Central Coast filmmaker Jason van Genderen has taken out two awards and won $20,000 in the Moment Invitational Film Festival in New York.
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This global smartphone film festival had attracted 987 entries from all over the world, and van Genderen was the only Australian among the finalists.
Entrants had to make a short film on a smartphone that ran for three minutes or less.
Each film had to fit one of five categories: Doco, Narrative, How To, Experimental, or Travel.
Van Genderen's film entitled Beholder is about re-discovering his deceased father's sculptures hidden in his garage.
It took out Best Mini Documentary and was also crowned Best Film in the Filmmakers Choice section.
"I just couldn't believe it. Winning this festival means I can make a larger story about my dad's art, and we'll film that entirely on iPhone as well," van Genderen said.
Last week:
Standing on stage, the self-taught filmmaker dedicated the win to the memory of his father, bringing the New York audience to tears.
One of the judges was renowned filmmaker and YouTube star Phillip Bloom who phoned in his scores just an hour before the film premiered at the New York City event.
"I'm just so proud I have been gifted this chance to reconnect my dad's life work with a global audience. He would never have dreamed this was possible when he was alive," van Genderen said.
His first international festival win was also in New York, winning Tropfest NY in 2008 with a film captured on a Nokia N95.
Van Genderen also runs the local Treehouse Creative agency which recently became Australia's first video production studio to switch entirely to iPhones as their broadcast-capture cameras.