by FilmInk Staff
Sydney Film Scoops 6 Awards
The 12th annual SmartFone Flick Fest (SF3) has concluded at a Gala Finals screening and awards ceremony at Sydney Opera House. And a slew of awards has been presented to filmmakers young and old, from across Australia – and the globe!
Top ‘gong’ went to Weight of Mercy by Nathan Colquhoun of Glenfield and Tatjana Marjanovic (Coogee) with Tatjana picking up Best Actress. She also starred in Best Feature Film Three Chapters by James Demitri of Inner West Sydney – this is 3rd straight such award! Weight of Mercy co-star Simon Brook McLachlan (Bronte) won Best Actor and the film picked up three more awards including Best Director and Best Cinematography.
The Illawarra region produced a half-dozen winners this year – including First Nations Award to Brandon Fairley (Unanderra) with You Will Not be Left Behind, #Filmbreaker Award for ‘rookie’ Dane Noonan (Wollongong) for What Life Can Be [below], Best editing and Best Actor Award in the SF3 Kids section for Aston Di Donato (Port Kembla) and Alex Bar (Neutral Bay) for Hero-Man, while best kids’ documentary went to Scarborough Public School and Wolfe and Lucette Meisner for Between the Mountains and the Sea.
A record 400 entries including 19 feature films and 16 AI films entered from 70+ countries including some new ones such as Sudan, Georgia, Malaysia, Thailand, Czechia, Luxembourg, Peru, Pakistan, Romania, China. Plus all ‘the usual suspects’ of Australia, America, the UK, South Africa Western Europe. The best of them will face off in front of a slew of industry A-listers, festival ambassadors and celebrity and industry judges for a share of more than $50,000 in prizes.
The ‘Mini’ and Feature Film sections screened at the White Bay Power Station in Rozelle on Halloween, with the SF3 Kids and Gala Finals on Sunday at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse.
Other notable winners (among 40 in total!) included 7yo rookie Stevie Gannon (of Marsfield) for No Bears Allowed and Tez Frost of Melbourne’s Best AI Film for No.8.
Western Sydney winners abounded, especially in the SF3 Kids section, where super-cute hospital drama satire Code Blue by Wayne Tunks and his youngest kids at Centre Stage Academy in Blacktown picked up one award and his adult class another! Likewise veteran SF3 director Aaron Scully and the Hills Drama School students (Rouse Hill) were winners. Eschol Park’s Indie Jones won for Dracooler.
SF3 Festival Director and co-founder Angela Blake said: “What a weekend! We celebrated the absolute best in smartphone filmmaking on the world stage here in Sydney at two of our most iconic venues – the Sydney Opera House and White Bay Power Station, and boy was it incredible! Smartphone filmmakers and our SF3 audience are the most inclusive, supportive and encouraging community and we watched films from first time filmmakers, kids, emerging filmmakers all the way through to professionals and we laughed, cried, cheered and smiled through them all.”
