Press release from The Lantern Group
Celebrating 20 years of bringing you the best short films from Australia and the world, Bondi’s original outdoor short film festival Flickerfest raises its curtain, butters its organic popcorn and pops its champagne corks this Friday 7th January for it’s annual gala Opening Night extravaganza. Doors open at 8.15pm for a 9pm screening.
Showcasing five Australian premieres and two world premieres, this selection of festival highlights promises to be the centrepiece of Sydney’s outdoor summer movie celebrations. Followed by the glamorous Opening Night party, the Bondi Pavilion will come alive with flickerlicious fun!
As part of the 20-year celebrations, Flickerfest will also be launching a bigger and better screen and world-class cinema sound, thanks to Dolby, Big Picture and Loud & Clear, to present the incredible range of global films on offer. Opening night tickets go from $50 (available from www.mca-tix.com.au), with the intergalactic Star Wars theme “May the Shorts Be With You” jumping into full swing with in-costume characters rubbing shoulders with the crème de la crème of Australian filmmakers, all partying to the interplanetary sounds of DJ Stephen Ferris.
Bondi’s famous Doughboy Pizza will be providing the celestial snacks, with drinks on the house supplied by Coopers beer, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Rosnay Organic Wines and yummy mixers from Phoenix and Charlies. This will be a night not to miss, as Flickerfest invites you to help blow out its birthday candles and party into the night under the sparkling summer stars.
In attendance will be internationally renowned author John Boyne (Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) whose short story The Telegram Man was adapted for the screen by director James F. Khehtie, and which will have it’s world premiere at Opening Night. Starring Jack Thompson, Gary Sweet and Sigrid Thornton, the film is a poignant look at the casualties of war.
The second world premiere for the night will be Bee Sting directed by Flickerfest favourite Heath Davis. Starring Brendan Cowell and Matilda Brown the film takes a light-hearted look at the complications that arise when a father and son fall for the same woman in the schoolyard.
Other films featured include The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger from US director Bill Plympton that has been short-listed for an Oscar for Best Short Animation in 2011.
French director Hendrick Dusollier will have his film Babel screen, having received a special mention for Best Animation at Mexico’s Expresion En Corto 2010. Scotland will be represented by Writer/Director Colin Kennedy’s I Love Luci, a comedy of missing teeth, unrequited love and one dog’s potential to shape the fortunes of a couple destined never to be together, and which won the Prix des Mediatheques at France’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Protect the Nation is a German/South African co-production from director C.R. Reisser about the 2008 wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Canadian director Andrew Williamson will have his short The Green Film screen, which questions how to make the greenest film of all times, and which won the Best Short at the 2009 California International Film Festival.
Jury members Kryzystof Geirat, Director of the Krakow Film Festival, Eileen Arandiga, Festival Director of the Academy® Award Accredited Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto and Renee Brack, host of Movie Extra’s Movie Juice will also be attending Opening Night.
After receiving a record breaking 1793 entries, Flickerfest in 2011 will screen 108 films officially in competition, of which 11 will be world premieres and 46 will be Australian premieres. It will screen over 10 days and nights at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach Pavilion, before hitting the road on a national tour covering 30 hot spots across the country.
The full program of films is now online at www.flickerfest.com.au, and is made up of an incredible smorgasbord of cutting edge films from all around the world. As the only Academy ®Award accredited short film festival in Australia, and new to 2011 the only BAFTA recognised short film festival in Australia, Flickerfest continues to attract the best short filmmaking the world has to offer.