

He is the director of the Rondo nominated short movie THE GUARDIAN and one of a two-man team of Italian No-Budget film makers with a love for fantasy, a computer, Mini DV camera and some 3-D animation skills. His other films and more background information can be found on his website.

It is amazing what you can come up with with the right attitude and passion for your subject. Personally I'd rather watch these $0 short movies than any number of stratospherically overpriced and overlong Hollywood productions. THE GUARDIAN shows a nod to Ray Harryhausen. His latest oeuvre, THE FURFANGS, is influenced by the whole GREMLINS/CRITTERS style sub-genre. My favourite of his shorts is UFO RACE as it doesn't just nod to his favourites but actually comes up with his own little story.







Looking at these shorts made me wonder what other Rondo nominated short movies are out there that could be featured here. To my surprise there don't seem to be a lot of short movie makers out there as most of the productions in this category are feature length movies or documentaries. The only other short movie on that list is THE INSTITUTE OF SEANCE. Below the trailer. Would love to have shown the entire movie, but you actually need to purchase the 10-minute short for $10 on DVD. If interested drop by their website, but consider me too stingy to shill out that much for so little.



Anyway..... don't forget to do your civic duty and cast your votes if you haven't done so yet.

'Nuff said.