Tropfest 2012

Sun 19 Feb ,

Film Festivals

In 1993, John Polson hosted an informal film screening at the Tropicana Caffe in Darlinghurst. Twenty years on, Tropfest has grown to be the largest short film festival in the world

First published on 19 Jan 2012. Updated on 20 Feb 2012.

This event has finished

To mark its special birthday, this year Tropfest will be not one, but three days of screenings, live music, industry seminars and the annual festival’s raison d’etre: screening the 16 finalists of 2012’s short film entries. Selected from hundreds of international submissions, they’ll compete for the $100,000-value prize and the possibility of following in the footsteps of a few well-known Tropfesters like Joel Edgerton, Sam Worthington and Elissa Down.

You know the rules: all films entered are made specifically for the festival; they must be no longer than seven minutes; and they must include the Tropfest Signature Item (TSI). In the past we’ve seen TSIs from ‘dice’ and ‘key’ to ‘bubble’ and ‘match’, and this year’s TSI is ‘light bulb’ in a nod to the ‘central idea’ in a film’s narrative. The main event on Sunday 19 February sees the shortlisted films judged by celebrities and screened to thousands in the audience at the Domain and even more by satellite link to outdoor cinemas in Australia’s major cities and broadcast across the country by subscription TV channel Movie Extra.

On Saturday 18 February, an all-day industry seminar will be held at the Art Gallery of NSW. Tropfest Roughcut will be an opportunity for new and experienced filmmakers to hear firsthand from those in the industry: film editor Jason Ballantine, actor Kieran Darcy-Smith, composer Lisa Gerrard and John Polson himself. There'll also be a keynote address from celebrated screenwriter and producer Charles Randolph (last year’s Viagra romcom Love and Other Drugs).

It’s not just filmmakers who get a glimpse of the limelight at Tropfest: budding musicians who entered an original score will perform or have their music played on stage as part of Tropscore. And it doesn’t stop there – short films made by young filmmakers for Trop Jr are screened at the Domain ahead of the main event on the Sunday. And the whole event will be launched with a party on the Friday.

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Words by Emma Joyce