Winnipeg, June 20, 2011 – Local filmmaker Heidi Phillips is the recipient of the 2011 Manitoba Film Hothouse Award for Creative Development.
The Hothouse Award includes $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in production services designed to support a local director through the development stages of filmmaking that will ultimately lead to the production of one or several major film productions. The Hothouse Award is also intended to provide attention to the local directing talent that Manitoba has right here at home.
Winnipeg-based filmmaker Heidi Phillips has been working in film and video since 2003 and her work has been featured at prestigious festivals around the world, including The Images Festival in Toronto, and Transmediale and the European Media Arts Festival both in Germany. She holds a BFA (hons) from the University of Manitoba and an MFA in New Media from Danube University, Krems, Austria.
Phillips is widely known for her experimental film work and commitment to DIY practices. Says Phillips, “Experimental films have a way of communicating emotion and mood that requires more engagement of viewers and often calls to question the process of the medium itself.” With the support of the Hothouse Award, however, Phillips will commence a new direction in her working process, combining the use of actors and dramatic approaches to her experimental film techniques, to create a new, cross-genre work.
While this new approach presents a departure and poses a degree of artistic risk, Phillips comments, “I find that the element of risk sparks my artistic practice. In this upcoming project the element of risk includes creating work in an entirely new environment. Risk requires faith, which is a reoccurring theme in my work.”
As part of the award recognition, the Winnipeg Film Group will host a retrospective screening series on Heidi Phillips’ career, Heidi Phillips: Mysteries of Light, July 29 at the Winnipeg Cinematheque.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Winnipeg Film Group acknowledges the support of the Province of Manitoba in funding Manitoba Film Hothouse Award for Creative Development.
The Winnipeg Film Group additionally acknowledges the ongoing funding support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and the City of Winnipeg through the Winnipeg Arts Council.