The financial woes of Tropfest – Australia’s biggest and most high profile short film festival, and a vital piece of our film scene for over twenty years – have been well documented. The festival was nearly scuttled this year at the last minute, only to receive an eleventh-hour reprieve courtesy of CGU Insurance, who stepped in to cover the major funding shortfall prompted by financial mismanagement, with Tropfest founder, John Polson, allegedly pursuing legal proceedings against Tropfest Festival Productions managing director, Michael Laverty, who handled the day-to-day running of the festival…presumably not very well. While the February 14 event was a success, Polson and his team launched a Pozible crowd funding campaign to raise money to support a future plan for fundraising and associated matters.
Alas, the Pozible campaign did not reach its $100,000 target, capping at just over $16,000, including one donation of $10,000.
After a mostly negative response to the campaign on social media – “Stop muscling in on the one funding avenue upcoming filmmakers have. You have enough clout to go to the commercial sector for sponsorship. If you hadn’t mismanaged your funds in the first place you wouldn’t be begging the public for more,” one keyboard warrior commented – Tropfest surprisingly barely mentioned the campaign on the day of their big event.
“Our Pozible campaign has not been successful in hitting its target amount,” said John Polson in a message to the Pozible supporters. “The good news is we are pushing ahead with planning for Tropfest’s future regardless, and are incredibly optimistic about that future – especially in light of the very vocal support we’ve seen from you and many like you. With hindsight, we think we underestimated the level of confusion out there about Tropfest’s financial situation, and we accept responsibility for that confusion. However, it has probably been unavoidable given the unexpected nature of the events of the past couple of months, and the amount of stress our (very small!) organisation has had to deal with as a result.”
The response, however, was not one of bleak defeat, but – thankfully – one coursing with optimism. “Next week, we will announce some exciting news about Tropfest’s future, so stay tuned,” Polson continued. “For 23 years, Tropfest has been an incredible launch pad for emerging talent, as well as one of the best FREE nights of the year for audiences around Australia. With your continued support, we plan to continue that mission for another 23 years and more! My sincere thanks once again for contributing to our cause, and we invite you to stand by us as we rebuild Tropfest from the ground up, better and stronger than ever.”
For more on Tropfest, head to www.tropfest.com.au.
