Flickerfest began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1991. Over the last 19 years it has grown to become Australia's only competitive International Short Film Festival with entries coming from filmmakers across the globe.
Flickerfest is considered in International circles as the leading Australian competitive short film festival and increasingly filmmakers view it as one of the main festivals on the world circuit. To maintain this high standard each year the festival director visits festivals around the world seeking new films most of which have not been seen in Australia.
In 2003 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science elected to recognise Flickererfest as a qualifying festival for the Best Short film and Best Animation categories of the Academy® Awards.
The honour of Academy Award ® accreditation will guarantee Flickerfest's international profile for many years to come, whilst also ensuring greater opportunities for our Australian short film makers internationally.
Flickerfest's national tour has become a very important part of the festival and started in 1995. The tour takes the main competitive programmes and some Special sessions to many regional and metropolitan areas, which rarely have an opportunity to view this collection of the best of the world's short films. The difference between Flickerfest and other film festivals is that Flickerfest is acknowledged as a quality arts event. Each year we screen Academy Award nominated films plus many other internationally award-winning films.
Thankyou to all our sponsors, participating filmmakers and to you our audience for supporting Flickerfest 2008.
DIRECTORS REPORT
.jpg)
Welcome to the 19th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2010. This has been another amazing year for Flickerfest with substantial growth both in the amount of entries received and our profile at home and internationally and this year we look forward to continuing to present you with a short film competition amongst the best in the world.
I am also very pleased that Flickerfest has been able to instigate substantial steps to reduce our carbon footprint this year and make our festival more sustainable.
From printing on recycled paper to our wonderful organic beverages on offer from new partners, Phoenix Juices, Rosnay Organic Wine and Eco Farms and long term partners Coopers beer and Jameson whiskey.
We hope that you enjoy our new green Flickerfest and that you can help to make the festival a wonderful eco success through catching the bus or riding your bike down here to the pavilion.
A record 1600 entries from around the globe were received for this year’s festival, testimony to the fact that Flickerfest continues to attract the latest in innovative and creative shorts from the world’s most exciting new filmmakers for our Academy® accredited shorts competition.
The successful films screening at Flickerfest are all united by their excellence within the short film genre. They promise to surprise you with a range of subjects and cultures that represent a unique view of global cinema.
As the festival director for the past 13 years it has been gratifying to see the festival received so passionately by audiences across Australia. After our Sydney festival season we will tour our award-winning short film programmes to 23 venues around Australia this year, up from 18 in 2009, including Albany, Nambour and Dungog for the first time, bringing audiences all across the continent an inspiring look at the world through short film.
As Australia’s only Academy® accredited intenational short film festival, films in competition at Flickerfest are fiercely competing for a number of prestigious prizes including The Coopers Award For Best Film, The Yoram Gross Award For Best Animation, The Madman Award for Best Australian Short Film, The SAE Award For Best Use Of Digital Technology In A Short Film, The National Geographic Award for Best Short Documentary and a host of other hotly-contested prizes that recognize the various craft areas inherent in making a great short film.
In 2010 we will screen 16 different short film programmes during our ten-day festival season. Apart from our 12 programmes of International, Australian and Documentary shorts in competition we will also present a series of showcase programmes that are designed to inspire, entertain and challenge our local audiences to experience the world in a different way.
Each year I also have the pleasure of creating showcase programmes that focus on the art form of the short film genre, designed to inspire and encourage audiences to see the world in a new way.
I’m extremely proud to be presenting the Australian premiere of the moving and thought-provoking feature short film programme Stories On Human Rights. This series of short films is commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with films from 22 award-winning filmmakers across the world.
We are also showcasing Oscar Shorts - a celebration of some of the best Oscar-nominated short films - finalists and winners from around the world, in recognition of Flickerfest’s Academy® accredited status.
And we are pleased to be presenting Short Beats - phat, funky and fired up - short films with a musical beat from all across the world, a great fun programme designed to get audiences bopping along.
And last but not least there is Flickerkids - shorts for shorties – a wonderful award-winning collection of shorts films for kids.
Our Editing: The Craft Workshop with Avid/Chaotic Pictures this year will take us to the cutting-edge of technology, on a journey through the Red/Avid post-production pathway, inspiring filmmakers towards technical and creative solutions for their projects.
Each year Flickerfest also makes its own short film. This year’s trailer is a wonderful tribute to that iconic 70s groove film, Saturday Night Fever produced by expat Australian Robert Stigwood.
Thanks to Erin White who directed the trailer, Don Hany and Saskia Burmeister who starred, Lisa Shaunessy from Chaotic Pictures who produced the trailer and all of our generous sponsors and crew who participated.
I hope it puts a spring in your step and reminds you of the power of cinema to inspire and capture the stories of a generation.
Now in our nineteenth year, Flickerfest relies heavily on the support of our major sponsors without whom a festival of this nature would be possible. I would like to thank our principal partner Movie EXTRA for being on board again this year.
And our first television series of Flickerfest On EXTRA was a great success. I am very excited about our partnership and the opportunity to take Flickerfest from the cinema screens to the TV screens of the nation. Flickerfest on EXTRA is Australia’s first TV series dedicated to the best of Aussie short films and we delighted to announce a second series of the show that will broadcast in 2010.
I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our major government partner Screen Australia who support both our festival and national tour.
This year we are also very pleased to have partnered with Screen Australia to launch The Filmmakers Resource Site, an initiative which will encourage Australian filmmakers to become knowledgeable about all aspects of marketing and distributing their short films to a global audience.
My gratitude also extends to our major sponsors Screen NSW, SBS and the SAE Institute. Without their support, our vision to present an International festival amongst the best in the world could not happen.
I am also extremely thankful to all of our partners who are acknowledged in this programme for the essential support that they provide. We thank them enormously for their belief in us and our vision for providing a short film competition amongst the best in the world.
My enormous thanks and appreciation also goes to the fabulous Flickerfest team, Festival Manager Annie Parnell, Festival Coordinator Anya Beyersdorf, Production/Touring Co-ordinator Shane Rennie, our longstanding projectionist team Bob Gamlen and Alan Butterfield, technical director Tony Youlden and our Box Office Manager Antoinette Smith for their hard work.
The Flickerfest team give many hours of dedication to this labour of love and without their passion and belief in Flickerfest our festival would not be possible.
From January to March 2010 Flickerfest is delighted to present you with our 19th festival under the stars, at Bondi and at our 23 touring venues around the country.
For me, short film is the most exciting place in the world to be in cinema today. It’s where our latest generation of storytellers express the stories at the heart of who we are, interested only in creating excellent and innovative films, uninhibited from pressures of the box office and commercial concerns.
I welcome you to experience the latest cinema stars under our starry Bondi summer skies.
Bronwyn Kidd
Festival director