By FilmInk Staff
Despite the cash made through the gate, and the various government grants and corporate sponsorships, film festivals are rarely big money spinners. Even the most high profile of film fests rely considerably on philanthropy to survive from year to year. Now is a particularly tough time for film festivals, and everybody is feeling the pinch. The Sydney Film Festival – one of the nation’s grandest and most consistently fascinating film fests – will be operating solely as an online entity this year, and recently announced their slimmed down (but still relatively jammed) programme. Without the considerable revenue brought in by paying customers, The Sydney Film Festival is asking its regular patrons to dig deep and keep it all going by donating to the cinematic cause.
The organisers have tapped a cohort of big names – Gillian Armstrong, Rose Byrne, Marta Dusseldorp, Nash Edgerton, Damon Herriman, Nicole Kidman, Ewen Leslie, Heather Mitchell, Daniel Monks, Sam Neill, Miranda Tapsell, Jack Thompson, Lynette Wallworth, Rachel Ward, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham – for a beautifully assembled video poem to spruik the virtues of The Sydney Film Festival as a storytelling medium. It’s artsy but powerful, kinda like The Sydney Film Festival itself. And our pick for the video’s MVP? Jack Thompson’s beard, hands down…
Check the video out below.
Click here to find out how you can support The Sydney Film Festival. And for more on this year’s online edition of The Sydney Film Festival, click here.
