CAUSTIC GULP wins The Skinny Short Film Competition

After a brilliant response to this year’s competition, with over 100 emerging filmmakers from across the UK submitting work, Ferguson's striking and stylish short was chosen from a shortlist of thirteen films by our judging panel, which included Glasgow Short Film Festival director Matt Lloyd, producer Rosie Crerar, filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins, and The Skinny’s film editor Jamie Dunn. Watch 2015's winning film, CAUSTIC GULP, in the player below.

The results of The Skinny Short Film Competition 2015 were revealed on Sunday night at a screening at Hill Street Design House in Edinburgh, with drinks courtesy of Daffy's Gin, where a selection of the best films entered into this year's competition were screened.

On behalf of his fellow judges, Matt Lloyd had this to say about CAUSTIC GULP and its creator: “Bryan M Ferguson harnesses a unique vision to tell an ambiguous, disturbing and very funny story to great cinematic effect. A true maverick.”

Describing the origins of the film, Ferguson told The Skinny: "I knew I wanted to explore strange human behaviours and then that snowballed into cultism and from there I was intrigued by the notion of creating a bizarre cult that would seem plausible but quite absurd."

Glasgow Short Film Festival receives BAFTA recognition

Ferguson will receive £3000 worth of filmmaking equipment from competition sponsors Olympus, as well as the opportunity to make a second film, which will have its world premiere at Glasgow Short Film Festival in March 2016.

This prospect is particularly exciting as it was announced today that Glasgow Short Film Festival has been awarded BAFTA-recognised status for Short Film and Animation categories, meaning that all British films screened at GSFF automatically become eligible for BAFTA Short Film or Short Animation Award consideration, providing they meet other eligibility criteria.

The Skinny would like to send a massive congratulations to Matt Lloyd and his team at GSFF, who have been tireless champions of emerging Scottish film talent and been great supporters of The Skinny Short Film Competition.

Special commendation for Jakarta Polyfilla

The judges also asked us to give a special commendation to another film in the shortlist: Jakarta Polyfilla by director Rob Hill. Mark Cousins, on behalf of his fellow judges, called Hill’s inventive short “a wry film from a real filmmaker, which reminded us of Alan Bennett and JG Ballard. We look forward to seeing what he does next.”

You can watch all the films that made this year's shortlist over at our Short Film Competition hub page.