Flickerfest began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1992. In 15 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 2006.

I am very pleased to welcome you to the 15th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, driven by MINI, who have come on board as our new naming rights partner nationally.

Flickerfest is delighted to partner with MINI on a national basis for the first time. We thank them for assisting us in our vision to provide Australia with a competitive international short film festival amongst the best in the world.

2005 has been another great year for Flickerfest both at home and internationally and we look forward to continuing to celebrate and promote the art of short film to our enthusiastic Australian audiences both at this year’s festival and throughout our 15 venue tour of Australia.

This year we received over 900 entries from all around the globe. This confirms Flickerfest’s growing profile amongst the international film community and recognizes that selection into our competition provides an important benchmark in a short films career.

Over the past nine years as festival director, I have had the great pleasure of watching both the festival, and indeed short film itself, grow in popularity and profile throughout Australia. Short film is now seriously considered in Australia as an entertaining and culturally significant art form in its own right with people looking towards its storytelling to reveal the significant social concerns and artistic movements of our times.

Our 2006 festival will showcase the best of these short films from Australia and the world, in a series of competitive programmes that will celebrate the art of short film in all its various forms.

As Australia’s only Academy accredited short film festival, films in our competitions are fiercely competing for a number of prestigious prizes including the Coopers Award For Best Film and the Yoram Gross award for Best Animation, alongside the prestigious Jamieson award for best national short.

Flickerfest is pleased to be presenting this award for the 2nd time in 2006. In honour of this we will also be bringing to the festival a host of Jamieson award winning shorts chosen at prestigious film festivals around the world, screening them in a special programme that will include our first ever Australian Jameson award winner of 2005, ‘We Have Decided Not To Die’.

In 2006 we will screen, 16 different short film programmes over our ten day festival season. Apart from our 11 programmes of International, Australian and documentary competitions 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.

Certainly short film plays a crucial role in encouraging and promoting cultural diversity and tolerance in its role as an independent storytelling medium and we hope that our programmes at Flickerfest encourage people to reflect on and engage with the current cultural and political concerns of our talented filmmakers from around the globe.

This year we are very excited to present a major showcase of African shorts by this continents hottest new story -tellers. Short films are now pouring out of Africa as access to new technology spreads, creating a wealth of stories that are moving, heart warming, culturally significant and challenging both in form and content. This programme will include many Australian premieres.

Each year Flickerfest also tries to include a special Animation showcase that will inspire our local animators and animation fans in what is rapidly becoming one of short films most popular genres.

This year we are very excited to be screening a showcase of multi award winning work from UK animator Phil Mulloy, who has built up an extensive filmography since his first film in 1989 and is renowned internationally for his provocative brush and ink animations. His work, which perceptively comments on human nature and challenges contemporary values, stands as a model of satiric grotesque unparalleled in British animation.

Phil will be coming to Australia thanks to the British Council in order to introduce his work and we are very pleased that he will also be hosting an animation workshop where audiences will be able to learn about Phil's animation techniques and his unique brand of storytelling that has won him multiple awards around the world.

This year we also have another very kooky and fun programme in store for all our love struck or love starved patrons 'Love Bites'. 'Love Bites' will examine Life, love and the idiosyncrasies of all kinds of relationships through a sexy and humorous program with an international flavour: think imaginary girlfriends, unrequited love and passion on a grand scale!

Now in our fifteenth year, Flickerfest relies heavily on the support of our major sponsors without whom a festival of this nature would not be possible. Alongside MINI our naming rights partner I would like to extend my gratitude to our major government partners the Australian Film Commission, and major sponsors the FTO, National Geographic Channel, SBS, Fujifilm and JVC Pro without whom a festival of this quality and depth would be possible.

My gratitude also extends to all our other sponsors who are acknowledged in this programme. Your support enables us to continue in our vision of bringing the best of the worlds and Australia’s short films together each year on the same screen, in a celebration of cinema at it’s finest

From January to March Flickerfest welcomes you under the stars, both at Bondi and at our 15 venues around the country where we look forward to presenting you with another annual feast of the latest in inspiring and award winning International and National short cinema from around the globe.

Bronwyn Kidd
Festival director