Heckler lead editor Andrew Holmes scores Silver Lotus at Adfest for Byron Bay Film Festival short

Heckler’s lead editor, Andrew Holmes, has picked up a Silver Lotus Award at Adfest 2018. The winning spot ‘Byron‘ was a short created for Byron Bay Film Festival, directed by Justin McMillan of Goodoil Films and featuring poetry penned by Marcel’s David Nobay.

Heckler was the only Australian post house to win an award in the editing category. The news of Holmes’ win came as his second child, Harlow Indie Holmes, was born.

Says Holmes: “What an amazing week! One minute I’m rushing my wife to hospital, about to give birth to our little girl, the next minute I’m waking up with baby in arm, getting text messages from Justin congratulating me on winning Silver for Best Editing at Adfest. Weeks don’t get much better than this one.

“Working on this film was really refreshing, It was an amazing opportunity to work closely with a bunch of film makers, which at times felt like an art experiment, collaborating and exploring ideas and developing visual narratives that would work for this particular film.”

For McMillan, the piece was close to home, but the team was able to create something unique and special by way of considered collaboration.

Says McMillan: “After living in Byron for the last 7 years – this was an especially tricky film for me to execute. I was honoured to colour in Nobby’s words and I really love this editor. Andrew Holmes is a story teller I really enjoy working with.”

The pairing between McMillan and Holmes seems to have been the perfect combination for the evocative piece of work.

Says Nobay: “From the moment I discussed the project with the team at BBFF, there were only ever two people on my short list as creative collaborators: Justin, as director and Andrew as the alchemist I knew who would deftly meld my words and Justin’s images. Andrew is a uniquely gifted editor, whose ability to improvise and innovate has rightly won him the nickname “Jazz Hands” around the industry.”

You can view more of Andrew Holmes’ editing work here.

Andrew Holmes image: photographer David Collins