Asheville filmmakers win big in National Film Challenge, will have movie screened at Cannes

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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A team of Asheville filmmakers recently won big with their film entry in the 2013 National Film Challenge. Their movie, Joint Effort, won the Best Film award and will go to the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for a special screening.

The movie was the work of Asheville’s Gorilla With A Mustache Films, a five-person team of producers that includes the following: Lela Winton, Katie Damien, Eruch Adams, Coranna Adams, and Matt Shepard.

Joint Effort is a comedy about a package delivery gone horribly wrong. For the National Film Challenge, the group had one weekend to write, shoot, and edit the short film, then present it to the judges. Joint Effort won other awards. David Ostergaard won for Best Actor, while Eruch Adams and Will Eill won for Best Writer. Joint Effort also won the Best Use of Genre -Comedy award and was second runner-up for the Audience Choice Award. More here.

Here’s the credit rundown for Joint Effort: Katie Damien, director, with Lela Winton as second unit director. Cinematograpy by Andy Crespo. Cast: David Ostergaard, Matt Shepard, Darren Marshall, and Adam Meier.

More about the National Film Challenge and the prizes awarded:

The best film is sent to the Cannes Film Festival and given a $3000 prize. GoPro, the title sponsor, is giving out another $3000 prize for the best use of a GoPro Camera in a movie. And the Audience choice winner receives $1000. The top 15 films are selected by judges for online voting determined by YouTube and Vimeo likes . “Joint Effort” was chosen as one of those top 15 films. The team of Asheville residents is undergoing a campaign to get the word out about the film and to encourage people to vote and to hopefully win the Audience Choice award.

Producer and director Katie Damien said, “There’s some stiff competition in this contest.  Overall the quality of all the top films is very high.  I feel really honored to have our film chosen as one of the best!  Asheville might not be as big as Dallas or Paris, but we’ve got some really talented people here in the mountains.”

About Gorilla with a Mustache Films: Established in 2010 when a group of producers collaborated on a 48 Hour Film Project. They won Best Picture for the city of Asheville. Heady with their recent victory (and drunk on their own sense of power), the group decided to pursue a feature film, as well as other short films. The Gorillas are currently in post-production on their first feature film “One Hell of an Angel.”

Joint Effort on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3347134/combined

Company IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0385222/

Gorilla with a Mustache on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GorillaWithaMustache