British Short Film 'Gone Fishing' Wins Inaugural Producers Challenge Competition

British short film Gone Fishing has won the award for Best Narrative Film in the inaugural Producers Challenge Competition.
This was the closing event for the first annual Producers Guild of America 'Produced By' conference held at Sony Pictures Studios.
Finalists were drawn from over 600 entrants from around the world. British Producer/Director of the film, Chris Jones, was present to accept the award from event co-chair Ms. Gale-Anne Hurd, producer of films such as Aliens, Terminator and, most recently, The Incredible Hulk. Rachel Klein, PGA Co-Chair of the Produced By Conference, said: "The judges were unanimous in selecting Gone Fishing as the winner and we all felt it was a wonderful film."
Prizes include a coveted mentoring lunch with one of Hollywood's top producers.
Gone Fishing has already won over 25 international accolades and was Oscar shortlisted in 2009. Jones commented: "Winning this award from The Producers Guild of America is extraordinary."
The way in which film was financed and made makes it unusual, even for the independent film world. Jones said: "I could not fund the film myself, so I chose to ask everyone i ever met for £50 ($80). In return, I promised I would do my best to make a world class movie, throw a great premiere and give them a credit on the movie, so we now have 200 producers! I guess we were pioneers in the now accepted term of 'crowd sourcing' as a way of funding a film."
Jones is the author of the hugely successful Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series (over 100,000 copies sold) and Gone Fishing gave him the chance to reach out to the community of emerging film makers surrounding the books.
He said: "We also promised to take everyone on our journey and documented the whole process via a blog, including many hours of behind the scenes video. The blog has become its own entity now, attracting thousands of film makers every week. The blog can be found at: www.chrisjonesblog.com. Jones has already decided he will be attending the PGA again next year. He said: "The conference was an amazing insight and I can't afford to miss attending next year, it's that essential."
Chris Jones works out of the historic Ealing Film Studios in West London.
(KMcA/JM)