Yarns Crowns 2023 Winner

Yarns are delighted to announce that Holly Hunter, with her film ‘Banana Boat’, is the winner of this year’s competition.

Thursday night saw the four finalists’ premiere their films to a packed-out crowd at Prince Charles Cinema. Hosted by James King, the night also featured a stunning performance from spoken-word poet Miss Yankey, who created a piece especially for the screening. The audience later moved to Phoenix Arts Club for the after party, where Hunter was crowned the winner after a public vote. 

‘Banana Boat’ tells the story of a tense stand-off over the final Banana Boat ride of the summer. Set in a typical holiday resort, the film sees two sets of mothers and sons one up each other in a bid to secure the last tickets. It prompted big laughs throughout, ultimately clinching top spot in what was a closely fought contest.

The finalists and their films for this year were: Travelling Home (Juliet Klottrup), Mr Biscuit (Doug Redfern & Joe Roberts), Do You Have Kids? (Tom Gentle & Sam Brain) and Banana Boat (Holly Hunter).

Tim Hardy, co-owner at Stitch Editing, was delighted with how the films turned out: “We wanted this Yarns final to be our best yet, and it surpassed our expectations. We were blown away at the turnout, which made for a brilliant atmosphere throughout. The directors produced one of our strongest collections to date, with some truly amazing shorts, any one of which could’ve taken home the prize. Holly is such a worthy winner, and we can’t wait to see what she goes on to achieve off the back of this”.

Object & Animal's Keith McCarthy mentored Holly throughout the process, with the Banana Boat team working hard to make the film in just four months. Yarns sponsors Kodak provided the film for the shoot, with partners Absolute Post providing the post-production services.

Each finalist worked with Homespun’s emerging talent when editing their shorts, with Laura Zvarikova working on the winning film. The other brilliant editors taking part in the process were Laura Reyes (Mr. Biscuit), Chris Hutchings (Do You Have Kids?) and Luke Anderson (Travelling Home).

Holly commented, “I am incredibly grateful for the whole experience, the talented team I got to work with, the support from Yarns and the honour to make a film about morals and Banana Boats! It was so much fun to create and that’s what it’s all about!”

The four films commissioned this year explored the brief ‘The Ends’ which invited entrants to create the end of their film based on three excerpts from Miss Yankey’s poetry. An entirely not-for-profit initiative, Yarns consistently identifies the next wave of directing talent and provides finalists with a unique platform to turn their idea into a fully formed short film with the support of the industry’s foremost talent.

Yarns also sees the finalists’ partner with some of the industry’s foremost talent to create their film. Those involved in creating the films this year, through their time, expertise and sponsorship are Kodak, Slingshot Intergalactic, Sine, Freefolk, nineteentwenty and Absolute Post.