Flickerfest Announces Full Program

by Dov Kornits

Receiving over 2700 entries from over 100 countries, the program has been focused to around 200 short films that will screen in January at the iconic Bondi Pavilion. Here are some of the highlights.

Highlights of Best of Australian Shorts Program

DESERT DASH (Australian premiere)

Australia/13min /2018, WRI/DIR: Gracie Otto, PROD: Gracie Otto, Jessica Carrera, Francesca Duncan, Craig Deeker – On the outskirts of Australia, Opals are now the currency for survival in the game of Desert Dash. When a feisty heroine gets the opportunity to ‘level up’ there is no choice but to win. Game On.

HOME (World premiere)

Australia/16min/2018, WRI/DIR: Peter Gurbiel, PROD: Iris Tascon, Jess Black, Peter Gurbiel – Tormented by the news that they bear, two men from town watch over a family whose lives are about to change forever. Starring Jack Thompson.

ALL THESE CREATURES (NSW premiere)

Australia/13min/2018, WRI/DIR/PROD: Charles Williams – An adolescent boy attempts to untangle his memories of a mysterious infestation, the unravelling of his father, and the little creatures inside us all. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

BIRDIE (NSW premiere)

Australia/8min/2018, WRI/DIR: Shelly Lauman, PROD: Lizzie Cater – On a bright, ordinary day a woman walks alone to the train station. As she descends the stairs to the underground platform she smiles at a young man. He smiles back. With the smallest of gestures, the woman is caught in a subtle and sinister game.

Highlights of Best of International Shorts

Flickerfest’s international programme will feature 40 films including 2 world premieres, 33 Australian premieres and 1 NSW premiere.

RISE OF A STAR (Australian premiere)
France/18min /2018, WRI: Stephane Landowski, DIR: James Bort, PROD: Boris Mendza – Emma is about to be the new Ballerina at Paris Opera. But something upsets her. A secret. A secret liable to undermine what she has spent a whole life on. Starring Catherine Deneuve.

TO PLANT A FLAG (Australian premiere)
Norway/14min/2018, WRI/DIR: Bobbie Peers, PROD: Ruben Thorkildsen, Henrik Hofstad – In preparation for the moon landing in 1969, NASA sent a team of astronaut to the lunar landscapes of Iceland. Their hi-tech training mission soon discovers what obstacles one can meet when facing an Icelandic sheep farmer. Starring Jason Schwartzman of Wes Anderson movie fame.

BEST GAME EVER (Australian premiere)
Hungary/20min/2018, WRI/DIR/PROD: Marcus McKenzie, PROD: Kirsty Stark – When two CCTV technicians find out about an AI machine threatening their jobs, they must get out of their chairs to beat the system – leading them to an unexpected solution. The new short film of Academy Award-winner Kristóf Deák.

Highlights of Best of Documentary Shorts

Flickerfest’s documentary programme will feature 18 films including 2 world premieres and 15 Australian premieres.

THROUGH THE WINDOW (World premiere)
Australia/4min/2018
WRI: Nick Baker, DIR/PROD: Cecilia Rumore, Tristan Klein, Nick Baker – Through the Window is an animation inspired by Nas Campanella, a 29-year-old Triple J newsreader who has been blind since six months of age

EDEK (Australian premiere)

United Kingdom/6min/2018, WRI/DIR: Malcolm Green, PROD: Marc Cave, Sara Huxley – An 85 year old Holocaust survivor named Janine and a young American rapper named Kapoo collaborate to deliver a Hip Hop message to the youth of the world. A poignant and uniquely challenging fusion of prose, music and rap.

KYOKO (Australian premiere)

Spain/20min/2018, WRI/DIR: Marcos Cabotá, Joan Bover, PROD: Joan Bover, Nacho Tejedor, Carmelo Sirera – On April 23, 1971, Mallorca witnessed an extraordinary event: the arrest of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The reason was the kidnapping of a girl named Kyoko.

THIS IS YARRA (World premiere)

Australia/15min/2018, DIR: Lydia Rui, PROD: Lydia Rui, Nima Sobhani, Bonnie Moir – For nearly 15 years, basketball has played a central role in bringing together the South Sudanese community in Australia. The Yarra Wild Beasts prepare for the South Sudanese Australian National Basketball Association Tournament.

Highlights of the Showcase of FlickerKids

With eleven charming short films aimed at 6-12 year old children and their parents. With 5 Australian Premiers, 2 World Premieres and 1 NSW Premiere, this year’s program will entertain accompanying adults as much the kids.

THE PIG ON THE HILL (Australian premiere)
United States/6min/2017, WRI: John Kelly, DIR/PROD: Jamy Wheless, John Helms – When Pig’s free‐spirited, rambunctious new neighbor, Duck, plunges himself into Pig’s quiet, orderly life, Pig learns that having friends is what he has been missing all along. Voice-over by Pierce Brosnan.

GHOSTBEAR (World premiere)
Australia/6min/2017, WRI/DIR: Paul McDermott – A polar bear cub, the Ghostbear, wanders through the antic wasteland in search of his place in the world and his birthplace in the stars.

Showcase of Rainbow Shorts LGBTQI Program

The Rainbow Shorts program has been curated by Sydney based film director, Craig Boreham, who sees this year’s line-up as a real window into the global LGBTQI+ world right now.

THE OTHER SIDE (Australian premiere)
Mexico /15min/2016, WRI/DIR: Rodrigo Álvarez Flores, PROD: Rodrigo Álvarez Flores, Sarahí Castro, Luisa Gómez de Silva – Felipe and Claudio form a very particular relationship, somehow destiny pulls them apart taking Claudio to the US, now Felipe must embark on a journey where he will risk everything in his pursuit of happiness, so he can finally meet Claudio at the other side of the border.

PRISONER OF SOCIETY (Australian premiere)
Georgia/15min/2018, DIR: Rati Tsiteladze – An intimate journey into the world and mind of a young transgender woman, locked away from the outside world for the past decade, trapped between her personal desire for freedom and traditional expectations of her parents that threaten their unity.

BLACK LIPS (NSW premiere)
Australia/15min/2018, WRI/DIR: Adrian Chiarella, PROD: Rebecca Janek – A lonely abalone trader is awakened by a longing he’s never explored before.

STILLE NACHT (World premiere)
Australia/13min/2018, DIR: Matthew R. Young, WRI: Charmaine Bingwa, Meg Ryan, Matthew R. Young, PROD: Meg Ryan, Matthew R. Young – A rigid German-Australian mother finds answers to generational secrets through her gay daughter when hard truths from both their pasts surface over a traditional tea ceremony one evening.