latest news
The Sapphires To Open Melbourne International Film Festival
The feel-good feature is set to kick off the Melbourne film festivities.
Screen Australia Invests in 16 Features
An eclectic set of projects have been granted funding...
De Niro & Douglas To Headline ‘Last Vegas’
The two legendary gents look to be starring in this comedy centred around a Las Vegas bachelor party.
‘Housos’ Get Big Screen Outing
Writer/director/comedian Paul Fenech is set to make his debut feature.
search the site
newsletter
Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter
The Graduate
Sydney Film School is currently a hive of activity as students and soon-to-be-graduates prepare for a two day festival packed with screenings, talks and more.
"It's really a celebration of all the work the students have been putting in over the past four months," Sydney Film School Director, Ben Ferris, says of the upcoming festival. "They work right up to the last minute so it's complete chaos at the school at the moment but it usually pulls together!"
Taking place over two days at Paddington's Chauvel Cinema, the programme for the 15th Sydney Film School Festival promises to screen more than 80 films produced this semester by students and graduates. This two-day event culminates with an Awards Night, where students' and graduates' contributions across all areas of filmmaking are recognised.
What are some of the highlights in this year's selection of films? "There's a film about Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist who invented the atomic bomb," Ferris says. "The film imagines his conscience in the weeks following the Hiroshima explosion and it's well executed. It's a real concept piece. Another film is a projection of the artistic muse for famous composers, which has Mozart, Bach and Beethoven in the same room. It's a comedy obviously and a bit of fun.
"What isn't fun is a graduate's thesis film called Human Meat Factory, which references abattoirs and substitutes human beings for the pigs. It's quite confronting and provokes difficult questions about the way animals are treated in these meat factories," Ferris says.
As well as the screenings, the festival will play host to a number of panel discussions focusing on a wide range of industry-related issues. One of these discussions - whose panel includes, among others, Griff The Invisible's producer Nicole O'Donohue and Screen NSW's Development Executive Sam Jennings - aims to provide practical guidance to emerging filmmakers on how to develop projects in line with the criterions of funding bodies, investors and distributors. "The festival is often the last time the students have with us before they step out into the industry so we run forums that aim at looking at strategies around what to do next," Ferris says.
Another one of the festival's panel discussions this year is tied to the Industry Advisory Board Pitch Competition, a new funding initiative the school has started, which sees graduates pitch to an alumni board who then select a film to invest in. The competition's inaugural winner, graduate Gary Sofarelli, will have his short film, Lotus Sonny (pictured) premiere at the festival and participate in a Q&A. "It's a really great project that deals with some interesting subject matter," Ferris says. "It's about the sexual awakening of teenagers and having to wrestle with those tensions. We're inviting the cast and crew to talk about making a film in a professional background to give audiences insight into what might be the same, but what might also be different when they're out of the safety net of film school."
In addition to these panel discussions, the festival also invites a keynote speaker each year to share his or her experience and advice. This semester, it's auteur filmmaker Paul Cox (Man of Flowers, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Innocence) who was the subject of David Bradbury's just released documentary On Borrowed Time, recounting Cox's recent battle with liver cancer. "He's a very inspiring individual," Ferris says. "The fact that Paul's directed 21 features films is extraordinary and he's done it largely on his own terms. That's a really inspiring message for the graduates: it does take persistence and you really have to put yourself out there and make opportunities for yourself."
Cox's uncompromising work ethic has seen him work outside conventional production methods and traditional funding bodies throughout his career - another note of inspiration for the emerging filmmakers in the audience. "The other great thing about Paul is that he doesn't subscribe to the mainstream Hollywood mentality," Ferris says, "so he'll provide an interesting reference to the graduates and show that there are other ways to approach making films."
With a programme busting with valuable discussions, advice and a showcase of work from promising new talent, this clearly isn't just a film festival for graduates and their friends and families. "There's no shortage of films over the two days and you can really get a sense of different styles and techniques," Ferris says. "It would be really interesting for emerging filmmakers and people who are talent scouting."
And the proof that Sydney Film School houses much promising new talent is clearly evident in the slew of recent graduates. When we ask Ferris to highlight the work of some of the new graduates, he runs off some impressive credentials - some have had their work selected to screen at Sundance, another won this year's Outstanding Young Filmmaker at the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, one has worked as an assistant editor on Ben Affleck's The Town, another worked in the camera department on the Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the list goes on...
The Sydney Film Festival will be held on December 14-15 at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington. It's a free event and open to the public. For more information, go here.
