PRESS RELEASE
Australia’s most prestigious and iconic short film festival Tropfest will celebrate its 22nd birthday at its new home on SBS 2 next month on Sunday December 8 broadcast live from Centennial Park, and the good news is everyone’s invited.
Back to host the party again are beloved Tropfest hosts Adam Spencer and Yumi Stynes who this year will be joined by SBS 2’s favourite movie guy and host of The Feed, Marc Fennell.
‘Change’ is the Tropfest Signature Item this year which couldn’t be more appropriate because for the first time Tropfest has a new venue and a new date. Tropfest is moving to Centennial Park and SBS 2 will bring all the action from the park straight to your living room showcasing the 16 finalist films, red carpet arrivals, as well as exclusive interviews with the celebrity judges and filmmakers before the Tropfest Australia 22 winner is announced.
Since its humble beginnings 21 years ago at a café in Darlinghurst Tropfest has evolved to become a feature on the national event calendar attracting huge crowds in Sydney as well as live screenings at locations across Australia including Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide and Surfers Paradise. Over 650 budding filmmakers have entered their short films for Tropfest Australia 22 and the 16 finalists will be announced next week.
Many of Australia's greatest actors and directors have got their start by making or starring in a short for Tropfest. Notable alumni include international film star Sam Worthington, who won Best Actor in a 2001 short, as well as the Edgerton brothers Joel and Nash, and SBS’s cult comedy hero Paul Fenech whose film Pizza Man was a Tropfest finalist in 1995.
Tropfest Australia 22 will be no exception, and together with SBS 2 it will propel the next crop of talented filmmakers to great heights, whilst simultaneously bringing quality, provocative and distinctive short films to audiences picnicking at the outdoor events and watching in living rooms all across Australia.
Tropfest Online
This year the chatter will go beyond the park and out of your lounge room, as SBS Online takes your conversation to the big screen. There will be a live social TV experience during the broadcast with tweets and Facebook messages displayed on screen throughout the broadcast from conversations using the hashtag #tropfest. In conjunction with the television broadcast SBS online will be streaming the broadcast live at Sbs.com.au/tropfest where there will also be exclusive video extras with the finalists.
Host Biographies
Adam Spencer
Adam is a Sydney-based broadcaster, comedian, and media personality who currently hosts the highly coveted ABC 702 breakfast program. Adam began his career in radio by winning the Triple J Raw Comedy championship in 1996. Adam loves mathematics, science the Sydney Swans and being a geeky dad. Adam hosted Tropfest earlier this year with Yumi Stynes at the event in the domain in February and is back again to help uncover
the next great Australian film maker.
Yumi Stynes
Yumi Stynes started her career in 2000 when she won the Channel [V] music reporter search. Since then her meticulous research and great sense of humour has seen her interview actors, comedians, directors and musicians all over the world with TV and radio gigs including Network Ten’s The Circle, and MIX FM’s The 3pm Pick Up. Yumi currently co-hosts the Mix FM all female breakfast show with Sami Lukas as well as regularly sharing her wry observations on food, family, art, and love with features in Sunday Life Magazine, Sunday Telegraph. Yumi returns to Tropfest having hosted the event earlier this year in February with Adam Spencer.
Marc Fennell
Marc is Australia's most listened-to film critic reaching over 1.8 million listeners as That Movie Guy on triple j. He's also the author of That Movie Book and of course the host of SBS 2's The Feed and Saturday Night Movie Mayhem. Marc has talked about movies with everyone from The Project to Sunrise, Sky News to the BBC. But his love of film can be traced right back to the age of 14 when he directed his very first Tropfest film. Marc describes his first entry as “utter shit” which was why he entered two more times. Luckily SBS hired him to present on The Movie Show when he was 19 otherwise he would still be making rubbish Tropfest entries. Since then Marc has reported on every aspect of filmmaking from Bollywood to blockbusters and interviewed the world’s biggest stars and directors from Will Smith to JJ Abrams.
Join the conversation on twitter @SBS2 @Tropfest #SBS2 #Tropfest