Girl, 11 wins ‘Oscar’ with underwater comedy film

A GIRL won the top prize at the Goring Children’s Film Festival with an animated comedy.

Juliet Asselin-Miller, 11, was awarded best short film for under-12s in the competition, which was part of Goring and Streatley GAP festival.

And she was praised by an industry professional.

An Oscars-style red carpet premiere was held at the village hall, where the shortlisted films produced by children from Berkshire and Oxfordshire were screened.

Juliet, from Goring, won a £500 Amazon voucher and a British Film Industry subscription to the virtual film-maker’s club for her stop-motion animation called Drained Away.

In her film, two divers are in a submarine under the sea when they come across a plug which they pull out, allowing the water to drain away.

They try to suck the water back up with a vacuum cleaner but it explodes. Then one diver travels down a pipe and ends up in darkness before finding a switch which says, “Water out”.

The water returns to the sea and the divers put the plug back in the hole and return to their their sub.

Presenter James Hanson said: “The judges said this was a genuinely engaging storyline [with] very clever storytelling. The artwork is stunning and the story is simple, yet effective and clear. A beautifully put-together film was another judge’s comment.”

Event manager Gary McDonagh, said the judges were so impressed with Juliet’s animation skills that Peter Lord, co-founder and creative director of Aardman Animations, had written a personal letter saying how well she had done.

He said she had shown “great focus and commitment” and a “mischievous nature” and was a “film-maker with a great promise”.

Juliet said she was “really happy” as she had worked hard.

Explaining how she made the film, she said: “I drew all the pictures and then I cut them out and I made the background and put everything on.

“Then I took a picture and then moved everything a little bit and took another picture and so on.” Willow Daniels, eight, from Goring, won the under-12s emerging talent award for her film about butterflies.

She said: “When we got the caterpillars they were tiny and the bottom of their pot was filled with food. When they’d eaten it, they crawled off on to the lid and shredded their excess skin and turned into chrysalises.

“When they hatched, we moved their dishes into a holder and when they were ready, we moved them into a cage where they could hatch.

“When one of them hatched, they had to try their wings. When they all hatched, we put a dish and some fruit inside and released them into the garden.”

Mr McDonagh joked that Sir David Attenborough had a lot to be worried about.

The new children’s jury award, which was judged by the 2022 winners, was won by Anna Maria Kakona, seven, from Greece, with her film Axinos, or sea urchin.

Scarlett Olivier won the best short film for the under-17 categories for her film, Bear.

Lily Hudson, from the Berkshire Film Office, said: “The films were really impressive and there was such high quality talent.

“It’s really important to foster the next generation and make them see film as an accessible career path.

“Although this might have been really good fun, it was also really important for them to build that skill set of using cameras from an early age.”

Ginny Avery, artistic director of the GAP festival and one of the judges, said: “It was exciting and very warmly appreciated by the locals. It was my idea as I did a film festival in Wallingford about 10 years ago and I’ve always wanted to do one again.

“I asked Gary if he would kindly organise it and he just made the whole thing happen. He’s not just organised, gathering the films and running the workshops, but he encouraged the schools and made the whole premiere happen.”

For a full list of winners and a preview of their films, visit https://tinyurl.com/4ww58mu2

The GAP Festival itself ended on Monday after 10 days featuring more than 50 art, theatre, literature, music and science events that were attended by hundreds of people.

On the opening night, Simon Mayor and Friends performed alongside virtuoso musicians, playing everything from a Vivaldi mandolin concerto to an Irish ballad.

A dedicated intergalactic space day, in partnership with OrbAstro, a space technology firm, provided “out of this world” activities.

Children could build Lego satellites, take part in space yoga and discuss the future of space exploration with representatives from Lumi Space and the European Space Agency.

Visitors could travel through the cosmos in an immersive planetarium experience with a 360-degree inflatable planetarium dome set up in Goring village hall.

Residents could tour the night sky through a telescope which was set up in Rectory Gardens. Chris Jones, event manager, said: “It was brilliant to see so many different ages engaging in all the activities.

“Almost 500 people took part, with more than 120 people completing the solar system treasure hunt that was in fact a scaled model of the planets running from Rectory Gardens (the Sun) to the top of Lardon Chase (Pluto).

“I’d like to say a big thank you to OrbAstro and all the volunteers who gave their time to help make the events happen.”

Papagena, a female singing group, performed at St Thomas’s Church a mixture of contemporary madrigals, Celtic ballads, folk legends and lullabies.

Botanist Timothy Walker gave an illustrated talk about how the art of gardening has changed in four centuries in Oxfordshire.

A one-woman show called Where is Mrs Christie? looked at the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie from her home in Wallingford in 1926 and was followed by a question and answer session.

The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle was presented by theatre group Illyria in a private garden overlooking the River Thames.

Ms Avery said: “It has been so full on — I am exhausted but elated. Everyone has been wonderfully buzzing, excited and appreciative and yearning for more.

“We’ve been able to promote local clubs, societies and businesses while bringing some incredible and unusual events.

“Everyone has done an amazing job and worked so hard, come rain or shine, and I have never felt so proud.”