Sydney summer festival Flickerfest is celebrating 30 years, at a new location with some of the best short film from around Australia and the world.
In 2021, Flickerfest will take place on the lawn at Bondi Beach, before touring to more than 45 venues across Australia throughout 2021. The Bondi event will be housed in a bespoke festival garden, including The Famous Spiegeltent for indoor screenings, an outdoor deckchair cinema under the stars and a garden bar area.
This new, larger venue will allow for the same amount of patrons as in previous years, while still observing social distancing regulations.
More than 2,700 entries have been received for Flickerfest, and from this entry field only around 200 of the very best, most creative and inspiring shorts will be screened. Flickerfest features 16 competitive programmes and 4 showcase programmes.
The shorts are vying for a number of prizes including the Flickerfest Awards for Best International Short Film, Best Australian Short Film and Best Documentary and the Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation – all of which are Academy-qualifying.
The focus on the films at 2021's event will be on looking forward to better, brighter days and showcasing world-class shorts. The Australian programme includes the world premiere and directorial debut for Phoebe Tonkin of 'Furlough', set on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The New South Wales premiere of 'Roborovski', a VR animated project from Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Dev Patel about a miniature hamster seeking revenge. 'The Story Of Lee Ping' about a Chinese woman's journey to find freedom on her own terms starring Jillian Nguyen.
A highlight from the international programme, following its world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival is the Australian premiere of 'David', directed by Zachary Woods and featuring Will Ferrell.
In addition to Flickerfest being BAFTA-recognised, there are four Academy-qualifying competitions plus a new ASEAN region competition for 2021, the SAE FlickerUp competition for under-18 filmmakers, special showcases of kids and family-friendly films (FlickerKids), films about relationships (Love Bites), LGBTQIA+ films (Rainbow Shorts) and comedy (Short Laughs).
Flickerfest will culminate in its prestigious awards presentation held under the summer stars at Bondi Pavilion, followed by a massive, eight-month national tour of the very best films from the main festival.
