For the first time since the Homeworld War, the Galactic Vid Awards have been revived. During the Expansion Era, a competition of the best vid from each of the Homeworlds was held each standard cycle, with citizens of the galaxy voting on them.
Now, after almost a century, the awards are back, as this is the first year in decades where all six homeworlds have a film submitted for galactic audiences to vote on.
The nominees are:
Agerre – Injured
An Agerran writer, Taiv Gaive, managed to get a script smuggled off world, and Agerrans living off-world worked together to make the film, as a means of proving that Agerran society survives. The film, a modernization of a classic folk tale of two injured soldiers who save their city, transposes the action to a space station. The amateur filmmakers made some brilliant choices, such as having an extended sequence in the dark, but some clumsy ones, as having the rather pun-filled conversations extend far longer than necessary.
Positives: Strong use of black and white imagery.
Negatives: Amateur acting is wooden.
Baryos – Darkest Before
This big budget adventure film is “based on a real story” of the founding of the Dawnlighters, based on a recently discovered fragment of an Ancient text. The Order of the Dawn claims that the film disparages their faith for the purpose of making a profit, and Innate rights activists protested the casting of a non-innate as the lead, “Don” who in the film founds the Order of the Dawn.
Positives: Intense action scenes that show off what innate wars could do.
Negatives: A main character who speaks entirely in pithy one-liners.
Dor Len Sono – The Villagers in The Wind-Born Romance
A feature length special of The Villagers, the generational weekly serial of a quaint farming village and the loves and lives of the people within it. This is the special feature-length wedding of Sen Cau Tori and Jan Tun Ren, who have been lovers off-and-on for twenty years on the show. Cameos from characters over 6 decades of the long-running series, each making references to past events make this a joy for Dor Len fans, but impenetrable to off-worlders.
Positives: The actors have great chemistry. Beautiful slow pans and cinematography.
Negatives: Slow-paced. Hard to follow if you aren’t Dor Len. Very long.
New Gyr – Dive
This generational saga has a young Gyra girl rebelling against her family’s traditions, but through a series of stories told to her as nested flashbacks, tracing back her family’s history to old Gyr, she learns the importance of tradition, narrated through a series of Gyran actors, ending in a gorgeous sequence of a bird flying over the oceans of Old Gyr. The moral message of the power of tradition over time is one that is quite Gyra.
Positives: The recreation of old Gyr’s vistas are breathtaking.
Negatives: The nested flashbacks go on far too long, making it hard to follow at times.
Ottsalia – Brilliant Charteuse Running Dream
This short music video has a man caught up in a case of mistaken identity, having to run through the jungles of the city streets, which are also a real jungle, in a visually powerful, musically wonderful experience. Director Bludgeon Leger throws a ton of visual imagery at the viewer.
Positives: Fast-paced. Beautiful to see.
Negatives: Fast-paced. Hard to understand.
Zé – Then There Were Stars
Not a Zé high opera that the Peakborn would fund, this story is another in the new Zé style. No singing or dancing. This historical romance about how Zé discovered that there was intelligent life out in the universe, features one Peakborn woman who challenges the traditions of her people after taking a Sunken lover, willing to see beyond the cloud cover to the stars above. It incorporates a lot of the Sunken artistic traditions, of using symbolic rather than representational artwork.
Positives: The lead actress, Suhesa has a powerful speech that gives goosebumps.
Negatives: Heavy-handed political commentary distracts from the romance.
The voting will proceed this weekend, with results revealed late tomorrow night. You can send a private message of which film you want to in to GalacticVidVoting via the public comms. Each person may only vote once.