[FILM NEWS] ST KILDA FILM FESTIVAL Launched Online

May 20, 2020 Dave St Kilda Film Festival

20 June.

Produced by the City of Port Phillip, the St Kilda Film Festival is Australia’s largest and longest running publicly owned short film festival. A highlight of Melbourne’s screen industry calendar, the annual Opening Night extravaganza will bring festival fans, patrons and talent online together for a preview of what’s to come.

Like each year, the Festival program will provide an insight into the nation’s short film industry, screening the Top Australian Shorts and a number of specially curated sessions. A jampacked filmmaker development program will return with live post session Q+As alongside live webinars covering the ins and outs of comedy, as well as short bites delivered by long time industry partners such as the Australian Cinematographers Society.

City of Port Phillip Mayor, Bernadene Voss said, “We are extremely excited to be able to present this year’s Festival online. Not only does this let us keep supporting local filmmakers during this time and showcasing the incredible talent we have on offer in Australia, but this year it is totally free for the whole of Australia to enjoy.”

Festival Director Richard Sowada says of the program, “If 2020 is paving the way for the future of Australian filmmaking then the future is breathtaking. The sheer diversity of work, the guts and glory ambition and those authentic voices are just great to bring to the screen – it makes me very proud to be part of the lives of these films and these filmmakers.”

This year the Festival features films starring Brett Climo, Gary Foley, Diana Glenn, Victoria Haralabidou, Damon Herriman, Claudia Karvan, Sean Keenan, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Aaron Pedersen and Gary Sweet plus Chinese-Australian dancer Chengwu Guo, Red Symons and Larry Emdur.

The Festival also looks back at the early career films of Jane Campion and Phillip Noyce including Campion’s Palme D’Or winner Peel and Noyce’s debut feature as a director Backroads starring Gary Foley and the late Bill Hunter, with Gary Foley himself hosting a special event.

Program highlights include:

– A program of new Australian animations, the Australian Animation Explosion, presented by Indomie will embrace all forms and showcase old friends and fresh new talent.

– Shifting the Gaze: Focus on Women Filmmakers presents new films from female filmmakers, including short documentaries, essays, experimental works, biographies and thrillers. Presented by WIFT Victoria.

– Damned if You Do… offers a selection of powerful dramas which examine the choices we make and their consequences.

– More relevant now than ever as the forces that shape our world become ever more dynamic and unpredictable – Age of Awareness, is a selection of coming of age films.

– A collection of clever and crowd-pleasing shorts from naïve documentary to Indigenous horror will be found in Australian Comedy Showcase.– Whether it’s deep space, ancient times, fairytales or the things of myth and legend it can be found in Tales of Mystery & Imagination, presented by Screen Producers Australia.

– The Dark Matter program includes horrors, thrillers, dystopian worlds and things that go bump in the night which goes hand in hand with a Q+A with APRA AMCOS exploring the program’s dark, memorable soundtrack.

– World Perspectives, a richly textured documentary program brings an Australian eye to offshore stories, issues and cultures in always surprising and big-screen ways.

– Headspace, a program which explores inner space and the worlds within emotion. Presented by Australian Writers’ Guild.

– Outsiders From The Inside is a program of inspiring short fictions of chance encounters and personal triumphs. Full of surprises and unusual twists.

– The films in Forbidden Fruit explore the world of gender, relationships, sexuality and society.

– Action & Reaction explores those sliding door moments that we all face and what happens if we choose the wrong door.

– A program of utterly unique films that signpost to tomorrow’s major screen artists can be found in One of These Things is Not Like the Other One – from urban essays, aliens visiting the outback, Indigenous justice, suburban impressions, personal stories.

– The Power of One looks at the power of the individual.

– Powerful stories about being and becoming an Indigenous Australian; Out of Range, Gods of Tiny Things and Home.

In addition to the above curated programs, there will be a number of live online Q&A sessions for filmmakers and film students including writing, storytelling, money and production.

A selection of films from Under the Radar, the annual youth short film competition will be showcased, as will shorts from Your Place, the new digital film competition aimed at encouraging filmmakers in regional Victoria to create short films about their experiences. Entries for Your Place are open until 29 May. Films can be documentary, fiction, animation or experimental and no longer than 3 minutes including credits.

Award-winning films from the St Kilda Film Festival are eligible for consideration in the OSCARS® Short Film and Documentary Short Awards.

The 2020 St Kilda Film Festival runs 12 June to 20 June. All films and programs will be available to watch FREE via the St Kilda Film Festival website. Content will only be accessible within Australia.

For full program information, visit www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au

The St Kilda Film Festival is proudly produced and presented by the City of Port Phillip and supported by Government Partners Screen Australia and Film Victoria.