After 26 years, Flickerfest is still one of the biggest and most successful independent short film festivals.
The festival is a chance for audiences to be exposed to countless incredible international and home-grown short films, and gives filmmakers a chance to showcase their ideas. Bronwyn Kidd, the festival’s director, has a true passionate and love for finding quality films giving audiences the very best of the best.
The festival will now tour until May in order to show off the films to anyone and everyone in Australia. With the Bondi 2017 Flickerfest wrapped up, the festival is gearing up to go on tour around the country. Bronwyn reveals how the Bondi festival went, along with sharing the deepest challenges of such a big festival.
"Bondi was a huge success! We had some great films from Queensland that had such positive responses. We are now getting ready to tour it across the country. It was really great and heart-warming to see the audience’s responses to the films. I'm very excited to tour the festival,” she says. “The challenging aspect of touring this festival is getting people to engage in the short films in other places. We have been in Bondi for a long time which makes that easier and we have been in Brissy for 12 years but we are now in a new venue. The challenge is getting the attention of people to let them know about the venues. Getting good coverage is what inspires people to come along. Audiences get to see incredible films, they are the best of the best and you can’t see them online or on TV this festival is the only way to access them."
'Boogabilla Bus'
Flickerfest showcases and gives audiences access to both Australian and international short films. Bronwyn joyously explains why there is a mix of home-grown and international film.
“It lets us celebrate the world. By showing Australian and internationals films it allows us to connect with independent films outside of the commercial, Hollywood blockbusters. It gives access to other parts of the world, having both international and Australian films on the same screen really connects and inspires us."
Along with the international films, the festival also showcases non-competition films.
"It allows us to showcase different things like comedy, the kids spots... It just gives us the chance to show the full depth and breadth of short films. Having both competition films and ones that are not, gives us a chance to show the diversity of short film."
Due to the well thought-out categories and the high quality of the films, Flickerfest has become noted as one of the biggest and best film festivals. Bronwyn openly talks about the pressure that adds when creating the programmes. “It does certainly add a level of pressure. Quality is the key thing. When we are viewing the films and putting together the programme there is a level of pressure, but we put in a lot of hard work and effort all year in order to have the best festival we possibly can."
'In A Cane Field'
After all the hard work, Bronwyn reflects on why she loves the festival and what audiences can expect. "The amazing audience response to the Australian films is what I love. This year a lot of the filmmakers attended which was wonderful. It's a great networking place for filmmakers and it was great to see audiences taking in all the films,” she says.
“Every year is different because of the films, audiences will be inspired, laughing and delighted by the real mix of films. They can expect highly entertaining quality films."
