The DFFANZ 2017 Drone Film Festival Winners

Over the past couple of months the 2017 Drone Film Festival ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) has been on tour. Sponsored by SanDisk, the festival has just announced the winning films for 2017 after 6 weeks of shows and screenings across Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, Brisbane, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

DFFANZ received a total of  209 film submissions from 27 different countries. The best were selected and judged in 12 separate categories. Without further ado, here are the winning entries.

BEST DRONE FILM – Mixed Motion Project

Ilko Illiev & Marin Kafedjiiski (Bulgaria)

Mixed Motion Project is a fun and creative look at movement from directly above.

BEST ANZ FILM – Flying With Nature

Sarah Coote (Australia)

Flying With Nature was chosen as the best regional film. It’s narrated from an interesting perspective.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Acrophobia: I’m Afraid Of Heights

Philippe Woodtli (Switzerland)

A unique take on a phobia that plenty of people suffer from. Scared of heights? Hold on tight.

BEST CONCEPT – Teila Celebration

Lucas Zanotto (Finland)

This is what happens when you let drones take the lead in the kitchen. Cake and chaos.

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS – NightChase

Hadrien Picard (France)

Never mind the incredible skills of this mountain biker. Take a look at how a drone is used to set the scene with fast-moving lighting.

BEST DIRECTION – Cala d’en Serra Drone Parkour

Giles Campbell Longley & Kie Willis (United Kingdom)

This is very cool. Free running is impressive enough as it is, but shooting it with a drone takes it to another level.

BEST LANDSCAPE – Australia: The Eagle’s Eye

Nick Robinson (Australia)

An aerial view of Australia’s stunning landscapes. They also have camels down under – who knew?

BEST SHOWREEL – KopterCam 2017

KopterCam (Finland)

Wow. Even though this is a showreel and therefore supposed to be the best of the best, KopterCam’s work is as good as we’ve seen. If this doesn’t inspire you to take up aerial photography, nothing will.

BEST DOCUMENTARY – Permission To Fly

Vivienne Smith & Erik Nachtrieb (United States)

A story about drones, not just one that’s shot with them. Take a look at the winner of the best documentary:

BEST EXTREME SPORTS – Ice Call: Backyards Project

Antoine Frioux (France)

Christmas doesn’t have to be all about keeping warm in front of the fire and stuffing your face with turkey. Take inspiration from this guy, chuck on a pair of skis and find some ice caves to take on. A worthy winner in the extreme sports category:

BEST MUSIC – Drift

Frank Dewaele (Belgium)

Sure, the music is great. But it’s an interesting film, too. We don’t really understand what’s going on, but that doesn’t stop if from being entertaining, right?

PEOPLE’S CHOICE – Let’s Go Shopping

Mark Cocquio (Australia)

Some FPV flying to finish off with. In a grocery store, of course.

The jury team included professionals from across the drone, tech, media and creative sector, including two DroneLife editors.  Prizes for the above 12 categories included a WD My Passport Wireless Pro 2TB, a SanDisk 64GB Extreme Pro microSD Card, Lightworks Pro & Graffiti software, Cyberlink Powerdirector software, a SkyTango membership and a Henty travel bag accessory.

The Best ANZ Film is due to receive a DJI Mavic Pro drone, flights for two people to fly from Australia to Thailand to shoot their next drone film, along with spending money and ten days accommodation, thanks to THAI Airways.

The winners of the Best Cinematography Film will receive a Micro Cinema Camera and a Video Assist 4K by Blackmagic Design.

Next year’s edition of Drone Film Festival ANZ presented by SanDisk will feature drone fly day demonstrations, guest speaker segments to schools, master class learning programs along with screening the best of 2018 short drone films from across the world. DFFANZ is accepting film submissions from Thursday 01 March 2018 via www.filmfreeway.com/dffanz.