Sydney Opera House and Chauvel Paddington 23-25 January 2026
Australia’s own hit international film fest the Smart Fone Flick Fest (SF3), reaches its glittering climax January 23-25 when its 11th annual festival weekend debuts a world of films all made on smart phones and screening at the Sydney Opera House and Palace Chauvel in Paddington!
SF3 – the biggest festival of its kind in the world – received around 450 entries from all over Australia and the Globe from filmmakers of all ages this year. Now, the best of them face off – in front of celebrity and industry judges – for a share of more than $50,000 in prizes. They’re competing across 5 categories: SF3 Gala Finals, SF3 Kids, Feature Films, SF3 Mini (for films 3 mins or less -this year with a theme of ‘Breath’) and SF3 AI.
The premiere event, the Gala Finals, takes place on Friday 23 January from 8:30pm at The Playhouse Theatre at the Sydney Opera House – all starting with a pre-show red-carpet reception.
The screening will feature the best 16 short films from across the globe, the awards presentation, VIPs, filmmakers and their stars on the red-carpet, photographer, videographer and a cash bar.
The SF3 Kids screening takes place Saturday 24 January from 1:30pm in the same iconic venue.
This will feature the best short films made by filmmakers 18 with all the same attendant razzamatazz!
The SF3 Mini & Feature Films screenings follow on Sunday 25th January from 1:30pm at The Palace Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, Sydney.
Likewise with all the red carpet, camera flashes and awards. Plus the opportunity for filmmakers to network with industry top guns.
SF3 lives by its motto of making filmmaking affordable and accessible to all. This year its filmmakers range in age from 4 to 79!
It’s also screening multiple films from filmmakers living with disability, including Bevan Garozzo, an emerging filmmaker with Down Syndrome, two other films by neuro-diverse high school classes and a Gala film by Indigenous filmmaker, Brandon Fairley, a Bus Stop Films student with neuro-diversity who learned all about smartphone filmmaking in a masterclass run by SF3 thanks to a grant from Sydney Water.
SF3’s pre-selection panel was headed by Festival Director, Angela Blake and Jordon Briggs, with incredible talent from across the industry and Screen Illawarra watching over 400 short films and 40 feature films to select the finalist films for screening.
Entries were received from more than 60 countries, with the lion’s share from Australia, America and the UK. But China, Afghanistan, Iran, Morocco, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and France also featured!
This was also the second year of the SF3 AI Best Film Award and with four-fold increase in entries in this category since last year.
The best of them, The 5-Minute Empire by Tez Frost, appears in the Gala Finals line-up. It’s a hybrid AI film with the human creator front and centre of the creation process.
Festival director Angela Blake said SF3 will continue to support AI and AI filmmakers “but always keeping human creativity and ethics at the forefront of all SF3 AI films and entries.”
All info and bookings: www.sf3.com.au
