Elisabeth Dennis has won the Grand Phoenix award at the Raglan Film Festival Awards this weekend for her film Hands of a Blue Tale - a film about an encounter with an esoteric Indigo dyer. The film was also the top film in the Open Professional section.
A prizewinner on two previous occasions, this is the first time Elisabeth has taken out the top prize. The film will be doing the rounds of the festivals for the next few months and will be released to the general public in October.
The capacity audience at the Red Carpet Awards Night saw the runner up prize in the Open Professional section go to Joe Wilson and Muredach Daly for their excellent He Puaawai Lots of Little Fires youtube series which has been viewed by tens of thousands of people
In the Tamariki section the winner was The Day Karioi Erupted by Jack Brzeski and Flynn Western Arnold with the Runner Up going to Dawn of a Teenager by MacCallum Ongley, Dougal McGregor, Caleb Van Staden, Otto Leigh
In the Rangatahi section the winner was Pistols at Noon by Hunter Collins and Riley Sullivan with the Runner up prize awarded to First Place by Levi Smith
In the Open Amateur section: the judges couldn’t split Jimmy McBean by Liam Pettigrew and Whaingaroa – Whenua Moana Rangi Ahi by Michael Crawforth so they made them first equal.
There was a special awards section too with the Cinematography award going to : Between Two Worlds by Andrew Duggan and Cian Parker. Best Screenplay went to Dawn of a Teenager and Best Actor to Jimmy McBean by Liam Pettigrew
And most importantly of all the People’s Choice Award went to The Day Karioi Erupted by Jack Brzeski and Flynn Western Arnold.
In sports news Billy Stairmand retook the king of the points crown this weekend in some wild surf at Manu Bay. Kehu Butler pushed him all the way in the final forcing Billy to his best score of the competition needing 17.50 to beat Kehu’s 17.07. Raglan’s Navryn Malone backed up King Billy in third place with Callum Chuter in 4th.
Brie Bennet relinquished her title to new Queen of the Points Aimee Brown but hot on her heels was young Raglan surfer Alani Morse in second place with Lol Groube and Kyra Wallis in 3rd and 4th.
Grom, Van Camenzind made it to the Semis with Luke Hughes, Luke Dymond and Chris Malone getting as far as the quarters.
In Football news the Raglan Roosters notched up a tough fought win against the Azizams on Sunday by 5 goals to 3. With an average age of 21 the Azizams took 70% of the possession but Raglan’s defense used all their experience - Experts suggest the average age of the Roosters may be double that of the Azizams at 42. On the score sheet for raglan were Marti, Asa, Bryn, Fraser and everyone’s favourite goalscorer “own-goal”
The Whaingaroa Whai on the other hand had a tough day on Saturday coming up against the top of the Table team Taniwharau who showed why they’re at the top by winning the game 44 - 4. Players of the day were; Tirohanga Forbes, Waikato Forbes, and Dion Wereta, the top performer for the match.