Pericles Dailianis He's on a winning streak - with an award from Kodak, honourable mentions at a Seattle Film Fest, and a BBC World Young Filmmaker of the Year Award which resulted in an internship in New York. Now Christchurch-based short film-maker Pericles Dailianis has been honoured again with another exciting travel scholarship. As the winner of the 2nd Italian Film Festival Scholarship, Dailianis will spend the second half of 2008 in Italy, where he will rub shoulders with the best and brightest film producers and directors at the Venice and Rome film festivals. He's also earned himself an internship working on a film production at the prestigious Italian film production house of Due A, and also an internship at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin. The scholarship includes travel to and from Europe and travel and accommodation within Italy, so the gay 30-year-old has no money worries as he makes the connections he needs to follow in the international footsteps of successful New Zealand film-makers like Peter Jackson, Jane Campion, Vincent Ward and Niki Caro. "The Italian Film Festival scholarship means a lot to me, because it's going to be an amazing learning experience," the rising star says. "And not only am I going there to learn from them, but I'm bringing my skills from the New Zealand film industry over. "So hopefully there'll be a two-way flow, with me acting as an ambassador for the New Zealand film industry too." In 2004, Dailianis' short film The Shadow Man - about a teenage boy and his imaginary friend - beat thousands of entries from all over the world to win the BBC Young Filmmaker of the Year Award. Dailianis got the opportunity to work in New York for six weeks with the BBC. "While I was over there, I was absolutely blown away - as soon as I said I was a Kiwi, people seemed to know all about our industry. Not just about Lord of the Rings, but smaller films making an impact over there. They knew about our recording artists, our actors… and I was thinking wow, New Zealand really is making an impact overseas." Since Dailianis graduated with a BFA in Film from the University of Canterbury in 2002, he's made several short films, documentaries and music videos, and now has a feature film in development. In the studio "I guess you could say that I'm really interested in imagination and the way people's imaginations work. Escaping into fantasy worlds," he explains. "What I love about film is that it's multidisciplinary. You get to come up with an idea, create visuals, create dialogue, work with actors, work with musicians, and there's the editing component. There are so many different things involved. "It's such a nice interaction of different people, disciplines, and artistic mediums when everything comes together." Dailianis advises young film-makers to get out there and promote their work. "Find an audience. Enter your work into competitions and take it to screenings. Don't just make the film - follow it through, and put it out there. Even though it might be scary - let people see your work, get feedback and then listen to that feedback." There are a few months to go before Dailianis jets off to Italy's movie festivals, and he intends to make them busy ones. "I'm definitely going to make another two films this year to take over there," he says. "It's going to be exciting and challenging. I want to live up to expectations and do the best I can." Pericles Dailianis' mini-showreel, showing clips from his films so far, is available to view below. Matt Akersten - 17th October 2007