EA announces the inaugural Sims Shorts competition winner

A romantic comedy involving a cheating father, a hot tub and a dog has scooped the inaugural EA Sims Shorts film competition, and will now be seen by thousands of cinema goers at Vue cinemas this month.

“Wild Christmas” by David Cresswell, beat a host of entries from devoted Sims fans and amateur film makers from the UK who entered the competition, designed to allow people the chance to create their own movies using their favourite video game. “Wild Christmas” will be shown at 58 Vue cinemas and on 175 screens across the UK for four weeks from 2 February, and its director has also scooped a £1,000 cash prize.

“Wild Christmas” film is a 2 ½ minute short created using the video capturing tools inherent in EA’s massively popular The Sims™ 2 computer game. The film is a romantic comedy with a festive twist where a cheating man talks his way out of a sticky Christmas Eve situation involving a naked woman in a hot tub by using the family dog as an alibi.

The competition was judged by film director and photographer Rankin, comedian Ben Willbond, Vue sales and marketing director Mark De Quervain, and a representative from the Sims team at EA, Claire Ridley.

Explaining why “Wild Christmas” was chosen as the winner, Willbond said: “The winning entry stood out for me because it managed to tell a story successfully in a very short space of time. Afterwards you find yourself wanting to see more and for me that is the key. Short film, whether animated or not, is a very tricky medium because you have to be able to keep a viewer interested from start to finish. The opening sequence was excellent and will work wonderfully in a cinema. The editing and choice of shots complemented the subject matter perfectly.”

Rod Humble, VP Head of Studio for The Sims Division, said: “David’s movie demonstrates how Sims fans are passionate about the game and how fans around the world love to capture the stories they have created with the characters they love or love to be. The Sims Shorts competition also shows that the basic principles of film making can be just as easily applied to a video game and that it can have just the same emotional effect on viewers.”

Winner Cresswell, currently a modern languages student, has been involved in theatre and film before, both as an amateur actor and director. He was introduced to the ‘machinima’ style of animation by his housemate, and both worked on ideas for the script. Cresswell said: “I loved using The Sims 2 to create a fun and original short and am absolutely thrilled and delighted that the judges enjoyed it too.”

“Wild Christmas” is now available for available for download on www.simsshorts.com.