UWS Staff and Students are the 'Reel Deal'
UWS students and staff featured prominently among the winners' list at the 2006 Reel Deal Short Film Festival.
UWS Student Eduardo Garcia won the Inaugural Bryan Brown Scholarship at the Festival, with School of Communication Arts student Peter Raumanos and former student and now staff member Rob Leggo, named as finalists.
In addition to being named as finalists, Peter won the ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Sound’ awards for his film Salt Pan Creek, while Rob picked up the ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Editor’ for the film Anniversary.
Twelve months ago, Australian actor Bryan Brown announced the development of a new film festival, and most importantly, the very first scholarship in Australia for young film makers. That undertaking was completed on Saturday 5 August, with the Reel Deal Short Film Festival Awards.
“This is the only film scholarship in the whole of Australia and that is why this festival is so important,” said Brown.
The grassroots event was developed to identify, nurture and assist prospective film makers of the future, and attracted some 40 films, with 11 short-listed as finalists. Eduardo’s film Ways that Pays, a mock-umentary on modern rap culture, clearly impressed the stellar judging panel featuring Brown, actor Claudia Karvan, actor/radio presenter Mick Molloy, CEO of Television Sydney Laurie Patton and UWS’s Maryella Hatfield, to name a few.
Eduardo’s win is made considerably more impressive given that this is the first film competition that the 21-year-old has ever entered.
“Everyone in my film are just my friends. They’re not actors. So I thought, I’ll go with something that we could have fun with and if it doesn’t make the competition we’ll just show it to our friends for a laugh,” Eduardo told the Bankstown Canterbury Torch.
Brown sang the praises of all entrants, at one point calling for all 40 on stage to be applauded.
“Have a bloody look at them, they’re so young!” said Brown. “Now every year we want another mob… until this stage is so full, Revesby Workers Club has to make extensions.”
The UWS trio will take confidence from their awards as they move to the next step in their promising filmmaking careers. 
“Only the worst and best advice lingers in the memory,” remarked Rob Leggo. “Bryan Brown’s encouragement will linger for a long, long time. When someone as experienced as him says ‘You know what you’re doing, just keep doing it mate,’ you get a lot of inspiration from that.”
Films from the festival will be shown in a program showcasing the top finalists, to be screened on TVS later in the year. TVS is Sydney's new free-to-air television channel, located on the Werrington South campus.
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