by Shayley Blair

A curated collection of the finest pocket-rocket-fired films have made the 2023 finals, out of a record 458 entrants vying for a share of a $50,000 pool of tech goodies, tools, and tuition.

Prizes for directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, producers are up for grabs, for both adult and child contenders. An innovative addition to the 2023 comp, is an option to adapt a micro-fiction text into a plot. The micro-stories are provided by contemporary Australian writers on behalf of Spineless Wonders publishing.

On the weekend of November 18-19, you can catch these gems on the big screen in Sydney, or online live, in The Gala Finals of the 9th annual international Smart Fone Flick Fest (SF3). The finalists are a mix of both amateur enthusiasts and those with previous filmmaking experience.

Here’s what to expect:

Kav Pavlou of Bondi, a multi-award-winning director of documentary and drama, offers up Ghost Town, a personal journey into her ancestral home of Famagusta, in Cyprus, now a ghost town. Kav describes her film as being 30 years in the making.

The ancestral theme is also the focus of Harlisha Newie-Joe’s Nganakaapu. Newie-Joe, of the NSW Central Coast, who was the First Nations Award Winner in 2022, shares a glimpse of her short: “Acknowledging a timeline carried through waves. From my ancestors’ beginning to mine. Following the bloodline. Beauty of the islands, the landscape, its textures, its growth…”

A story by Michèle Jedlicka from Delungra, NSW, That thing we all share [above], includes a diverse case of mainly regional NSW residents.

The Arts feature in a number of films. From South Africa, Freeflow [below] by SJ van Breda documents the process of abstract artist Sarah Grace.

Ghanaian Denzel S. Owoo presents Fofo Means Father, a profile of filmmaker Fofo Gavua, captured reflecting on his career and mental health.

REKT is a dance performance film by Scottish filmmaker Jamiel Laurence, which centres around the idea of the psychological effects of one-size-fits all policies imposed widely, and their subsequent societal impacts.

In The Art of Living (with a Mechanical Keyboard), Ronald James Baculo from Victoria, depicts discovering passion for life through mechanical keyboards.

An original musical score accompanies Misaligned, a film tackling mental health issues, by Sally-Ann Dunn from Staffordshire County in the UK.

Adam Raynes of Kansas USA, is a filmmaker with a passion for “breathing life into the creative butterflies that fill the pit in his stomach.” His final-placing short Turn Around is about a man realising that his car radio is trying to tell him something.

Californian Courtney Coker joins the festival with Lodi [above], a mini road movie. Coker is an industry pro, who has worked on films such as Transformers: Bumblebee and Top Gun: Maverick.

Other finalists, with shorts in styles ranging from realism to fantasy, and everything in-between including comedy and heists, are: Joshua Belinfante (Rose Bay, NSW) Baking Sense; Charli Fletcher (a 14 year old entrant from Randwick, NSW) The Locket; Reid McGowan (Leichardt, NSW) The Best; Kieron Beilby (Macquarie Park, NSW) Rental Love; Aaron Scully (Castle Hill, NSW) From Now On; Barry Backhouse (Marrickville, NSW) The Spy Who Dragged Me; and Jonathan Lagudi (Glenhaven, NSW) Idiot Proof.

Since the competition’s inception 9 years ago, it has attracted an evolving flow of interest and ambassadors, all helping to continue the festival’s progression. Industry names like veteran Australian actress Kerry Armstrong; director Phillip Noyce; and actress Nicole Da Silva (Carmen, Love Me) – who describes the annual festival as a “short sharp feast of film” – are just a few of them.

It would be advisable to get in early for tickets to see these little films blown up on the big screen. Otherwise, save the date for online viewing from November 18 to December 4. The Gala Finals of the 9th annual international Smart Fone Flick Fest (SF3) is on at Actors Centre Australia in Leichardt, Sydney November 18-19, and films will also screen in Melbourne on Friday November 24 at ACMI in Federation Square, which will host a co-screening with another of the world’s largest smartphone film festivals – MINA.

Head to SF3 for all the details.

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