This year's DigiSPAA winner announced

The winner of the ‘Spaartan Award’ for the 2010 DigiSPAA Feature Film Competition, was announced recently at the Screen Producers Association of Australia’s (SPAA) annual conference.

Little Sparrows, directed, written and produced by Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen and co-produced by Eva Di Blasio wowed the judges with its charm and heart, taking the major prize from a pool of strong contenders.

Shot entirely in Western Australia where Camille Chen resides, and on Red One format, Little Sparrows tells the story of three sisters who are forced to make tough decisions when their mother’s breast cancer returns and they must face the reality of their last Christmas together.

As winners of the competition, Camille Chen and Di Blasio walk away with a package totaling over $50,000, including $10,000 in film equipment hire, $15,000 cash, $20,000 worth of post-production courtesy of Movie Network, a guaranteed screening of their film on the Movie Extra channel, and a return airfare and free registration to the prestigious CineMart International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Runner up The Fall Guys, produced by New Zealander Rhys Cain is a gritty crime comedy about three college buddies who stumble across three cases of premium grade heroin.

The story is told in flashback as each of the men are interrogated by police, pushing the friends deeper and deeper into a world they clearly know nothing about.