Ignite is Australia's premier Christian Short Film Festival.
Started in 2004, its major aims are to develop young Christian film makers and to encourage people to be creative about communicating the truths of the Bible.
The rules are simple:
- Films must be based on a verse or passage from the Bible that contains a keyword
- Films must be no longer than 5 minutes
Previous themes have been:
- 2004 - Parables
- 2005 - Water
- 2006 - Fire
- 2007 - Light
- 2008 - Rock (or Stone)
- 2009 - Animal(s)
Ignite is based in Sydney, but receives entries from all over the world. In recent years films have come from countries as diverse as the UK, Argentina, India and Cambodia.
Competition Format
The Festival Director views all films to assess their suitability for competition - that is, does each film meet the entry criteria noted above.
The films that make it through (which is normally all of them) then get sent to a panel of preliminary judges, who collectively select the best 20 films.
The 'Top 20' films are all eligible for the People's Choice award. These films are then uploaded onto this website, with the People's Choice voting happening online.
The judges then individually choose winners in the various categories, as well as one or two 'honourable mentions'. These decisions are then collated by the Festival Director to come up with the category winners, and the major prize - the Gold Sparky for the Best Film.
Ignite Awards
Awards are given for the following categories:
- Best Script
- Best Performance by a Male Actor
- Best Performance by a Female Actor
- Best Cinematography
- Best Sound
- Best Editing/Effects
- Best Director
- Best Entry by a School
- Best Entry by a First-time Film Maker (Bright Spark)
- People's Choice
- Best Film (Gold Sparky)
An award for Best Animation has also been given in some years.
A range of cash and other prizes are also attached to the various awards.