AV News 187 - February 2012
We all arrived in Hayange on the Thursday and had a lunch with the
organisers where the arrangements for the Festival were outlined. I was
pleasantly surprised to hear that all 110 sequences were to be shown. The
Grade 1 (Eliminate) had not been used and there was no pre-selection. That
afternoon the jury were shown the sequences that the audience would see
at the final session on the Saturday morning. This was so that the jury could
finalise the Palmares, or prize list, after the last session on the Friday night
ready for the prize giving on Saturday afternoon. It still meant that we finished
the Palmares at 2 o'clock on Saturday morning!
The festival was held at the Palace cinema with plush seats, large screen
and ample sound, sometimes a little too ample for some. We were given a
minute between sequences to debate our marks and note any that required
further discussion. There were a total of 30 prizes and 30 acceptances. I'm
pleased to say that the Brits did rather well with no 'coercion' from me. I was
impressed by the fact that the Hayange organisers were awarding a Peter
Coles prize for the Best English Language sequence. I was delighted when
Richard Brown's '…and never cackled' was 3rd overall and won the Peter
Coles Prize. 4th Prize went to Jeff Mansell and Howard Bagshaw for their
sequence 'Special'. Martin Fry took the 6th Prize and best sound award for
his sequence 'Mon Amours', his French language version of his Barbara
Hepworth sequence 'The Loves I have'. The other Brit prize winner was Keith
Storey who took 30th Prize with 'Letters from Wilfred', his sequence on
Wilfred Owen. Happily Keith was there to receive his award. Keith, Julie
England and I had travelled together by car to Hayange.
The full results are available on the French Hayange website
http://www.festivaldiaporamahayange.com/palmares2011.html
(The other British awards were presented at the Great Northern Festival.
See centre Pages for images)
The organisers had arranged that on the Saturday afternoon, before the
prize giving and gala projection, there would be a homage to Peter Coles. I'd
prepared a 3 page typewritten tribute to Peter which Jacques had translated
into French. The original plan was for me to deliver the English version and
Jacques the French version. However, Ricardo Zarate decided at the last
minute that, because of time constraints, I should deliver the tribute in
French!! The Acadamie Francaise is still in shock!
This was followed by the showing of 5 of Peter's sequences introduced by
Jacques and myself. Those shown were 'Light Programme', 'Quadruple
ByPass', 'Hayange, City of Flowers', 'Flutterings' and 'Kingdom Come'. The
jury members then each presented one of their sequences.
The prize giving that followed was hilarious. A young lady member of the
GAPHE organising team presented the prizes and each recipient, including
the jury members, was showered with silver star confetti, much to the
amusement of the audience.
The Gala performance was played before a very appreciative audience of
at least 400, with large numbers of the public there. A very impressive end to
a successful festival.
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