Australian short film festival Flickerfest has come a long way.
Now in its 27th year, Festival Director Bronwyn Kidd is still surprised by the passion filmmakers and audiences still have for the festival, which kicked off at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
“It’s incredible to think that way back we got 200 entries, this year we got 2,500,” Bronwyn says. “Across that time we’ve become Academy qualifying for a number of our awards, which is a fantastic opportunity for filmmakers. We’ve seen our tour grow from three venues to over 50 this year. They’re all fantastic milestones that have really shown the growth of short-filmmaking in Australia, and also audience’s passion for independent creative content outside that Hollywood formulaic model.”
The festival is embarking on a national tour, screening films like 'Martha The Monster', 'Miro', 'Maddie & Marc' in the Best of Australian Shorts programme.
'Martha The Monster'
Brisbane will also be treated to the Best Of International Shorts programme where the Academy Award-nominated 'All Of Us (Watu Wote)' will screen alongside the hilarious 'An Imagined Conversation With Kanye West And Stephen Hawking' from Canada.
Speaking about the main event in Bondi, Bronwyn raves about the number of people who get involved in it all.
“It’s always an incredible amount of fabulous stars that come in and knowing that they come up in the industry and the reason that they’re successful is because people have supported them. I think that’s really important to remember. Everyone has to start at the beginning, and there’s not any big star that’s just been instantly overnight a star. It’s always come about through other people support of their career. I think people like to pay back and support emerging filmmakers.”
Past programmes have seen a lot of exceptional films, and Bronwyn believes this year’s programme will also have films that audiences will be talking about.
'Maddie & Marc'
“I think people are always blown away by the quality of the short films because it’s the best of the best of what’s happening across the world. It really does point to the next generation of filmmakers and forms of storytelling because it’s so fresh and its media is so contemporary.”
“It’s just kept going and going and going, so it’s kept me very busy, but exceptional short film screenings and great enthusiasm from audiences makes that all worthwhile.”
