Short film Death of a Shadow by Tom Van Avermaet, starring Matthias Schoenaerts, has won the Award for Best Short Film at the LA Shorts Fest (6-13 September). No less than 250 short films were in the running for the Best of the Fest Award. With this win, the short is now eligible to enter the Short Films category of the Academy Awards.
Death of a Shadow had its international premiere at the LA Shorts Fest, one of the biggest festivals for short film in the world. The short will debut in its home territory of Belgium in October as part of the opening night of the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent (9-20 October). 2012 is turning out to be an incredible year for Flemish short fiction in the US: earlier this year Anke Blondé’s Dura Lex and Michael Palmaers’s Nuru were awarded at the Palm Springs International Shortfest and Kevin Meul’s The Extraordinary Life of Rocky won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short in Seattle.
In Death of a Shadow, deceased soldier Nathan Rijckx collects the shadows of dying men and women to buy back his own second chance at life. Obsessed by a girl he met the moment before he died, the thought of seeing his beloved again drives the soldier to regain access to the world of the living. But when he discovers that she’s already in love with someone else, jealousy clouds his mind and pushes him toward a bitter decision, a decision not without its consequences…
The main cast features rising star Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Rust and Bone) and Laura Verlinden (Ben X), Peter Van Den Eede and Benjamin Ramon. Stijn Van der Veken (Crazy About Ya) was in charge of cinematography, while Dieter Diependaele handled editing.
Death of a Shadow is a production of Ellen De Waele for Serendipity Films. The short was made with the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) through a Wildcard which the director had won for his RITS Film Academy graduation film, Dreamtime. The VAF Wildcard programme is aimed at giving recently graduated filmmaking talent the chance to embark on a first professional project.