It's Flickerfest's landmark 30th year, so it's only natural to celebrate in a big way: with 36 world premieres and 56 Australian premieres across the event's Academy-qualifying and BAFTA-recognised competitions.
The films are selected from more than 100 countries, with more than 50 per cent female directors represented in the Australian competition.
This year, Flickerfest will screen 64 Australian film across the Best Of Australian competition, 37 international film across the Best Of International competition and 15 documentaries across the Best Of Documentary competition.
More than 2,700 entries were received for the 2021 Flickerfest. Shorts in competition are vying for Academy-qualifying prizes including the Flickerfest Award for Best International Short Film, the Yoram Gross Award for Best International Animation, the Panasonic Lumix Award for Best Australian Short Film and the Flickerfest Award for Best Documentary.
Other prizes on offer will recognise various craft areas including youth (SAE FlickerUp) and the LGBTQIA+ community (Rainbow Shorts).
Flickerfest in The Famous Spiegeltent
The programme will include shorts enjoying their world premiere including Phoebe Tonkin's directorial debut in 'Furlough', a 19-minute drama set in NSW's Central Coast, 'The Story Of Lee Ping', a 12-minute tale about a young Chinese woman's journey to find freedom starring Jillian Nguyen, the NSW premiere of 'Roborovski', a VR animated project from Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Dev Patel about a hamster seeking revenge.
A highlight from Flickerfest's international programme is the Australian premiere of 'David', directed by Zachary Woods and featuring Will Ferrell.
Then, once the main event at Bondi is over, Flickerfest will hit the road for a massive, eight-month national tour of the best films from the festival.
SBS On Demand will also be presenting 49 short films celebrating Flickerfest over the past 30 years.
The full programme for Flickerfest can be checked out here.
Flickerfest takes place at Bondi Beach from 22-31 January 2021. '30 Years Of Flickerfest Collection' can be viewed on SBS On Demand from 1 January.
