By Cara Nash
In 2016, everyone’s favourite film festival set against Bondi Beach, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To celebrate, Flickerfest will be screening a special retrospective of highlights from its 25 years featuring short films from some of our finest filmmaking talent today including Wayne Blair, Cate Shortland, David Michod and Jennifer Kent.
But while there may be a nostalgic eye on the past, Flickerfest is firmly about celebrating new and current local talent with 60 local short films set to make their premiere this year. Just a few highlights include Daniel Oates’ blackly comic Death in Bloom, which stars Ewen Leslie as a door to door “Death” salesman who struggles to close the deal with a difficult customer played by Robin Nevin; and Brendan Cowell and Matt Day’s Title Card, a comedic short film about a short filmmaker’s uh, short film.
Other Australian highlights include Darlene Johnson’s Bluey, which follows an angry young woman trapped in a life of violence until she meets a mystery mentor; Nan and A Whole Lot of Trouble; a story about cultural taboos and the meaning of Indigenous custom and tradition in modern suburbia; and Andrew Kotatko’s Whoever Was Using This Bed, based on a short story by Raymond Carver and starring Jean-Marc Barr, Radha Mitchell and Jane Birkin.
There’s also Ernie Biscuit (pictured), a new claymation short from master of the form, Adam Elliot (Mary & Max), and Andrew Chambers’ The Detectives of Noir Town, which unspools in a world where people and puppets share the streets, and stars David Collins (The Umbilical Brothers), Nick Boshier from Bondi Hipsters and Zoe Carides.
There are some interesting documentaries this yea including Rubika Shah’s Let’s Dance – David Bowie Down Under, which traces the story behind the artist’s biggest hit record and how an unlikely journey to the Australian outback led to its unprecedented success. There’s also Love In A Time of March Madness, an innovatively crafted animated doco that traces the awkward misadventures of a tall high schooler, and which was co-directed by Aussie, Robertino Zambrano.
Flickerfest plays at Bondi Beach January 7-18 before touring the country nationally. For the full program line-up and to book tickets, visit the website.
