After much deliberation leading to what the judges have called "one very tough decision", Jarrod Holt's short film Water as a Metaphor has been chosen as the overall winner of the Red Bull Reel Life 2008 film competition. Holt takes home a $10,000 creative grant towards his next film.

The judging panel also made special mentions of Toby Longbottom's 'Cam 3', Blake Fraser's 'Big City Lights', Damien Seagar's 'Robot Wars' and Dan Watson and Daniel Fowler's 'Trading Pets'.After much deliberation leading to what the judges have called "one very tough decision", Jarrod Holt's short film Water as a Metaphor has been chosen as the overall winner of the Red Bull Reel Life 2008 film competition. Holt takes home a $10,000 creative grant towards his next film.

The judging panel also made special mentions of Toby Longbottom's 'Cam 3', Blake Fraser's 'Big City Lights', Damien Seagar's 'Robot Wars' and Dan Watson and Daniel Fowler's 'Trading Pets'.Red Bull New Zealand were inundated with entries from around the country for Red Bull Reel Life.

The creative brief for Red Bull Reel Life was as broad as the talented entrants chose make it, with organisers stating only that "you have five weeks to harness your creativity and produce a short film up to 10 minutes long, about absolutely anything you like - "

The winner was chosen by respected industry judges James Moore from Flying Fish, Ishland's Sally Tran, C4 presenter and bFM DJ Nick Dwyer and Red Bull Cultural Manager Jade Stanton.

Tran says that the entries were definitely "dominated by fun! But for me what stood out the most was the quality of the drama and story telling, and the narrative films were my personal favourite", whilst Dwyer was amazing by "the overall incredibly high standard - New Zealand's future in film-making is in good hands with this bunch about".

Red Bull Reel Life was open to any aspiring or established filmmakers willing to put their ideas into action for the world to see, and be judged. All entries were uploaded to the Red Bull Reel Life website ready for viewing and judging, thus revealing some of New Zealand's most innovative and ingenious individuals.

The top ten films as determined by the People's Choice vote were:
1. Max Palamo - Samoa Street
2. Thomas Asche - Riding Shotgun
3. Andrew Hewson - I've Meet Stewart
4. Aliesha Staples - Schoolies

5. Dan Watson & Daniel Fowler - Trading Pets
6. Nick Garrett - Ministry
7. Toby Longbottom - Cam 3
8. Blake Fraser - Big City Lights
9. Damian Seagar - Robot Wars
10. Josh Neilson - Subsistence

21/10/08