the elevator pitch

The award-winning short film about a man trapped in a fiery trailer is burning up the charts. Centigrade, the most acclaimed Canadian film of 2008, has soared to No. 5 in the iTunes chart, which tracks the most popular downloaded films in its catalogue.

Earlier this month, Centigrade debuted on iTunes, becoming the first live-action Canadian short film distributed by the Apple resource. Through the iTunes distribution deal with Shorts International, Centigrade is available for download and rental in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.

The brainchild of Vancouver-based actor Colin Cunningham and actor/producer Madison Graie, Centigrade was made on a $20,000 budget and shot entirely with a handheld digital camera that Cunningham says “was the size of a shoe”. In March, the movie became the first Canadian film to qualify for the 2009 Oscars when it won the Best Narrative Short prize at the Cinequest Film Festival, an Academy Awards-sanctioned event.

When it was listed on iTunes, it heralded a new era for shorts. Previously, filmmakers’ best hope of making money on a short film was to receive backing for a feature-length production.

“In making this short, we didn’t expect it to be a financial success,” says Cunningham, the film’s lead actor who also wrote and directed it. “This deal opens doors to aspiring directors and producers.”

The 17-minute film captured five Leo Awards, which honor the British Columbia Film and Television Industry, in May and has qualified for the Genie Awards, the annual fête that recognizes Canadian filmmakers.

“The movie has exceeded our wildest expectations,” says Graie, who along with Cunningham, her long-time collaborator, developed the script that had been closeted for 13 years. “The fact that it’s gaining a wider audience is tremendously satisfying for us. Ultimately, that’s the greatest reward — to know your artistic endeavor is out there, really entertaining people.”

The great news just keeps on coming for the makers of “Centigrade”, the award-winning thriller that’s already up for Oscar consideration.

Colin Cunningham and Madison Graie were featured recently in the Vancouver Sun. Read the article here and check out clips of the movie at the “Centigrade” website. The short film has won several accolades in 2008, including five Leo Awards in May, which honor the British Columbia film and television industry. Its best-in-category win at the Cinequest Awards earlier in the year vaulted the film onto the short list of movies that can be nominated for an Academy Award.

Cunningham wrote, directed and starred in “Centigrade” while Graie served as the producer and also has a role on-screen. The duo is hoping to start filming a feature-length version of the movie soon.

PHOTO: Team Centigrade, which includes producer/actress Madison Graie (far right) and director/writer/actor Colin Cunningham (second from right), celebrate Cunnigham’s win as Best Director in a Short Drama at the Leo Awards. Also pictured are picture editor Jonathan Tyrell and Cunningham’s girlfriend Brianne McQuair. (Photos by Julia Pelish)

A whirlwind day for hot filmmakers Colin Cunningham and Madison Graie started with a television appearance in the morning and ended with a dominating awards-show performance at night.

The thriller “Centigrade”, the brainchild of the Vancouver duo, won three Leo Awards on Friday night, including for Best Direction in a Short Drama, which went to Cunningham. The movie, which has already qualified for Academy Awards consideration, will be up for two more Leos on Saturday night when the British Columbia film industry’s 10th annual awards show wraps up with a red-carpet celebration at the Westin Bayshore. Cunningham is nominated for Best Male Performance in a Short Drama and “Centigrade” is up for Best Short Drama.

Not bad for a flick whose script had been closeted for nearly two decades. Cunningham, who wrote the piece, said that it was his long-time collaborator who remembered the screenplay and convinced him to dust it off.

“It’s a script I wrote 17 years ago and it was last year when the Kickstart Awards came around and producer Madison Graie said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this?’ and I said, ‘What would we do?’ and she said, ‘Well, you’ve got a couple of different scripts’ and she mentioned a few and said, ‘How about Fahrenheit?’ That was the film’s original title,” Cunningham recalled prior to the ceremony.

Graie said she remembered the script in part because of the quality of the writing. “Colin is a really, really great writer,” she said. “It’s his style of writing that works. It clicks with me and I know if it clicks with me, it will click with a lot of other people.”

“Centigrade” is about a man stuck in a trailer and desperately searching for a means to get out before he burns inside the vehicle. It was made for $20,000 and shot mostly using a hand-held HD camera that “was about the size of a shoe,” Cunningham said.

After winning the Cinequest Film Festival honor for Best Narrative Short earlier this year, “Centigrade” qualified for the shortlist of films that can be nominated for the Oscars. Its strong showing earned Cunnigham and Graie, Elevation PR clients, a spot on Global Morning News in Vancouver Friday.

Then they prepared for the first night of the Leos and watched as the movie’s make-up artist, Jane Dancose, and its sound designer, Real Gauvreau (best overall sound), took home prizes before Cunningham collected his.

Cunningham is a veteran actor who has starred in such films and programs as “Da Vinci’s Inquest”, “jPod” and “Stargate”. With “Centigrade”, he made his directorial debut and the film is garnering so much attention it may be turned into a feature film, Cunningham said.