Globe journalist Adriano Valentini wins prize at Hollyshorts Film Festival

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Globe video journalist, Adriano Valentini, 25, is also a rising filmmaker, whose short films have been accepted in a number of North American film festivals this year.

In May, Valentini's short film, The Underager, showed at Toronto's Inside/Out festival in May. Another short, The Bartender, screened at The Brooklyn International Short Film Festival last year, at the Jersey Shore Film Festival in late July.

On Thursday night, The Bartender won the best webisode prize at the Hollyshorts Film Festival (Aug. 11-18) The film will also air at the high-profile NYC Short Film Festival (September 23-24).

Both films are part of a continuing story which was developed out of his thesis film, Clubscene, at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied with director, Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan).

Clubscene, which Valentini describes as a cross between Entourage and The Jersey Shore, won a screenwriting and a finalist award at NYU in 2009. The short film series focuses on the life and friends 24-year-old Gabe Garibaldi (Carmine DiBenedetto) the head bartender at his uncle's Montreal's hot night spot, Club Touch, who has a chance encounter with a young woman (Christina Broccolini) who compels him to question his life's choices.

The original film, with two additional episodes, The Bartender and The Underager, was developed into a seven part series of webisodes which can be watched at www.clubscenetheseries.com or the CITY-TV video portal.

Valentini, who started at The Globe and Mail in January, 2011 after completing an MBA at Ryerson University, has shot videos on cooking, gardening, fitness and entertainment for the Life section, as well as pieces on investing, marketing and business and driving.

He hopes the series "continues to gain as much exposure as possible and I'd love to find some funding to create more episodes, while at the same time continuing to produce great videos at The Globe."

"I've been told time and time again that Clubscene would make a great television series on a channel such as HBO, AMC and Showcase and I agree. I've been writing scripts for a 13 episode season and plan on pitching the concept soon both in Canada and the US. I think it's a really relatable story for young people right now."