The Rushes Soho Shorts Awards is an annual festival of innovative film-making centred in London's Soho. It's purpose is to promote excellence specifically in short films with prestigious awards in several categories including a music award. This year's nominations have been of a particularly high standard, you can view the full list here: http://sohoshorts.wordpress.com/rssf-2011-official-selection-2/
I think music videos must be particularly hard to judge as I imagine it would also have to include an appreciation of the music and relevance of the film to the subject matter. I watch lots of music videos in my spare time and the quality is invariably sketchy. It's to be expected really as the golden age of music videos is long behind us. I've got MTV on my telly but I can honestly say I haven't watched it in years, probably since it stopped showing Beavis and Butthead (ah...halcyon days!) and even MTV relegates music away from its flagship channel to make room for endless reality TV drivel.
I've watched all the films in the shortlist and my favourite is the Joe Cave 'Mrs Violet' video. It is particularly strong in all areas with Cave's voice bringing echoes of Muse or Ben Folds and the genre firmly on the David Gray side of the street. The song itself is a modern slant on the familiar theme of the loneliness of modern urban living and the video captures the mood perfectly. Cave's unusual singing style provides the melancholy and the film brings the intensity of Mrs Violet's descent into death with a style that belies the shoe-string budget the film was made on. Director Dan Shipton has done a marvellous job here.
Runner-up would be Chase and Status 'Let You Go'. Perhaps I expect too much from their videos but they raised the bar so high with the retro-tastically brilliant 'Blind Faith' that they only have themselves to blame.
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