John Hefin Award for Welsh Language Short Film launched for festival

S4C and BBC Cymru Wales have welcomed the launch of a brand-new award for excellence in the production of Welsh language film.

The Carmarthen Bay Film Festival is to award the Gwobr John Hefin Award for the best Welsh language short film.

It can either be a live action narrative fiction or a factual report on a chosen subject or idea.

The film’s final running time must be more than two minutes and less than 45 minutes including credits, if any. The entry fee per submission is only £15.

Entrants will need to submit their film to the festival, which is to be held in Llanelli in May 2014.

The festival website is at –

http://www.carmarthenbayfilmfestival.co.uk/

The deadline is March 14.

Festival founder and chief executive Kelvin Guy said:

“The aim of this new award is to actively encourage the submission of Welsh language short films amongst up and coming filmmakers and to give them a platform to screen their work to a wider audience.

“We’d also like to give the opportunity to anyone with a good idea or story to use whatever media resource they have available to enter a short film.

“Our aim is to promote our language and our country to the rest of the film making community and we promote ourselves as a bilingual film festival.

The festival will take place from May 6-9 at the Stradey Park Hotel, Llanelli.

S4C Content Commissioner Llion Iwan said:

“It is a real honour for us at S4C to be able to support this new award, bearing the name of one of Welsh broadcasting’s most well-respected figures. John Hefin was universally admired and was a real pioneer for the whole Welsh broadcasting industry. While his influence is still strongly felt throughout Welsh broadcasting, it is more than fitting that this award should be given in his name.

“We very much hope that this award will be an addition source of motivation and to those who strive for excellence in short film and as recognition in the name of a past master, John Hefin.”

BBC Cymru Wales’ Series Producer for Pobol y Cwm, Ynyr Williams, said:

“John founded Pobol y Cwm with the talented Gwenlyn Parry back in 1974 and he was a mentor to many of today’s TV practitioners, be they sparks, chippies or producers. He was inspirational to work with and to have around, and he always seemed to be around. He had this ability to be there, chatting, laughing, holding on to ideas, capturing thoughts and always seeming to be on top of everything that was going on at the same time. He was great at offering encouragement and praise, and I know he’d have been proud to be linked to this award which aims to get people developing ideas, thinking creatively and making films. I welcome this initiative and wish it all the best for the future.”

About John Hefin:

John Hefin first became involved in television work in 1960, when he responded to a newspaper advertisement for apprentice production assistants. During the 1960s, he worked as a producer and director for BBC Wales. In 1974, he helped create the Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm, the longest-running television soap opera produced by the BBC. He also co-wrote and directed the 1978 TV rugby comedy film Grand Slam, and directed the 1981 drama series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. This nine-part series, a biopic based on the Welsh PM, drew on conversations with Lady Olwen, his eldest daughter, and A J Sylvester, his personal secretary. In 1984, John was the director for the narration for an animated version of Prince Charles’s children’s story The Old Man of Lochnagar.

Following his post as Head of Drama with BBC Wales, he worked in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University. In 1988, he became the artistic director of Film Cymru (which was later renamed the Wales Film Council), entrusted with the responsibility of commissioning films from independent Welsh producers for S4C. He was also Chairman of the Film Commission Wales, and Chair of Cyfrwng, a Welsh media journal and network. He retired from the BBC in 1993. In 2004, he directed and filmed part of a documentary featuring the artist Sir Kyffin Williams, Reflections in a Gondola

John was awarded the MBE in 2009, for “services to Welsh film and drama”. In 2012, he was awarded the BAFTA Cymru Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television Drama.

The Carmarthen Bay Film Festival was founded by Kelvin Guy in 2012.

The festival is held at the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, the home town of Wales’s very first Hollywood film Gareth Hughes. The festival is very much the champion of the independent film maker and cinema in the UK! Carmarthen Bay Film Festival was one of the first festivals to sign up to UFFO code of conduct. Which basically means it’s an open and ethical one!