Flickerfest Presented By ING DIRECT began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1991. Over the last 21 years it has grown to become Australia's only competitive International Short Film Festival with entries coming from filmmakers across the globe.
Flickerfest Presented By ING DIRECT 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. In 2010, Flickerfest was also recognised by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), making films from the UK that won at Flickerfest, eligible for a BAFTA nomination. We are the only short film festival in Australia with BAFTA and Academy® accredited status.
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 presented by ING DIRECT 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 in 2012 Flickerfest presented by ING DIRECT will present films at 37 venues Australia wide. Flickerfest is acknowledged as a quality arts event. We are proud that each year we screen the most innovative creative and inspiring short films the world has to offer, all united by their excellence in the short film genre.
Thank you to all our sponsors, participating filmmakers and to you our audience for supporting Flickerfest as we look forward to a fantastic year in 2012.
FESTIVAL DIRECTORS REPORT
Welcome to the 21st Flickerfest International Short Film Festival presented by IND DIRECT 2012.
I’m thrilled that Flickerfest has reached this milestone milestone and that the festival continues to be the most significant, dedicated, short film event in the Australian landscape. Im especially thrilled to welcome on board a new presenting partner for the festival this year ING DIRECT who ‘s partnership will greatly assist the festivals vision to continue to present a world class short film competition on Australian shores and to celebrate and discover the most talented short film makers the world and Australia has to offer.
This has been another amazing year of growth for Flickerfest with a record number of entries received, an additional two competitive programmes added to our line up, and our festival becoming recognized by BAFTA, all of which demonstrates our international reputation and commitment to providing Australia with a world class short film competition on our shores.
Over 2200 entries from around the globe were received this year, of which over 100 will be officially screened in 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 and BAFTA recognised shorts competition.
The successful films screening at Flickerfest are all united by their excellence within the short film genre, demonstrating short films’ role as the centrepiece of innovation and creativity in global cinema today.
It is extremely gratifying to see short film in Australia so warmly embraced by audiences all across the country, and this year the festival further extends its reach to over 37 venues nationally, including, Narrogin and Karratha in WA, Eden, Young and Gerringong NSW and Cairns, QLD for the first time, bringing audiences at an extensive network all across our continent an inspiring look at the world through short film.
As Australia’s only Academy® accredited short film festival, films in competition at Flickerfest are fiercely competing for a number of prestigious prizes including The ING DIRECT Award For Best Film, The Yoram Gross Award For Best Animation, The Movie Network Channels Award for Best Australian Short Film, The SAE Award For Best Use Of Digital Technology In A Short Film, The Fli-ING Award For Audience choice Award Choice Award for Sydney and the national Tour, plus a host of other hotly contested prizes that recognize the various craft areas inherent in making a great short film.
In 2012 we will screen 20 different short film programmes during our ten-day festival season. Apart from our 12 programmes of International, Australian and Documentary shorts in competition, this year we continue with two new competitions successfully introduced last year, our GreenFlicks competition, a very inspirational and timely programme of short films with an environmental theme from across the world and Flickerup our finalist programme which celebrates productions from Primary and High School Students from across Australia and is sure to again showcase some extremely accomplished short films from our future cinema stars of tomorrow!
I am also extremely pleased to welcome esteemed international guest Jon Bloom from the USA , film maker and 4th time governor of the Short Film and Feature Animation branch from the Academy Awards, not only will Jon be participating in our new one day Flickerlab intensive programme for emerging film makers but he will also be presenting a must see programme of Oscar Shorts supported by now famous actors, once again demonstrating how short films can not only kick start a career but also how important they are to the film industry in general.
Apart from our competitive programmes and our Oscars programme Flickerfest presented by ING DIRECT Flickerkids is also thrilled to present a programme of short films for shorties, a hilarious programme of Comedy shorts, an award winning animation spotlight, World Wide Whacky Animation and a Friday the 13th special of hilarious horror shorts from around the world.
This year Flickerfest also introduces Flickerlab a one day intensive designed to support Film makers careers through giving them access to the leading experts and latest knowledge and trends available across the film industry today enabling them to strive for excellence in their own careers. There are an exceptional range of leading experts involved in this one day event taking place both in Sydney and as part of our tour to Byron Bay so I urge you to check out all details on our website.
Each year Flickerfest also makes its own short film and this year it’s our very own Jaws inspired spoof. Thanks to Sunny Grace our producer, our exceptional director/writer Alethea jones, writer/actor Rick Davies and the rest of the fantastic production team. My enormous thanks also extends all of our generous sponsors and crew especially Efilm/ Deluxe, Sound Stage One, Panavision, Soundwaves and everyone else who pulled out all stops on this years production.
Now in our 21st year, Flickerfest relies heavily on the support of our major sponsors without whom, a festival of this nature would not be possible. Apart from again acknowledging our new presenting partner ING DIRECT, I would like to thank enormously our Major National partner Movie Network Channels for being on board again for the 4th year.
I would also like to extend an enormous thanks to our major government partner Screen Australia who support both our festival and national tour Without them our commitment to providing a platform that continues to nurture and support Australian film makers and providing Australian audiences with access to inspirational screen storytelling would not be possible.
We thank Trade and Investment Arts NSW for again extending their most valued support to us alongside Destination NSW. My gratitude also extends to our major sponsors, SBS and SAE Institute and new Major partner this year The Sydney Morning Herald. Without the support of these major partners 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 to provide a short film competition amongst the best in the world.
My enormous thanks and appreciation also goes to the extremely hardworking Flickerfest team, Programming Manager Rosie Crerar, Production/Touring Coordinator Shane Rennie, Festival Coordinator Mia Munck- Bruns, Marketing Manager Annette Staglieno our Director of Projection Alan Butterfield, and projectionist Anthony Yeo, Technical Director Tony Youlden, and intern Hannah Paskal.
Flickerfest also enjoys the enormous support of Waverly council for our Bondi Pavilion Home, the ongoing professional support of our superb design team at Alphabet Studios and our wonderful publicists The lantern Group.
From January to May 2012 Flickerfest is delighted to present you with our 21st festival under the stars, at Bondi and at our 37 touring venues around the country.
For me, short film is the most exciting place in the world to be in cinema today, its 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 best in bite size chunks of great short cinema at Bondi and across Australia this summer.
Bronwyn Kidd
Festival Director |