Student wins Grand Prix at the One Take Film Festival

Running at a full 6 minutes, 7:23 is a wonderfully sweet and profound comedy that captures a shared moment between two strangers on a busy evening commuter train. A woman falls asleep on the shoulder of a straight laced business man. She never realises, but he, firstly taken aback, will clearly cherish this moment for some time to come.

I'm very excited to have won this award. It's a really unique festival and I'm happy that such a simple film, that is also incredibly personal to me, is able to say something to people on the other side of the world - Brian Lien, Director 7:23

Held over 3 days, from 20 - 22 November, the One Take Film Festival celebrates international films of any length and any genre, that are shot in one take without interruption, from the moment of turning the camera on to the moment of switching it off. This unique festival features films that do away with a seemingly indispensable aspect of filmmaking - editing - and thus all types of cuts, dissolves, fades or transitions, to primarily emphasise the aesthetic of filmmaking.

7:23 was shot in 2007 as Lien's graduation Thesis film for Sydney Film School, winning the SFS Chairman's Award at the annual school film festival, with a cash prize of $5000. In 2008 it screened at the St Kilda Film Festival, Dungog Film Festival, Japanese Film Festival and the Asian Symposium of Film (Singapore) amongst many, before going on to win the Grand Prix at the One Take Film Festival (Croatia).

Lien 's film screened at the One take Film Festival along side Sydney Film School Director Ben Ferris' feature film Penelope, which played as Opening Night Film. In 2004 Ben Ferris' short film Ascension also won the festival Grand Prix. All these excellent examples of creative filmmaking follow in the footsteps of films such as Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark which opened the inaugural festival in 2003.

Sydney Film School has seen a marked surge in enrolments, especially from international students, as the school's reputation continues to grow beyond our shores. In 2008 100 students are enrolled with 42 of these arriving from overseas. This represents a 45% increase in international students, with 18 countries represented: India, USA, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, China, South America, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Holland, France, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the UK.

Sydney Film School is Sydney's fastest growing filmmaking community made of current students, graduates and teachers, working together towards common goals: to learn, to grow, to make good films, to be seen by audiences worldwide. Since the school began in 2004 the school's community has grown to over 400 strong. Producing the largest number of films in Sydney every year, Sydney Film School generated 130 productions in 2007 alone. These consist of quality documentaries, dramas and individual thesis films exploring all manner of cinematic forms. Since inception, 32 SFS films have screened in 43 prestigious film festivals locally and abroad with 6 first prizes.