Straight 8 Shootout returns to Cannes for fourth consecutive year

Straight 8 Shootout is a company-to-company showdown to produce the best 2.5 minute film on Super 8 without editing or post-production, seeing it for the first time at its premiere in Cannes.

Straight 8’s rules dictate that every shot is taken in story order on a single cartridge of super 8 film, with no opportunity for retakes or editing. Any visual effects, colouring and titling must be done the old-fashioned way: as part of the shoot, with the camera. Entrants send their exposed film cartridges to Straight 8’s partner Cinelab London to process and scan.

Super 8 doesn’t record sound. Soundtracks are made by entrants without actually seeing their film, and must be original. Straight 8 lines up each soundtrack with the first frame of each film and the first time that anyone sees even their own work is at the premiere where all of the films - good, bad or ugly - will be screened.

This year, 15 teams from creative companies all over the world have all made films with no creative brief, in a bid to win the showdown in Cannes and donate prize money to their selected charity. And they’ve really gone for it! The lineup for straight 8 shootout at Cannes 2019 is:

Rattling Stick, London, UK
Curious, Auckland, New Zealand
Rankin Film, London, UK
Director’s Guild, Helsinki, Finland
Iris Worldwide (Gold Winner 2018), London, UK
Motherland, Dublin, Ireland
Rock Hound, London, UK
Airbag (x2!), Melbourne, Australia
Taiyo Kikaku (Gold Winner shootout online 2018), Tokyo, Japan
Forever Pictures , London, UK
The Producers (Silver Winner 2018), Melbourne, Australia
British Arrows Doorway, London, UK
Society, Los Angeles, USA
Partizan, London, UK