Last Wednesday, close to 45,000 votes from 23 countries were submitted for CBC TV’s first Short Film Face Off, declaring Jay Dahl’s extreme-sport mockumentary Backjumping as the winner. A cross between Andy Samberg’s People Getting Punched Right Before Eating and Best in Show, let’s hope jumping on the backs of strangers doesn’t become a real point-system sport. Dahl receives a CBC production deal towards his next film. Go here to watch all the episodes, including the three other superb finalists: Former Glories, directed by Evan Kelly; The Sparky Book (ah, wipe those tears), directed by Mary Lewis and The Wake of Calum MacLeod directed by Marc Almon.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.