Quantum Shorts Film Festival Announces Top Three Prize Winners for Films Inspired by Quantum Physics
(QuantumShorts) The Quantum Shorts film festival recently announced its three top prize winners, selected from a shortlist of ten short films inspired by quantum physics. The shortlist was created from over 170 submissions from all over the world. Each winning team receives a cash award and engraved trophy, on top of the screening fee, certificate and one-year digital subscription to Scientific American awarded to all finalists. National Quantum Technologies Programme is the UK Scientific Partner of Quantum Shorts.
Slide! – a quantum thriller involving a detective, a serial killer and the theory of the parallel universe from director Thomas Tay Li Guo, received first prize and $1500. Tay, an undergraduate student in materials science in Singapore, has a diploma in screenwriting. “I am a strong believer that arts and science coincide on many areas and Quantum Shorts did a fantastic job on proving that,” says Tay, who made the film with co-producer Lin Tianyun and two actors.
The runner up prize of $1000 goes to If the World Spinned Backwards by Leonardo Martinelli and co-writer Arthur Valverde, a poetic imagination of how quantum theory’s independence of time would change the human experience. Martinelli, a Brazilian filmmaker, said that participating in Quantum Shorts was a unique opportunity. “The festival has an extremely original proposal and format. Even having participated in many festivals, I have never seen something like it. It’s an honor to be a part of it,” he said.
Decided by online public vote on the shortlist, the People’s Choice Prize of $500 goes to Legio VIII Quantae: The quantum resurgence after the fall of Silicon Valley. PhD student Andrea Rodriguez Blanco gathered a cast of friends and family to film this faux documentary in the Spanish town of Leon, imagining its future as a quantum city. This film was also the favourite of judges Ekert and Winter.
