Jane Austen's Period Drama: Oscar-nominated, and bloody marvellous | Short Takes at CineWyre

Across the countdown to CineWyre, we're gonna put the spotlight on the best shorts playing the festival to showcase just what's coming to Fleetwood next month - there's only one natural place to start than with our headline short film in the Cine-International block which wraps up our opening and closing night: none other than the Oscar-nominated Jane Austen's Period Drama.

England, 1813. In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley, mistakes the blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his expensive education has missed a spot.

This absolutely short comes from the minds of Julia Aks & Steve Pinder and blends some incredibly sharp writing, a brilliant sense of pace, alongside a very loving parody of the Austen drama together to create a 13 minute long short that has made many audiences lose it laughing during its run on the festival circuit. Since I initially seen it at Aesthetica two years ago, it has never failed to deliver strong audience reactions, which says a lot about how that script works in practice. Every aspect of this film is smartly crafted, from Alex Winkler's score, to Luca Del Puppo's cinematography and the wider production design - this is authentically done, and I can really see how it earned the Oscar nod.

The cast also put their heart and souls into this short, from Aks herself as Estrogenia, Lachlan Ta'imua Hannemann as Mr. Dickley, and a supporting cast that includes Samantha Stuart, Nicole Alyse Nelson, Hugo Armstrong, Marilyn Brett, Dustin Ingram and co-director Pinder committing to the bit, and ensuring that the comic elements are balanced with the more dramatic conventions you'd expect of an Austen-adjacent piece. It ultimately takes a taboo subject, flips it on its head, adds some smartly written humour, and stays the course in a 13 minute short that flies by. I've seen this short quite a few times now, across the CineWyre process, and it never ever fails to put a grin on my face, even knowing some of the punchlines off by heart at this point!

THE VERDICT

You don't get Emma Thompson begging to be a film's Executive Menstrual Advisor unless it happens to be a ridiculously brilliant piece of work. It's a privilege to be able to screen films like this to audiences, and as it closes our Cine-International block, not long after being nominated for the Live Action Short honour at the Oscars, it is a real honour to have played a small part in the journey for this short alongside Ed and the Lancashire Film Network team by featuring it in CineWyre.

RATING: 4.5/5

See Jane Austen's Period Drama and so many more films at Fleetwood's biggest celebration of cinema and creativity: CineWyre Film Festival. Learn more at cwfilmfest.com.

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