With major support from Inner West Council, the Inner West Film Fest [IWFF] kicked off with a Film Pitching Competition at the Actors Centre Australia in Leichhardt, signalling its intentions to support emerging filmmakers and to cultivate a culture that will make IWFF a highly anticipated annual event.
IWFF co-director Dov Kornits explains: “The Inner West is home to the largest concentration of creatives in Sydney, if not Australia, and my co-director Greg Dolgopolov and I really wanted to signal future-thinking with the festival in its first year.”
“Wouldn’t it be great if some of the pitches that we heard on the night end up playing as a finished film or TV show at a future Inner West Film Fest? We are excited by the possibilities of making both the Pitching Competition and the festival in general a breeding ground for collaboration and a pathway for future quality Australian film production that resonates in locally and abroad,” added IWFF co-director Greg Dolgopolov.
Hosted by Inner West film production business Breathless Films (The Longest Weekend, Lonesome), the Pitching Competition saw more than a dozen filmmakers take to the stage to pitch their proposed films, and in some cases, TV shows, to a jury made up of Breathless Films’ Ulysses Oliver, Causeway Films’ Kristina Ceyton and producer Jessica Giacco.
Taking out the main prize was Inner West creative Jayden Rathsam Hua for a feature length adaptation of his short film Sushi Noh, which also screened before the Australian premiere of Jason Trost’s FP 4EVZ and in the Short Film Showcase later in the festival.
“The Inner West Film Fest Pitching Competition was such a fun and rewarding event,” said Jayden Rathsam Hua. “Finding local creatives to meet and collaborate with can be a massive challenge, so seeing so many of us packed into one space was heartening. I’m super excited to have taken home the prize of 2 months residency with Breathless Films – their slate embodies the spirit of making local content inventively, and I look forward to spending more time with them as I continue developing my work.”
On March 30, Inner West business Carnival Studios hosted the opening of Australian Film in Posters at Gallery 371 in Marrickville, showcasing their distinctive work on films such as Sweet Country, Satellite Boy and My First Summer among others, to an enthusiastic crowd of Australian film industry’s movers, shakers, and movie lovers.
Then on March 31, the fairway on Hole 1 at Marrickville Golf Club was home to the Sydney premiere of Jub Clerc’s coming of age drama Sweet As. An official opening by Mayor Darcy Byrne and actress Miranda Otto, whose family has deep roots in the area, served as the perfect introduction for this beautifully shot Indigenous themed film, which hundreds of people enjoyed under the Southern Cross.
On April 1 and 2, Inner West cinemas Dendy Newtown and Palace Norton hosted screenings of more than a dozen films, including the world premiere of Inner West shot The Red Shoes: Next Step, Australian premieres of Still Working 9 to 5 from one-time Inner West resident Camille Hardman, Georgian LGBTQI+ drama A Room of My Own, British feel-good dramedy Bank of Dave, Sydney premiere of Patricia Cornelius’ Shit, and a 35mm screening of Erskineville Kings. Many of the feature film presentations were also preceded by short films, new and old, with a connection to the area.
One of the most popular sessions was the Short Film Showcase, which screened more than 20 films that were made by filmmakers with a connection to the Inner West. Adjudicated by FilmInk Magazine’s Julian Wood and filmmaker Andrew Traucki, the winner was James Woods for his stylish and acerbic film Svengali.
“More than half of Svengali’s Heads of Departments are Inner West-based,” said James Woods, who picked up a copy of Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio as a prize. “The film would simply not have been possible without the immense creative capacity of this community.
“Svengali was inspired by the depravities of Sydney’s housing market, and it was a privilege to see its message resonate at IWFF’s inaugural Short Film Showcase.”
The festival was concluded with a ‘Top Secret Cinema’ screening, which was revealed to be Jonathan Ogilvie’s Lone Wolf, starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hugo Weaving, Josh McConville and Chris Bunton. With Ogilvie in attendance to make an invigorating introduction, the Inner West Film Fest ended on the perfect note to signal a bright future for this exciting new addition to Sydney’s cultural calendar.
