Two Master of Arts Screen graduates, both from the class of 2019, have claimed major prizes at Flickerfest after their AFTRS capstone projects screened at the festival’s 2021 edition. Naomi Fryer was awarded Best Direction in an Australian Short Film award for her work on This River, while composer Jorde Heys won Best Original Music for his work on Archie Chew’s The End, The Beginning.
Naomi Fryer and Jorde Heys
Having screened in the Best of Australian Shorts program, This River – written, directed and produced by Fryer during her final year at AFTRS – earned her an Australian Directors’ Guild Award nomination for Best Direction in a Student Film. This River was made with fellow AFTRS classmates, cinematographer Ehran Edwards (Master of Arts Screen, 2019), editor James A.Thomas (Master of Arts Screen, 2019), composer Jenna Pratt (Graduate Certificate Screen: Music, 2018), sound designer Lana Kristensen (Graduate Diploma in Sound, 2014), first assistant cameraperson Carina Burke (Graduate Certificate Screen: Cinematography, 2017), second assistant cameraperson Annie Benzie (Specialist Extension Course Certificate Cinematography, 1994) and art director Mitchell Jones (Diploma in Screen Design, 2017).
The End, The Beginning made its Australian debut at Flickerfest, shortly following its world premiere at Uppsala Short Film Festival in Sweden.
“I am so pleased and humbled to have received this award. Writing the score for ‘The End, The Beginning’ was a labour of love spanning almost two years. One of my earliest conversations with Archie and Alicia, we were discussing music in film and how they want to create a story with music playing a central character. How pleased I was when this evolved into a Masters’ capstone film, and how lucky I was to spend time closely collaborating with them on some incredibly fun music—I’m still feeling smug that they let me write a Morriccone-inspired, yee-haw western cue with a gorgeous, gun-slingin’ electric guitar solo (played by James Mountain, MA Screen Music 2020). My experience working on this film taught me how to hone my collaborative skills, my compositional proclivities and to more-deeply understand the storytelling power of music in screen stories. My thanks must be extended to my collaborators Archie Chew (director), Alicia Easaw-Mamutil (producer), Sam Herriman (screenwriter) and Xanthe Dobbie (editor) for bringing this story to life, as well as Cameron Patrick, Greg Wise, Geir Brillian for their knowledge and support throughout the process—not to mention the incredible musicians who came in to play for our sessions. More importantly, however, this award has really allowed me to remember why it is so important to keep creating and sharing screen stories when the world needs them most.”
The concept of the film was developed by director Archie Chew with fellow 2019 Master of Arts Screen graduates, producer Alicia Easaw-Mamutil and writer Samuel Herriman, who worked on the film alongside a team of current students and recent alumni, including cinematographer Nick Najdov (Master of Arts Screen, 2019; Diploma in Camera, 2017), editor Xanthe Dobbie (Master of Arts Screen, 2019), third assistant director Peter Skinner (Master of Arts Screen, 2019; Graduate Diploma in Directing, 2013), sound recordists Tahira Donohoe-Bales (Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production, 2018) and Jeremy Nicholas (Master of Arts Screen, 2019), first assistant cameraperson Bebi Zekirovski (Graduate Certificate Screen: Cinematography, 2017; Diploma in Camera Fundamentals, 2016), second assistant cameraperson Jamie McVicker (Master of Arts Screen, 2019), assistant editor Hannah Smith (Diploma in Editing, 2017) and colourist Michael Angelis (Graduate Certificate Screen: Cinematography, 2017).
Still from ‘The End, The Beginning’ (2020) | Dir. Archie Chew
“So happy for Jorde. Just the start of what will be much-deserved recognition for his extraordinary talent I’m sure! Jorde the world is at your feet. Hopefully exposure such as this puts your name in front of other filmmakers who can hear what an asset you would be to their creative teams”
“Huge Flickerfest kudos for AFTRS MAS alumni Naomi Fryer (Best Directing, ‘This River’) and Jorde Heys (Original Music, ‘The End, The Beginning’). Naomi’s This River makes the audience think- emotionally, intellectually politically. This is great recognition for both their awesome craft and powerful voices!”
Both films were selected to screen at the festival alongside 45 other AFTRS student and alumni films. Flickerfest is now taking its program on the road, touring all states and territories nationwide.
The awards were announced at Flickerfest’s closing night ceremony on 31 January. See the full list of winners here.
‘The End, The Beginning’ release poster | created by Judith Chew and Marianne Findlay