Tuesday 21 October 2014

Eden Shorts competition winner announced

Eden, Britain?s leading natural history channel, today revealed the winner of its first-ever nationwide amateur filmmaking competition, Eden Shorts.

The top prize was scooped by 31-year-old Manchester-based Simon Owen, whose short film Effortless Beauty was selected by a panel of judges including wildlife presenters and enthusiasts Michaela Strachan and Nigel Marven, as well as the General Manager of Eden, Emma Boston.

The Eden Shorts competition was launched to inspire future nature filmmakers to capture the beauty and wonder of the world around them. The 350 entries were judged on their creative filming technique, quality editing and postproduction and thoughtful communication of a story or message.

Head-judge Michaela Strachan commented on Simon?s winning entry: ?Effortless Beauty features beautiful shots of wildlife alongside a thought-provoking script created a truly inspiring piece. It?s not easy to put words to film without waffling, as both Nigel and I know!?

Nigel Marven added: "The winning film was a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end, all in one minute. Nowadays, children are the rarest animal in the woods and it?s films like this that serve to inspire the next generation to get out and experience nature first-hand.?

Simon's winning film will be broadcast on Eden, and he also wins a high-end Panasonic Lumix camera.

The full list of winners - all films can be viewed at http://eden.uktv.co.uk/eden-shorts/

Winner

Simon Owen with Effortless Beauty

Runner-up

Daniel Copeland with Swimming with Blue Sharks

Commended

Caroline Tout with The Secret James Martin with Metamorphosis Jamen Percy with North

Michaela Strachan added

We felt that alongside the winning film we had a runner-up and commended entries which provided an excellent assortment of films and, as a collective, exhibit a range of skills and techniques that are used in natural history filmmaking.

Nigel Marven added

It is so hard to judge when there is such a high level of expertise in a wide range of crafts. The overall quality of the entries really did exceed expectation. It?s a shame that in the end we could only pick one winner!

All the winners will have their work showcased on-air on Britain?s leading natural history channel, Eden. The winning entries will be screened at Wildscreen Film Festival 2014 in Bristol on Tuesday 21st October.