On Thu 1 Dec over 100 people came together at Watershed to celebrate the launch of Electric December 2011, Watershed's original online countdown calendar of brilliant short films from young European filmmakers, and find out who scooped some of the prestigious Electric December Awards.

This year the countdown calendar features a delightful mix of filmic goodies, including animation, drama, comedy, documentary, fable, and the downright surreal! Students from Fairfield High School and Redland Green School (who co-curated this year’s Electric December) were joined by students from Henbury School and Katharine Lady Berkeley's School to sit on the jury and take on the tough job of selecting the winning films.

Ruby from Redland Green School  and Rick from Fairfield High School present the awards

The awards were presented by the students in front of a packed audience that included the Mayor and Mayoress of Bristol. Suited and Booted picked up two prizes: Wall-Mation POV (made by young people from Fairbridge West) was named Most Imaginative Film and Beloved (made by young people in the South West including Bath and Bristol College) picked up Best Live Action.

The award for Best Film made by the Under 10s went to Royd Infant School, Sheffield whose rotoscope-style film Cloud Jumper tells the tale of Foggypogs, who falls asleep and travels through several worlds in his computer game. The Animation Award went to Zero G, a fantastical stop-motion animation about one man's ambitions of flight created by Sam Renton and James Wilkinson.  

Knowle West Media Centre were presented with a Special Recognition Award for their outstanding contribution to Electric December throughout it's thirteen year history by Stephen Hilton, Director of the Future at Bristol City Council and a long time supporter of Electric December.  

The triumphant Tick Tock filmmakers

The final award was for Best Music and went to the film Tick Tock. Ashante Lake, one of the stars of the film, closed the award ceremony with one of her songs before everyone enjoyed some drinks and nibbles.

Each day in the run up to Christmas you can open a door at electricdecember.org and experience all of this year's fantastic films - as well as diving into the previous twelve years' work!

Electric December is a Watershed project with support from Bristol City Council as part of Fresh Flix 2011 - presented by Encounters International Film Festival and Watershed.

Award Sponsors:
Aardman Animations, BFI, Clockwise Media and Film Club