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Short film fest, The St Kilda Film Festival has announced its award nominees across 18 categories. Winners will be announced on Sunday 27 May

The announcement:

Now in its 29th year the St Kilda Film Festival’s (Skff) Top 100 competition recognises and awards local filmmakers of all levels of experience who excel in creative and craft and who show potential for growth within the industry.

From an increasingly competitive field of entrants, 62 nominees are in the running for 18 prestigious awards and their share of $40,000 of cash and in-kind prizes, with the winner of the Best Film being awarded $10,000 cash.

The nominations for the 2012 Best Short Film include: At The Formal (Directed by Andrew Kavanagh & Produced by Ramona Telecican). Peekaboo (Directed by Damien Power & Produced by Joe Weatherstone) The Palace (Directed by Anthony Maras & Produced by Anthony Maras, Kate Croser, Andros Achilleos) and Transmission (Directed by Zak Hilditch & Produced by Liz Kearney)

Nominees...

Anthony Maras’ short film The Palace has won a swag of awards at this year’s South Australian Screen Awards, now in its 13th year.

The awards, which rewards the achievements of South Australian-based film-makers, acknowledged Maras’ film with both best short film and best drama.

Maras also won craft awards for best direction, best screenplay and best editing, while Nick Matthews won best cinematography for his work on the film.

Vincent Sheehan, producer of The Hunter and Sasa judge said: “The Palace is a poignant and tragic tale about the realities of war. Realistically portrayed with beautifully performances and gripping suspense, Anthony Maras is a director to keep an eye on.”

The Palace has already won best short and best short screenplay at the recent Aacta Awards, the audience award at the Adelaide Film Festival, best short film at Sydney Film Festival, best Australian short at both the Melbourne International Film Festival and Flickerfest.

Filmmaker Anthony Maras' short The Palace has continued its winning streak, picking up six awards at the South Australian Screen Awards over the weekend.

The Cyprian-Australian co-production, which has garnered a number of awards including the Aacta Award for Best Short Fiction Film, won both Best Short Film and Best Drama as well as picking up awards for its screenplay, direction, editing and cinematography.

Film collective Closer Productions received two awards: short documentary Stunt Love won Best Sound Design while Sundance darling Shut Up Little Man won Best Feature Film. This is the second year in a row Closer Productions has won the feature film category. Last year's winner Life in Movement is currently in cinemas.

For a full list of recipients, see below:

Sasa Genre Awards:

Best Short Film: The Palace - Anthony Maras, Kate Croser & Andros Achilleos Best Drama: The Palace - Anthony Maras, Kate Croser & Andros...

The nominees for the South Australian Screen Awards have been announced.

The announcement:

2012 South Australian Screen Awards Nominees Announced

The Media Resource Centre – South Australia’s centre for screen culture development – is pleased to announce the nominations for the 2012 South Australian Screen Awards (Sasa).

Now in its 13th year as Sa’s premier screen awards, Sasa continues to reward excellence and outstanding achievement from South Australian-based filmmakers.

With thousands of dollar in cash and prizes, Sasa provides an exciting platform for South Australian screen practitioners to showcase their work across drama, comedy, documentary, animation, music video, non-narrative and digital media.

Sasa also recognises the invaluable contribution made by Sa key ‘creatives’, offering awards in eight craft categories, as well as two jury prizes recognising notable contributions from Sa’s up-and-coming young filmmakers.

Sasa continues to grow in size and scope along with the quality of short form screen production in this state.

Short film The Palace has led the nominations at this year's South Australian Screen Arts Awards with seven nominations, including Best Picture.

The Cyprian-Australian co-production was also nominated for Best Drama while writer-director Anthony Maras was nominated for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. Nick Matthews was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Maras was raised in Adelaide but studied film production at the University of California before returning to Australia to direct critically acclaimed films Azadi and Spike Up. He then directed The Palace, which has garnered an array of awards including the Aacta Award for Best Short Fiction Film, as well as the Australia.s Writer.s Guild and the Flickerfest awards for Best Australian Short Film. Maras also picked up last year's If Award for Rising Talent.

Other films nominated at the South Australian Screen Arts Awards include Suburban Samarai, Horace in Slow Motion, Stunt Love and A Tale of Obsession.

A film set during the 1974 Turkish innovation of Cyprus has won Flickerfest’s Best Australian Short Film.

It marked a successful day for the film, which also won best screenplay for a short film, and best fiction short film at the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTAs) earlier in the day.

The Palace, written and directed by Anthony Maras and produced by Maras, Kate Croser, and Andros Achilleos won took out the local competition at the Festival, now in its 21 year.

In The Palace a Cypriot family takes refuge in an abandoned Ottoman era palace as the Turkish forces advance. A young Turkish conscript games face to face with the family and confronted with the brutality of war.

The film has previously won best short film at both the Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals and the audience award at Adelaide Film Festival.

The special Jury Award went to the film Julian,...