Spectrum 23 Silver Award

Simply lasting to the end of a movie can sometimes seem like an agonising journey of endurance. We’ve all been that person drooling into their neighbour’s popcorn, thinking we would just rest our eyelids for a second, only to wake up an hour later as the credits rolled.

The annual 24 Hour Movie Marathon, held in Auckland’s Hollywood Cinema, celebrated its 16th year in 2015. Promoting itself as the ‘Mt freaking Everest of movie viewing experiences’, the event needed an epic poster to seduce moviegoers into purchasing tickets and capture the essence of this eye-watering experience.

Joseph Qiu’s illustration so convincingly captures the crazed desperation and dark eye-circles of the obsessive movie fan, struggling to stay awake as another hoard of giant killer tomatoes revolt against humanity, that it won a Silver Spectrum Award for advertising.

The annual Spectrum Awards recognise excellence in Fantastic Art – artworks from the USA, China, Europe, Australia and beyond that embrace the themes of science fiction, fantasy, horror and the surreal. In 2016, the ceremony will be held in the prestigious Society of Illustrators building in New York City. Award-winning submissions, including Joseph’s eye-watering poster, will be printed in the highly anticipated 23rd Spectrum annual.

See more of Joseph’s illustrations here, including his dairy-whip haired portrait of Donald Trump.