ICA - BECK’S FUTURES STUDENT PRIZE FOR FILM AND VIDEO 2004

8 – 11 April 2004, ICA, The Mall, London, SW1

SHORTLIST SELECTED BY ALISON JACKSON AND SOPHIE FIENNES

“It is exciting to see this new work. The image often speaks louder than the word - it plays subtly, persists and re-visits. Prizes like this are a great incentive for students to get their work seen and for the public to enjoy a greater diversity of visual language.” Sophie Fiennes

“I am interested in innovative new approaches; I believe there are some young and very exciting filmmakers around today. It is a great pleasure to take part in judging some of the best, thanks to the ICA and Beck’s.” Alison Jackson

Beck’s Bier and the ICA are delighted to announce the shortlist for the fifth annual BECK’S FUTURES STUDENT PRIZE FOR FILM AND VIDEO – the award for current art and film students, worth £5,000, which is part of Beck’s Futures 2004, the UK’s most generous arts award. This year’s shortlist has been selected by the artist Alison Jackson and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes.

Established in 1999, Beck’s Futures Student Prize for Film and Video profiles and supports students of film and fine art at UK institutions, and gives them the chance to have their work exhibited at the ICA, and to win up to £2,000. The award is open to all final year and post-graduate students in these disciplines, and follows an open submissions process.

This year’s shortlist has been selected from over 200 submissions, confirming rising reputation of the Beck’s Futures student awards. The shortlist aims to showcase the best student work, and includes performance art, narrative film, animation and documentary.

This year’s eleven finalists are:

Margarita Vasquez Ponte, Edinburgh College of Art: Never Been in a Riot; Thomas Hicks, Kingston University: Circus X; Maria Rickards, Central St Martins: Untitled; Kieron Dennis, Royal College of Art: Customised Bikes; Julian Mills Arnold, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art: La Ballerine; Chris Cornish, Slade School of Fine Art: Tate Modern 2003; Vanessa Able, Slade School of Fine Art: Dream Factory Part 1; Doug Fishbone, Goldsmiths College: The Ugly American; Rose Butler, Sheffield Hallam University: Platform; Mark Boulos, National Film and Television School: Jerusalem; Mahalia Belo, Central St Martins: As I Count To Ten.

The short-listed works will be on show at the ICA from 8-11 April. The winner will be announced at the Beck’s Futures 2004 Awards Night on 27 April. The first prize winner will receive £2,000, with a second prize of £1,000 and four runner-up prizes of £500 each.

Last year, Richard Holgate, a final year student at Central St Martin’s won the top prize of £2,000. He comments: “Since winning the prize my work has undoubtedly received a heightened amount of attention. This has enabled me to establish contacts and form relationships, some of which have led to recent and forthcoming shows.”

Since winning, Richard has shown work at Future Maps 03, London Institute Gallery, January 2004, and featured in Ten of the Best, at the Deluxe Gallery, January 2004, showcasing ten of the top London BA graduates of 2003.

ANDY NEAL, CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR, SCOTTISH COURAGE:
"Beck's involvement with contemporary arts over the last 19 years has been at the heart of our success in the UK. As part of the Beck's Futures programme, the Student Film and Video prize gives a fantastic opportunity for young artistic talent and we are delighted to be supporting it again in 2004."

PHILIP DODD, DIRECTOR, ICA: "Alison Jackson and Sophie Fiennes, in their own work, show us how various and unexpected film and video work can be. They’ve selected a marvellously rude, and surprising set of works this year. It’s a real treat.”

STUDENT FILM AND VIDEO PRIZE JUDGES

ALISON JACKSON
Artist Alison Jackson recently earned a cult following through BBC2's Double Take series, which placed celebrity look-a-likes in compromising situations. She has subsequently published a book, Public (Penguin, 2003), which depicts ‘celebrities’ in similarly grainy, paparazzi-style shots, creating seemingly real documentary scenarios which are in fact a fiction. Among her subjects have been the royal family, movie stars, sports and pop music personalities and politicians. Using real photos but phoney images, Alison’s work is concerned with 'our fixation with celebrity and celebrity culture, which have led us to believe things via a set of images… the gap between the mythology and the real thing’. She has won numerous prizes for her work, including gold and silver Campaign advertising awards (for her Schweppes series), and a BAFTA.
www.alisonjackson.com

SOPHIE FIENNES
Sophie Fiennes is an experimental documentary filmmaker, interested in the blurred boundaries between reality and fiction. First working as a photographic assistant, Sophie has since worked with Peter Greenaway on a number of his seminal films, including The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. She also won acclaim for her 1998 short about Danish film director Lars Von Trier. Her recent documentary, Hoover Street Revival, which concerns evangelical Baptist preacher Bishop Noel Jones (brother of Grace) has received critical praise. Sophie is currently completing a three-year research fellowship with NESTA, exploring these interests in the light of new digital technology advances.
www.nesta.org.uk/ourawardees/profiles/1775/index.html

Further information on Beck's Futures 2004 and the Student Prize for Film and Video, past and present, can be obtained from www.becksfutures.co.uk/studentprize
* This year’s short-listed student films will also be available to view online here.

Tickets & Box Office Information: 020 7930 3647 / www.ica.org.uk

Entrance to Student Films is free with entry to the Beck’s Futures exhibition in the main ICA galleries: Mon – Fri: £1.50, £1.00 Concs. FREE to ICA members; Sat & Sun: £2.50, £1.50 Concs. FREE to ICA members

For further press information, please contact: Emma Pettit, 020 7766 1406 or email emmap@ica.org.uk
INFORMATION ON SHORTLISTED WORKS

Margarita Vazquez Ponte (Edinburgh College of Art)
NEVER BEEN IN A RIOT
Part documentary, part spectacle, the film follows the development of an anti-war demonstration in Madrid (22/03/03), that starts peacefully and escalates into a riot between police and protestors. The event was reported to have passed without incident. The film jumps from split to full screens.

Thomas Hicks (Kingston University)
CIRCUS X
Humorous b&w animation, intercutting layered photographic imagery with frenetic circus-style drawings.

Maria Rickards (Central St Martins)
UNTITLED
Mirror performance in which the artist experiments with filming herself by tying the video-camera to the top of her head.

Kieron Dennis (Royal College of Art)
CUSTOMISED BIKES
Series of still images featuring different customised bikes in various locations, with electronic voice-over narrative.

Julian Mills Arnold (Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art)
LA BALLERINE
Split screen. The artist copies a dance sequence from the final scene of Claire Denis' film Beau Travail, performed by Denis Lavant. The original film is shown on one side of the screen, the artist on the other. The sequence is repeated over and over until the artist is almost perfectly synchronised with the actor.

Chris Cornish (Slade School of Fine Art)
TATE MODERN
Emulation of a smouldering, burnt out building, reminiscent of Tate Modern, and set within an illusory woodland environment.

Vanessa Able (Slade School of Fine Art)
DREAM FACTORY PART 1
Kaleidoscopic treatment of footage taken from the movie Black Hawk Down, oscillating between abstract and recognisable images, evoking the quality of a computer game. First of a 3-part work.

Doug Fishbone (Goldsmiths College)
THE UGLY AMERICAN
Series of still images with narrative voice-over, depicting often violent, disturbing and provocative subject matter whilst addressing issues of politics, sexuality, race, prejudice, stigma, poverty and domestic violence.

Rose Butler (Sheffield Hallam University)
PLATFORM
Re-animated video of passengers moving along a train platform, digitally manipulated and presented as a three-screen installation to reinforce the elements of rhythm and repetition.

Mark Boulos (National Film and Television School)
JERUSALEM
Documentary-style footage of Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri - one of the most distinctive radical Islamic figures in Britain – during a small rally in London. The soundtrack is a rendition of William Blake’s Jerusalem sung in Arabic.

Mahalia Belo (Central St Martins)
AS I COUNT TEN
Humorous animation based on the process of hypnosis, relating fantastical images to the experience of ‘going under’.