Director Oliver Warren's Short Film Cusp Awarded at LAIFF

Dingo Bill’s founder and director Oliver Warren sees his short film Cusp being awarded with its first award this week. He’s delighted that after being selected to appear at the Los Angeles Independent Film Awards, Cusp has walked away with the award for ‘Best Original Score’. It was also nominated for ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Ensemble Cast’

The short has been well received at numerous international awards ceremonies. After appearing at the London Independent Film Festival it went onto being screened at the NYC PictureStart Film Festival earlier this year.

Cusp was scored by composer and performer Esmeralda Conde Ruiz (@ESMERALDAmusic ). Esmeralda is a 
Spanish 
singer 
and
 composer and in
 2013 
was 
nominated
 at the 
British 
Composer 
Awards. Her
 vocal
 and
 choral 
compositions 
have 
been 
performed
 in
 London,
 at 
Shakespeare's 
Globe
 and 
the Serpentine
 Gallery. She is also the founder of the Borough Market choir and has performed as a solo recording artist across the world.

Esmeralda’s rich and emotive music perfectly complemented the haunting tone of Oliver’s debut short film.  

With five original songs, the music is a critical part of the film, and collaborating with Esmeralda on the score was a real pleasure for Oliver: “Working with Esmeralda to score the film from the emotive core out was an incredible experience - instead of time codes and lengths, we began with feeling and story, in fact the scoring began well before the shoot itself.  The raw music then influenced the film, and vice versa. It was a truly organic experience, and the time and passion that Esmeralda put into Cusp is truly reflected in this award recognition."

Of the film and future Oliver says: It’s fantastic to get recognition for the short film, through the award and the nominations, and it just makes me even more excited for my feature film that is already in the works. Writing and directing fiction content is a real passion, and I’m looking forward to bringing this across into my commercial work too.