Flickerfest is an international short film festival held annually in January at Bondi Beach, Sydney. It is an Academy and BAFTA recognised short film festival for both international and Australian film makers. [1]
The festival originated as a small, local festival at Balmain High School in 1991. It has premiered an increasingly broader range of international short films since its establishment. [1]
In 2003, Flickerfest was recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science to qualify for Best Animation and Best Short Film categories of the Academy Awards. [1]
In 2010, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) recognised that if a film from the UK won a category at Flickerfest, the film then became eligible for a BAFTA nomination. [1]
In 2013, Flickerfest received Academy accreditation for the Australian competition and in 2014 the Documentary section of the festival received Academy accreditation. [1]
Since 1991, Flickerfest has grown substantially. By 2018, the festival had grown to include 22 programmes shown, over 2,500 entries and 100 international shorts being showcased at the event. [2]
In 2020 Flickerfest was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Flickerfest Canberra was due to run in April but was postponed. [3]
Bondi Flickerfest 2021, the 30th anniversary event is scheduled for 22–31 January. [4] It will be run in a COVID-19 safe manner. [5]
Bronwyn Kidd is the festival's director as of 2018. Kidd curates several hundred short films for the annual event, and the following national tour. She also contributes to the curation of international film festivals such as The London Australian Film Festival at The Barbican. [6]
Flickerfest's production and tour manager is Shane Rennie, who has been involved in the production of Flickerfest since 2000. Rennie is involved in web population, technical presentation, festival production, and festival photography, and is also a member of the Flickerfest selection committee. [1] Since 2005, he has organised the Flickerfest National Tour, working directly with venues that the tour will be held at to establish dates, media and online strategies, programme suggestions, and logistics. [7] [1]
Leigh Russell is the Industry Liaison and primary coordinator of the 2018 Flickerfest jury and FlickerUp, a nationwide competition for primary and high school students. [8]
For films to be eligible to be shown in Flickerfest they must meet the entry requirements are:
Throughout the duration of the festival, short films are showcased that are of a competitive and non-competitive nature. These films are presented in eight different categories.
The Flickerfest national tour was established in 1995. The tour consists of the central competitive programmes of the festival which include Best of Australian Shorts, Best of International Shorts and Shorts Laugh Comedy. The tour travels to rural, regional and metropolitan areas, to showcase the shorts. [18] Flickerfest showcase short films at 50 venues throughout Australia. [18] The Adelaide showing is at the Mercury Cinema. [19]
The Flickerfest Tour has been publicised in regional and rural local newspapers. The Clarence Daily Examiner writes that the tour brings a "new arsenal of hilarious entertaining and thought-provoking micro cinema from across the country". [20] The Newcastle Herald talks of local filmmaker's work being "brought to the big screen." [21] The Illawarra Mercury writes on the local Kiama short film Buoy being selected to be shown in the Flickerfest Tour. [22] The Wauchope Gazette reports the tour visiting Port Macquarie, the article primarily focuses upon the animation Lost Property Office and short film Miro, an Aboriginal Western film, describing the short to be "delightfully quirky and creative". [23]
A listing of the awards given for international competition: [24]
Australian-focused awards include the following: [24]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | The Cat Piano | Eddie White, Ari Gibson |  Australia [33] |
| 2011 | The External World | David O'Reilly |  Germany,  Ireland [43] |
| 2012 | It's Such a Beautiful Day | Don Hertzfeldt |  USA [44] |
| 2013 | Edmond Was a Donkey | Franck Dion |  France,  Canada [45] |
| 2014 | Miniyamba | Luc Perez |  Denmark [46] |
| 2015 | Symphony No. 42 | Réka Bucsi |  Hungary [38] |
| 2016 | He Who Has Two Souls / Celui Qui a Deux Âmes | Fabrice Luang-Vija | France [39] |
| 2017 | Mr. Madila | Rory Waudby-Tolley |  UK [40] |
| 2018 | Sog | Jonatan Schwenk | Germany [41] |
| 2019 | Flowing Through Wonder | Joana Lurie and Jean–Marc Bouzigues | France [42] |
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Wagah | Supriyo Sen | Germany [33] |
| 2011 | The Lucky Ones (Szczesciarze) | Tomasz Wolski |  Poland [34] |
| 2012 | Cutting Loose | Adrian McDowall, Finlay Napier | UK [47] |
| 2013 | Crossed Out | Robert Duarte |  Sweden [45] |
| 2014 | SloMo | Josh Izenberg | USA [46] |
| 2015 | Shipwreck | Morgan Knibbe |  The Netherlands [38] |
| 2016 | A Tale of Love, Madness and Death | Mijael Bustos |  Chile [39] |
| 2017 | Więzi (Close Ties) | Zofia Kowalewska | Poland [40] |
| 2018 | Hello Salaam | Kim Brand | The Netherlands [41] |
| 2019 | The Unconditional | Dave Adams | United States [42] |
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Celestial Avenue | Colin and Cameron Cairnes [33] |
| 2011 | The Lost Thing | Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan [34] |
| 2012 | The Palace | Anthony Maras [48] |
| 2013 | Yardbird | Michael Spiccia [49] |
| 2014 | The Kingdom of Doug | Victoria Thaine [46] |
| 2015 | Grey Bull | Eddy Bell [38] |
| 2016 | Slingshot | David Hansen [39] |
| 2017 | Beast | Carl J Sorheim [40] |
| 2018 | On Hold | Jake Nielsen [41] |
| 2019 | Yulubidyi - Until the End | Nathan Mewett and Curtis Taylor [42] |
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Bush Mechanics | Jason Japaljarri Woods, Jonathan Daw [38] |
| 2016 | The Orchestra | Mikey Hill [39] |
| 2017 | Fish with Legs | Dave Carter [40] |
| 2018 | After All | Michael Cusack [41] |
| 2019 | Della Mortika: Carousel Of Shame | Marisa Martin [42] |
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Snowblind | Sean Kruck [38] |
| 2016 | Red Rover | Brooke Goldfinch [39] |
| 2017 | Dream Baby | Lucy Gaffy [40] |
| 2018 | Second Best | Alyssa McClelland [41] |
| 2019 | Tangles and Knots | Renée Marie Petropoulos [42] |
Some other notable short films honoured in other awards categories include:
Screen Australia is Flickerfest's major government partner, while other industry partners are the SAE Institute Australia: Creative Media Education, Create NSW, Sydney City of Film, Canon, European Union's Delegation to Australia and Virgin Entertainment. Touring partners in other states and territories are Screen Territory, Screen Queensland and Screen West. Award Partners include the SAE Institute, Virgin Australia, Canon, Yoram Gross Films, the EU Delegation to Australia, John Barry Sales, Avid, Media Super and Parker's Juicery. Flickerfest's media partners include TimeOut, Brag magazine, The Beast Magazine, 2ser 107.3, Concrete Playground, City Hub and Film Ink.
The Sydney Morning Herald conducted an interview with festival director Bronwyn Kidd in relation to gender parity. Kidd states "When I started out, female directors were a rare breed. Now hopefully we're encouraging a whole new generation to come into the industry." [50]
Broadsheet, Sydney gave a synopsis of the festivals proceedings, stating "Australia's a great country of storytellers. The list of films on show [at the festival] has been narrowed down from over 2500 to 110.” [51] The article also highlights the benefits of short film writing “[Short films are] so contemporary. A feature can take seven years from start to finish, [for] a short you can grab a camera and in two weeks you make a statement.” [51]
The Brag wrote that "Flickerfest is unique in that the judging process doesn’t take the entrant’s budget into consideration – films are instead judged against the strength of the storytelling and the authenticity of the director’s voice." [52]
Opening night photos from the 2013 event:
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