Now that everyone has finished their Tropfest film before the deadline tomorrow (cue last minute panic), we can focus on the other major Australian short film festival, Flickerfest, which opens in Sydney this weekend.
For the past few weeks I had been planning to fly up to Sydney to see the cream of the crop of new Australian shorts at Flickerfest, but Mr Money decided to spend himself on new furniture instead!
So instead, I thought I'd provide my top recommendations for the short films that have me the most excited, all from this year's outstanding Australian shorts programme. Some I've seen, like Bear and The Palace, which are incredible. The others come to Flickerfest laden with awards or are by awesome filmmakers I've been following for a while. There are plenty of National and World Premieres among this lot.
And yes, that image to the left is from Fish & Chips, the brand new Pauline Hanson short film from Anna Broinowski, ahead of her biopic of the controversial politician, Please Explain.
AFTER THE CREDITS
Australia/15 min/Digibeta/2011
WRI/ DIR: Josh Lawson
PROD: Miranda Culley
We've seen it a hundred times before- boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy
gets girl back, and they live happily ever after. Until the credits roll. And AFTER that, it's
a completely different story.
Australian Premiere
BEAR
Australia/11 min/35MM/2011
WRI: Nash Edgerton & David Michôd
DIR: Nash Edgerton
PROD: Lauren Edwards & John Polson
Jack means well, but sometimes good intentions have horrible consequences.
BUSH BASHER
Australia/15 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Ben Young
PROD: Tenille Kennedy, Ross Hutchens & Colin South
Weed and his father Perry, haven't seen each other much since Perry and Weed's mum divorced. Attempting to reconnect, Perry takes Weed to an old family haunt that he and his father would escape to for weekends away. It's the perfect opportunity to toughen Weed up, teach him to shoot guns and drink beer around the campfire. They find a common ground as Perry remembers a story about his father and it seems the two might finally bond, until Weed lets slip that his mum has been involved with another man. Betrayed, drunk and seeking revenge Perry decides to teach Weed a lesson. But the only lesson learned is, Weed is nothing like his father.
World Premiere
FISH & CHIPS
Australia/15 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Anna Broinowski
PROD: Steve Kearney & Leanne Tonkes
When 10 year old Pauline Hanson goes on Chef of the Universe to cook against culinary geniuses Barry, Kim and Vlad, she breaks the rules - and turns the whole world upside down.
World Premiere
GOOD PRETENDER
Australia/15 min/Video/2011
WRI: Maziar Lahooti & Michael Hoath
DRI: Maziar Lahooti
PROD: Daniel Parry
After trying to convince some bulling kids her dad is a robot, Ally is dared to shoot him with a spear gun to prove it!
Australian Premiere
NULLARBOR
Australia/10 min/Video/2011
WRI: Alister Lockhart & Patrick Sarell
PROD: Katrina Mathers, Merrin Jensen, Patrick Sarell & Daryl Munton
Brash young punk Bernie is desperate for a cigarette as he cruises across the vast and barren landscape of Australia's Nullarbor Plain; the longest, straightest stretch of road in the world. When he encounters cantankerous old Waddy in his rusty old jalopy, a contemporary road-rage 'tortoise and hare' story ensues.
PEEKABOO
Australia/10 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Damien Power
PROD: Joe Weatherstone
On the train home from the Easter Show, an over-tired little girl is hyped up by a stranger, who plays a game of peekaboo with her, until her mother begins to feel disturbed by the interest he's showing. A short time later, the girl disappears in a carpark and her desperate mother searches. A glimpse of the man from the train fires her imagination with devastating consequences.
TEDDY
Australia/14 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR/PROD: Stuart van Eysden
Sarah can't work out why she can't keep a man, but when her new boyfriend is left alone in her apartment, he discovers that the problem isn't Sarah - it's her insanely jealous, devious, conniving and slightly homicidal... childhood teddy bear.
World Premiere
THE CARTOGRAPHER
Australia/12 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Jane Shadbolt
PROD: Karinn Cheung
Polly has mapped the entire world. Almost. There is one last, lost city to go. But to know this place is to destroy it and this city's residents have other plans. Polly has to decide what's where, what's right and how to get out.
Australian Premiere
THE PALACE
Cyprus & Australia/15 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Anthony Maras
PROD: Kate Croser, Anthony Maras & Andros Achilleos
Cyprus 1974. A Cypriot family flees advancing Turkish forces and takes refuge in an abandoned Ottomanera palace. When a young Turkish Cypriot conscript comes face to face with the family in hiding, he is forced to confront the brutal reality of war and his role in it.
THIS SPACE FILM
Australia/6 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR/PROD: Seymour Davison
Short comedy set during the Apollo 11 mission. For some reason Mike Collins (Command Module Pilot) has information about the future and Neil and Buzz don't like what they hear.
TRANSMISSION
Australia/13 min/Video/2011
WRI/DIR: Zak Hilditch
PROD: Liz Kearney
Following a deadly pandemic, a father drives his nine year old daughter across
outback Western Australia towards a 'safe zone' where their relationship is tested in a changed and unforgiving world.
World Premiere
Watch a clip from animated short Nullarbor below.