The Smovies (Short + Movies) is a film competition created in Abu Dhabi, UAE in April 2015 by BrandMoxie. The initiative was developed in partnership with VOX Cinemas where the winner's short film is shown as a trailer. The Smovies also gives filmmakers an opportunity to become acquainted with the art of shooting a film and goes further by providing them with an outlet for the films to be viewed. The winner receives a one-week scholarship of accelerated filmmaking program involving shooting 4 films in 5 days. The choice of location ranges from New York City, Disneyland (Florida), Harvard (Boston), Paris (France), Florence (Italy), Sydney and Queensland (Australia). Over the entire year, The Smovies competition runs for three seasons.
Contents
Guidelines
The shortlisted videos are shown on the Smovies website. The Smovies team has selected an expert panel of judges who will choose the winners per season. The winning and short-listed videos will be showcased at various events and during the awarding ceremony. The winners are announced at the end of every season.
Season 1
The first season was launched on April 1, 2015 and ended in June. The season was titled #plsdontstealmyshow in an attempt to raise awareness about movie watching etiquette. VOX Cinemas took this opportunity to enlighten movie goers about cinema etiquette and to create the best cinema going experience in the region. Participants were asked to create an ad for the campaign which was then shown across their screens.
The shortlisted films totalled 27:
- A Spartan Surprise
- The Epiphany
- Please Don't Steal My Show
- You Are Not Alone
- Sameer Antulay
- Nonsense
- TV Watching
- I Want To Enjoy It Too!
- Not Cool
- What Do You Prefer?
- Don't Kill My Moment
- Switch Off!
- What Did I Miss?
- ENOUGH
- Lightsaber Rage
- My Feet Smell Sweet
- Selfie With Ghost
- Calls Ruin Movies
- Show Stealers
- Seeing Double
- Who Has My Daughter?
- Don't Steal My Show- Sparsh Srivastava
- The Laptop
- Gamer Guy
- Book Reading
- What Did I Miss?
- Smovie by Hammad
The first place went to A Spartan Surprise by Faisal Hashmi. The second place went to The Epiphany by Shezah Salam and the third place went to Please Don't Steal My Show by Vimin Thomas.
Season 2
The second season is titled The Message and lead to the hashtag #smoviesmessage. This edition ran from June to September 2015 and focused on conveying a message regarding social consciousness, and fell under the narrative category.
- Save Water
- Don't Shoot Me
- Ab Bol
- A Little Push
- Rise Again
- Blind Date
- Behave
- Love at First Sight
- Arabian Nights
- He Was
- Never Stop
- Control Your Anger
- The Touch
- A Sip of Water
- The Jungle
- Paws The Water
- The Butterfly Effect
- Share Your Lives
- Journey: In Search Of Jim Morrison
The Smovies season 2 Award Ceremony took place on September 19, 2015 at the Nation Galleria Mall and the winners were:
First place went to The Touch by Vimin-Sujith, the second place went to Save Water by Vasilis Billy Blioumis and the third place went to Control Your Anger by Firas Salah.
Season 3
The third season of The Smovies will start on October 1 and will end on December 1st, just in time for the UAE National Day, hence the topic #WhyIloveUAE.