CELEBRATING OUR FILMMAKING COLLEAGUES (J.A.B.S).AT OUR SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS & JOURNALISTS

 PRESS RELEASE Congratulations to our SWWJ filmmakers home now from Hollywood Film Festival.

 How lovely to hear of the success of a group of our Society of Women Writers' filmmakers living in St Albans. who, just a few years ago, created their J.A.B.S. Productions' team. Jane Fookes, Anne Stafford Murray, Benita Cullingford and her daughter Sharon Hoyland used the years of the covid pandemic to create their J.AB.S. making short films which resulted in a fabulous visit to  Hollywood and their film festival. And - wait for it - they won! 

 

Their five-minute film Snatched won Best Female Production (Short film) at the Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival, Hollywood, USA, in November 2023.  In addition, their film was selected for inclusion in the London Lift Off International Film Festival in December 2023, and was previously a joint winner for Best Short Film for Children at the Bridge of Peace International Film Festival in Paris, April 2023.   Anne, their director, said:   

‘I can’t believe we’ve come this far in less than two years. We’ve known each other as local writers for a long time, but collaborating together has brought about our current successes. Initially, we were going to film a short play of Benita’s in her garden, on a smart phone. My daughter Larissa had just graduated from film school in London, and I suggested that she could shoot it on a more professional film camera/camcorder. So that’s what we did.

 

'Subsequently adopting a cinematic approach, we have made five shorts, with Benita and Jane as screenwriters on different films, and myself as director and editor. Benita is also our producer, Larissa our director of photography and Sharon our sound recordist and everything else.  Some of us act in them as well.’

 

J.A.B.S Productions second film   The Way We Were Valentine  won Best Mental Health short at the Cotswold International Film Festival in September 2022 and was selected for inclusion in the Berlin Lift Off International Film Festival in March 2023. Their next project is a short children’s film Zsa Zsa and Boo due for release very soon. 

To view the films on their YouTube channel visit: 

https://youtube.com/@annemurray6630?si=FiFMzMo5PLvL2ZK3

Pictures    Some of the JABS team on the red carpet at Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival, Hollywood, USA, November 2023.