Admen who surf. There are a lot of them in Australia. Most use surfing to clear a space in their head to be filled later with wild ideas the client will fight not to make and workable ideas that they will probably have to live with making.
Not many turn their love of, interest in or need to surf into a creative product. Maybe a few happy-snaps for the grandkids. But never a surf film.
Last year, a bunch of admen and their friends made an important surf film. Yes, ok, it’s fictional, but it’s feet stand in facts. And those facts are about the beginning of Australian surf brands. Drift’s Australian surf brands, Quiksilver & Rip Curl, matter in the real world. There’s a Quiksilver Pro held in every corner of the world now. And by the way, the reigning ASP world champion surfer is an Aussie. It’s Mick Fanning. Last year it was Joel Parkinson. He’s an Aussie too.
Now Drift has been nominated for three AACTAs in next week’s Australian film awards. The newly created awards are in their third year and e already considered the Aussie Oscars. Drift has been nominated in Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Original Music Score.
It adds this applause to five international awards won in 2013. The U.S. Rincon International Film Festival awarded Drift Best Feature Film, Audience Choice and Best of the Fest. At the U.S. Newport Beach International Film Festival, Drift won for Outstanding Achievement In Filmmaking, and at the U.S. Maui International Film Festival it won the Extreme Cinema Award.
And Drift has become an Aussie brand itself. The Drift surf wear label is now available in the US and Australia. Surfboards and other core surfing items also carry the Drift moniker. The Drift film soundtrack is out, as is the DVD, a music video from the film and an app is soon to be released.
Directors: Ben Nott and Morgan O’Neill (screenplay by O’Neill).
Original story by Tim Duffy
Production companies: World Wide Mind Film and (trailer by) Heckler
Cast: Sam Worthington, Xavier Samuel, Lesley-Anne Brandt and Myles Pollard
Andrew Kotakto (musical supervisor), Robert MacKenzie (sound design), Michale Yezerski (music)
DoP: Geoffrey Hall
Editing: Marcus Darcy
