The Award for Best Technical Achievement goes to “Present Day”. Congratulations to Bradley W. Ragland from the USA!

Prizes

ShapeShifter® Backpack sponsored by Think Tank Photo together with a set of 7 Paniflectors and Panigrip sponsored by PANI and a free Vimeo Plus account.

What the Judges Say

Great production value overall. Camera and technical achievement are stunning. The director / cinematographer knows exactly how to make use of the tools the camera provides.

Story Pitch

JACK DAVID COOPER is a man living a nightmare. The world he inhabits has been scourged by an epidemic that killed most, and brought many back again to roam the land as zombies. Jack’s days are spent simply surviving. His nights are spent feeding his infected wife SARAH who has long since died and turned. He keeps her chained to a bed in a child’s bedroom, while still holding out hope for a cure and a rumored safe haven somewhere in Nevada.

As Jack struggles to survive in preparation for his trip west, he meets survivors and zombies and defends himself from both. He meets ELLIE, a woman looking for safety while waiting for her father, whom she was separated from during an attack. Jack and Ellie recognize the same tenacious spirit in each other, and soon, they are spending time together, talking, hunting and trying to maintain a semblance of humanity. They begin to find what they thought had been lost. In small ways they open to each other, and before they realize what has begun, they have fallen in love.

But Ellie knows nothing of Jack’s other life, nothing of the woman chained to a bed in his home. And when she discovers his secret she begins to question who Jack really is. She wonders what kind of future he wants for himself and whether she has any place in that world. Jack is faced with an impossible choice: continue to fight to keep his wife “alive” or begin anew with Ellie, a woman he can truly have a future with. The decision he makes is paid with an awful price — and a twist of fate that turns his world upside down.Bradley W. Ragland