"Freeze Frame", the first movie film debut by the young Irish director John Simpson, produced by Michael Casey, has won the competition section of Taormina FilmFest2004.
The international jury, presided by Michael Verhoeven, has assigned the sum of 25 thousands euros "as contribution to the next second film" to the 40 years director, former advertising copywriter and Bbc promo director.In 2000 Simpson has written and directed the short film "Mysterious ways". On that occasion, Casey and Simpson laid the foundation for "Freeze Frame", whose script Simposon has been writing since years. The film sets are the dark streets of London and Belfast disused Crumlin Road jail. The originality of the films consists in its technical way of shoting scenes: completely on digital video using a Sony Hi Def camera, supplied by VFG, with Lee Evans’(the main actor) self-cam scenes shot with Sony Mini DV, Toshiba Minicam and Super 8. The plot is based on the "paranoia" of the main character, Sean Veil, after his near-conviction for a series of brutal murders. Sean videotapes himself around the clock so he’ll have a rock-solid alibi if he’s ever accused of another crime again. But ten years later, the one tape he needs to clear his name has mysteriously disappeared. The british comic actor Lee Evans is completly bold for his first dramatic role: Sean lives in a sort of underground bunker, surronded by more than 90 cams shooting him for 24 hours a day. He has collected an enormous archive of million of hours of videotape, oredered by year, month and hour. He is continously obsessed by the idea of being accused again of a crime. But it is not a comic film. It is a thriller in its modern evolution of "noir", with important psichological aspetcs. The director wants to ironize on the "oversurveillance" power of the State, by inverting the role: is not the State anymore that controls the citizen but it is the latter that control himself to defend himself from the State. So Sean is not a paranoic crazy but simply the product of this society.
The film has been released in UK and Ireland on June 18th and was presented at recent Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The Sicilian short film awarded is “Stidda ca’ curri”(“running star ”as translated from the Sicilian dialect) by Piero Messina, a young directorliving in Sicily, of the other Taormina FilmFestival competition section. The Danish film "Villa Paranoia", of the world film competition section, has been instead awarderd of the International critics prize-Fipresci while the Israeli "Turn Left at the End of the World" by Avi Nesher has received the special prize of 10.000 euros by the Sicilian Region.

The Taormina FilmFest 2005 is schedeled from June 11st to 18th

Susanna Jacona Salafia