Flickerfest began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1992. In the space of 12 years it has grown to become Australia’s only competitive International Short Film Festival with contacts across the globe.

Each year the festival director visits festivals around the world seeking new films of a high standard most of which have not been seen in Australia. 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.

This year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has elected to recognise Flickerfest 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.

Since 1995 Flickerfest’s national tour has become a very important part of the festival. The tour takes the main competitive programmes and 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.

Flickerfest is a film festival in the truest sense, we screen al our main competitive films on 35mm and 16mm film not video allowing them to be seen as the film maker intended, For many of these films Flickerfest is the only screening they will have in Australia. Thankyou to all our sponsors, participating filmmakers and to you our audience for supporting Flickerfest 2003.

I am very pleased to welcome you to the 12th Flickerfest International Short film festival. 2002 has been a very exciting year for the growth of Flickerfest, both at home and internationally.

This year we received a record 840 entries from all around the globe, countries as diverse as Romania, Thailand and Brazil.

With our record entries and the outstanding quality of so many of the films entered,curating the final programme for this festival has been extremely difficult. My thanks go to all of those filmmakers who have shared the products of their passion again with us this year, those that have made the final selection and those that have not. Certainly there were far more excellent films submitted than we are able to screen.

Our 2003 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. Once again, the quality of these programmes is of the highest standard, reflecting the quality of many of the films submitted.

This year Flickerfest was proud to be added to the Academy’s list for short film festivals worldwide. This honour will guarantee the festival’s international profile for many years to come, whilst also ensuring greater possibilities for our Australian short film makers internationally.

Each year at Flickerfest we take pride in assembling the largest short film collections screened in Australia and in 2003 we will present our biggest programme yet, with 15 different short film programmes screening over the nine day festival season.

Apart from the competitions, a large part of Flickerfest’s aim each year is to present our Australian audiences with a wide selection of quality short film showcases that are both entertaining and cutting edge.

In 2002 I had the great pleasure to travel to the Sao Paulo festival in Brazil where I saw many great short films that reflected the overall high quality of short film production in this country in general. I am very pleased to be presenting a selection of these films as part of a Brazilian showcase at Flickerfest 2003. Fresh, funny, and infinitely entertaining, these films provide a unique opportunity to gain intimate insight into the contemporary culture of one of the most colourful countries in the world.

Our Saucy late Night Brits programme is coming to us thanks to the lovely Dawn and Marni from the Short Film Bureau in London and after sell-out sessions in their home town. Originally entitled More Sex Please we’re British, this programme promises to take us on a late night Saucy Romp through love-British style, promising to dispel all myths of British conservatism for ever. Thanks to the British Council for sponsoring this programme.

In tribute to Flickerfest’s addition to the Oscars® short film list this year I am also really proud to present a fantastic array of short films from all around the world. All of these films are united by the common fact that they have been nominated for Academy awards for Best Live Action and Best Animation in the past three years. With a cult following throughout the world, animators Bill Plympton and Don Herztfeld have just finished a sell-out tour of America.

With films that make the Simpsons look tame and a host of Academy® and other awards under their belt, I am very proud to present the opportunity to catch this duo at their wicked best. Thanks to Apollo films in America. Flickerfest 2003 contains a feast of stories for every lover of cinema, especially short cinema and a once only opportunity to see these wonderful films in Australia.

Short film plays a crucial role in the survival of national cinema and independent storytelling, in the many diverse languages that make up our global culture. Through our screenings both in Sydney and throughout the country I hope that we are able in some small way to contribute to the awareness and cultural tolerance that is so desperately needed in our current times.

Now in our twelfth year, Flickerfest relies heavily on the support of our major sponsors without whom a festival of this nature would not be possible. To our presenting partner, Mini Garage Sydney and major sponsors, the Australian film commission, Grolsch beer, the FTO DHL and Waverley Council, I would like to extend my gratitude for helping us to present a world class film event of this nature.

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 world’s and Australia’s short films together each year on the same screen, in a celebration of cinema at its finest.

And finally to all of my fabulous Flickerfest team who work passionately beside me all year and without whose dedication to the world of shorts, a festival of this size would not be possible, I say an enormous thankyou. I look forward to seeing you in January for some great cinema and a truly unique screening experience, watching the world go by, under the stars at our beautiful Bondi beach.

Regards

Bronwyn Kidd Festival Director Flickerfest 1998-2003