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An animation about important stages of Professor Barry Marshall’s life leading to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005 was a joint winner of the UWA special prize in the UWA Centenary 3D short film challenge on the theme Seek Wisdom.

Created by S. Lemondrop from California, the film was judged to have best captured the essence or spirit of 100 years of seeking wisdom at UWA, winning $200 and a special prize pack including a copy of the Special Edition 2013 UWA Friends of the Grounds Centenary Calendar. It was joint winner with New Yorker, P. Bellman’s film which focused on many of the 100 Treasures from UWA.

The five-minute short film challenge attracted 51 entries from every continent except Antarctica.

First prize-winner was Tutsy Navarathna from India for The Last Syllable of Recorded Time. He narrowly beat the Costa Rican-German collaboration by Karima Hoisan and Natascha Randt with their entry titled Seek Wisdom.

In a related competition, an international field of 90 artworks from 19 countries took part in the UWA Centenary 3D art challenge, with Parisian 3D artist L. Larkham’s work L’histoire de Petit-Gris taking first prize.

Accepting the award of $500 and a special prize pack, Mr Larkham said he was happy his ‘micro-story’ touched so many people. “In this piece, I tried to focus on many things including the place we give to aliens or strangers in society,” he said.

The UWA Centenary special prize went to the third place-getter, The Cathedral of Thoughts, by German artist P. Illusion while the second prize was won by To Be the Wind, a joint entry by T. Byk (USA) and U.Alter (France). Chief Scientist of Western Australia, Professor Lyn Beazley, was guest speaker at the prize-giving and special viewing.

She praised UWA for creating a global hub for such activities.

“I was hugely impressed by the standard and thought-provoking nature of the award-winning films,” Professor Beazley said. “They opened my eyes to the beauty and impact this interaction between science and art is achieving. Long may such creativity flourish!”

Founder of the UWA virtual presence and host of the challenges, Jay Jay Jegathesan of the School of Physics said he was thrilled that artists and film-makers from around the world had participated in an event that celebrated UWA’s centenary.

Published in UWA News , 17 September 2012