More kudos for Kleiman

THE rise and rise of filmmaker Ariel Kleiman continued unabated earlier this month, with the writer and director winning an Australian Film Institute award for his short film Deeper Than Yesterday.

Kleiman’s film, about a group of Russian sailors on a submarine who turn on each other after discovering a body floating in the water, won the award for Best Screenplay for a Short Film. It was also nominated for Best Short Fiction Film, but lost out to The Kiss, directed by Ashlee Page.

Deeper Than Yesterday was previously selected for the Critic’s Week component of the Cannes Film Festival in June, where it won the Kodak Discovery Award and the Petit Rail d’Or.

Another short film, Muscles, on which Kleiman was cinematographer, was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Earlier this year, Kleiman’s short film, Young Love, won an honourable mention at the Sundance Film Festival.

Deeper Than Yesterday was Kleiman’s third-year project while studying at the Victorian College of the Art. He now lives in London.

ADAM KAMIEN