NZFC: selects 12, disappoints 239

The New Zealand Film Commission is pleased to announce and congratulate the twelve film maker teams selected to attend the Escalator Low Budget Feature Film boot camp in June. Following on from boot camp, in September four of these teams will be offered production finance of up to NZ$250,000 for one of their ideas.
 
Announcing the selection, NZ Film Commission CEO Graeme Mason said, “251 applications were received for Escalator. We have received a wealth of strong filmmaking ideas explicitly conceived with low budget production in mind. I am looking forward to seeing how the teams develop their ideas through boot camp, and like everyone else, am excited to see which four films get green lit.”
 
Juliet Bergh, Jessica Charlton, Philip Thomas (Existence, Submission, The Trolley Boy)
Jonathan Brough, Karl Zohrab, David Brechin-Smith (Pornography, Albaniya, Point Of View)
Gary Davies, Mike Hohaia, Rohan Satyanand (The Void, Drop, Dark Side)
Zoe Hobson, Guy Pigden, Harley Neville (I Survived A Zombie Holocaust, Wellington City Carbon Police, The Project)
Gerard Johnstone, Luke Sharpe (House Bound, Swift Hands Bukachan, Home Surveilance)
Carthew Neal, Max Currie (Actress Wanted, Ctrl Alt Delete, Family of Men)
Tom Reilly, Wayne Gordon (Downgrading, UnDead End, Suspended Animations)
Tui Ruwhiu, Bradford Haami, Regan Hall (Bloodlines, Kiri-Haehae: Skin Deep, Wero: Ultimate Challenge)
Bonnie Slater, David Coyle, Paul Wedel (Mistletoe, Stand Up, Party Film)
Ant Timpson, Victor Rodger, Leanne Saunders (Night Of The Living Palagis, Lift It Up, Swimming With Dolphins)
Sally Tran, Omar Crawford (Vending Machine, Cache to Tape, Cure My Imagination)
Steve Whelan-Turnbull, Steve Tamarapa, Jamie Selkirk (Dan, The Teddies, Wasted)
 
Escalator was launched in February this year. New applications for Escalator will next be sought in March 2011.   Some general observations and thoughts, which may assist film makers with their future submissions, can be viewed here.