Alternative Media Group

Bondi buzz for short films

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Staff Writer

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Thursday, 10 November 2011

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The 11^th annual Bondi Short Film Festival has announced its 14 finalists for 2011. The Festival will be held on November 26 at Bondi Pavilion and will launch the summer program of outdoor film screenings in Sydney.

Selected from over 200 entries, the finalists represent a wide variety of independent filmmaking talent from across Australia.  Unlike competitions such as Tropfest, the Bondi Short Film Festival requires no thematic inclusions, allowing for a diverse collection of films including drama, comedy, documentary and animation.

The Festival is an ‘amateur’ competition for upcoming filmmakers, in contrast to the big-name Flickerfest which is held in Bondi in January. Festival director Francis Coady said that the exhibit has grown dramatically over its eleven years and expects entries with even more polish this time.

“Each year we are blown away by the exceptional quality of the submissions and 2011 is no different,” he said. “It was really difficult to choose just 14 finalists from so many amazing films.  I’m really looking forward to presenting the final selections to our audience.”

One of those selected films is Adam Rosenberg’s window-washer documentary, Maurice.  Rosenberg said, “I always wanted to do a story about windscreen washers, I’ve always found them quite interesting characters. I asked everyone if they knew of any interesting washers and Maurice got recommended at least six times. The day I showed up to interview him, he was dressed as a pirate and there was no doubt I was going to try and sign him up to be a part of my film.”

Established in 2001, the festival has evolved from humble beginnings at the North Bondi RSL to three sessions at its new home, the Bondi Pavilion. Mr Coady started the festival as a favour to friends who missed out on entering their films in other Sydney festivals as the regulations prohibited films that had already been screened in other states.

“I was watching some incredible short films and no one was able to see these films in Sydney.  So I just pulled a party together and screened them. Simple as that!” Mr Coady said.

This year the festival promises to be bigger and better than ever.  Prizes will be awarded in the categories of ‘Best Film’, ‘Best Cinematography’, ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Music’, ‘Best Design’, ‘Best Script’, and ‘People’s Choice’.  As part of the ‘Best Film’ award, the winning director will be given return flights to North America to attend any film festival of their choice.

Both the matinee and first evening sessions are now sold out – but tickets for the second evening session are available online or through Moshtix.

By Kira Spucys-Tahar

 

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