The winners of the My Rode Reel 2021 short film competition have been announced

My Rode Reel 2021 is over and the winners have been announced, with the overall Judge’s Prize winner being the video above; Two Halves by Chen Wei Choon, based in Malaysia, who walks away with a cool $250,000 in cash as well as a bunch of gear from the competition’s sponsors;  Zhuyin, Insta360, Nanlite, Adobe, Arri, DZOFilm, Pelican, MZed, Musicbed and Rode themselves.

It’s interesting to see an animated film winning this year, but it’s extremely well shot and edited with a great story. And there’s a hell of a lot of work been put into it as you can see in the behind the scenes below (which has also had a lot of work put into it).

Here are the rest of the winners from each category of the competition.

Drama

1st Place: The Cold Order – Lucas Nicotra (Australia)
2nd Place: Last Birthday – Wiktor Szafrański (Poland)
3rd Place: A Walk in the Park – Chris Lodge (Ireland)

Comedy

1st Place: ZERO – Tim Hamilton (New Zealand)
2nd Place: Next in Line – Alex Raban (USA)
3rd Place: Pipe Dreams – Nigel Shinnors (Ireland)

Documentary

1st Place: The French Cowboy – Jacob Redman (France)
2nd Place: Xolani – Tao Farren-Hefer (South Africa)
3rd Place: EMBAERA – Noam Tryber (Israel)

Animation

1st Place: Two Halves – Chen Wei Choon (Malaysia)
2nd Place: SKYLER’S BOX – John Remar Lavina (Phillippines)
3rd Place: Nighty Night – Bruno de Sena Giovanini (Brazil)

Behind the Scenes

1st Place: Employee of the Month – Scott Pope (Australia)
2nd Place: Fadeaway – Lucas Nicotra (Australia)
3rd Place: Escape – Malik Bouabid (Canada)

People’s Choice Prize

1st Place: The Stage – Yadukrishnan O.V (India)
2nd Place: CHUZALONGO – Diego Ortuño Ñ (Ecudor)
3rd Place: The Redemption – Mohanad Al-jawaheri (Germany)

Sound Design

1st Place: Brainstorming – Bruno de Sena Giovanini (Brazil)
2nd Place: Employee of the Month – Scott Pope (Australia)
3rd Place: Misia – A Love Letter to My Daughter – Andrzej Rudz (Japan)

Best Chinese Film

1st Place: 归宿 (The Home) – Xie Dawei
2nd Place: 家庭驱邪的五个步骤 (Five Ways of Home Exorcism) – Dazhao Gege
3rd Place: 无价之宝 (Priceless Treasure) – Chen Si

This year’s My Rode Reel competition has been to a very high standard, especially considering the challenges that most of us are still facing from the consequences of covid and the winners have been chosen from over 2,000 entries across 114 different countries. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Now to start prepping for My Rode Reel 2022!