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The Sydney Film Festival has completed the selection for its first full in-person edition in three years with a strong Australian lineup and a smattering of Cannes titles. The 2022 edition runs June 8 – 19, 2022.

After Covid disruptions saw the 2021 edition delayed from June until November, it has been a quick six-month turnaround to return the 2022 festival to its regular winter slot. The festival will present over 200 films from over 64 countries, including 27 world premieres.

Australian films play throughout. The international competition, which comes with a A60,000 cash prize, includes two local entries: artist Del Kathryn Barton’s feature directorial debut “Blaze”; and Goran Stolevski’s supernatural tale “You Won’t Be Alone.” They will compete with films direct from Cannes including Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” Davy Chou’s “All the People I’ll Never Be” and Emin Alper’s political thriller “Burning Days.”

The festival also hosts world premieres of Australian documentaries including Penny McDonald...

Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarràs’ among titles.

Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19) has revealed the 12 titles that will play in competition at its 69th edition.

The titles include Carla Simon’s Catalan family drama Alcarràs, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February; Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language drama The Quiet Girl, which took the grand prize in Berlin’s Generation Kplus strand; and Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Bolivian eco-drama Utama, winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance in January.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The sole documentary in the line-up is Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love,...

Screen Australia has unveiled 13 titles that will share in $3.7 million of production funding, with six documentaries to be supported through the Producer Program and seven projects via the Commissioned Program.

They include a feature documentary from Stranger Than Fiction that follows an Indigenous figure skater from Western Sydney, Harley Windsor, on his quest to compete in the Winter Olympics; a series going inside the Sydney Opera House for the ABC; and a feature documentary about a grandmother with dementia who became an internet sensation in Everybody’s Oma.

Screen Australia head of documentary Alex West said the documentaries were a testament to the talented filmmakers creating local stories with great impact.

“These projects will explore contemporary social issues including how First Nations artist Richard Bell’s work uses art to effect change in War & Order, as well as the complexities of teen parenting in Kids Raising Kids,” he said.

“They...

Jason van Genderen at Sundance London

Terrigal based filmmaker Jason van Genderen has won first prize in the Nokia Music sponsored Sundance London competition for his six-minute short..

Shot entirely on a Nokia Lumia 920 Smartphone, van Genderen.s film Red Earth Hip Hop explores how hip hop music is helping preserve Indigenous local languages and stories in remote communities. The film was made after Nokia Music and Sundance asked filmmakers from all over the world to submit a 60 second trailer pitching an underground music story. Of over 280 films, van Genderen and Glasgow.s Bartosz Madejski were selected as the two global finalists. They were each awarded $5000 and two Nokia Lumia 290 smartphones with which to complete their film (with only a week to do it). Both short films premiered and Sundance London, with Red Earth Hip Hop declared as the overall winner. .I was blown away, it was just incredible,. van Genderen says.

Terrigal-based filmmaker Jason van Genderen has been announced as one of two finalists of the Sundance Nokia Music competition. As a result, his short film Red Earth Hip Hop will premiere at Sundance London, held from the 25-28 April at Cineworld at the O2. Van Genderen first heard about the competition, which calls for the submission of a 60-second trailer capturing an underground music story, via social media. .Someone sent me a link for this trailer competition and I thought, .What a fantastic way to test the content,.. he says. .Then later I was talking with friends and someone mentioned how an indigenous hip hop scene starting to grow and mature..

A meeting with a Triple J producer put van Genderen in contact with Melbourne based Hip Hop artist Morganics and the idea for Red Earth Hip Hop was born..

The film . which van Genderen is currently in the midst...

Jason van Genderen at Tropfest.

Short filmmakers take note . it.s time to start loving the fine print. The days of posting your latest creation innocently on YouTube or Facebook need a little more reflection, as a content-hungry online world scours for new free feeds at an increasing rate. Who even owns your physical content on a social media platform, or the rights?

Depending on what you read, there.s cascading shades of grey. Perhaps the most sobering advice comes direct from YouTube.s own terms of service, where it.s pretty crystal that they require you to grant (to YouTube) a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to freely sub-license, re-distribute, re-publish and monetise your content. ie. they make the bulk of the money . not you.

Now I.m certainly not trying to undervalue the worth of the platform for getting your work out there, but you do need to be...

Aacta president Geoffrey Rush has lent his weight to this year’s Tropfest Film Festival, it’s been announced today.

The actor has been named a judge of both the Tropfest short film competition and the inaugural Tropfest Roughcut Symposium, held Saturday 18 February.

Rush will join Wish You Were Here director Kieran Darcy-Smith, and Love and Other Drugs producer Charles Randolph as a speaker to the Saturday symposium.

Also on the bill is composer Lisa Gerrard and Tropfest’s 2011 runner up, Jason Van Genderen.

Rush said: “Tropfest is turning 20, that’s serious frisky adulthood – so vicenarians, please join this sexagenarian for a cinematic chat on known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns… it’s a Q and A and I’d love to hear from you.”

The day is hosted by actor/comedian Rob Carlton.

The Northern Territory will be well represented at this year.s Tropfest with the announcement that Alice Springs-based musician, Ben Allen, is the winner of the Apra Tropscore competition. Meanwhile, Tropfest.s first ever Northern Territory finalist, Samantha Young, will compete in the third annual Telstra Mobile Masterpiece program.

Allen beat out almost 900 other entrants, who were required to compose an original score to Australian filmmaker Amelia Olsen-Boyd.s three minute short Returning. The.win delivered a $5000 cash prize as well as the opportunity to perform his score live onstage at Movie Extra Tropfest, which will be held at The Domain in Sydney on Sunday, February 19.

A prolific songwriter, Allen performs under two banners - Yellow Streetlight, an electronic act incorporating homemade samples of household objects, and Broadwing, a more conventional, guitar-driven project.

.Tropscore is a great opportunity for anyone with an interest in scoring., Allen said. .As a songwriter,...

The Bondi Short Film Festival has announced its finalists.

In the 11th year, the festival has selected 14 finalists out of 200 submissions.

The festival is held on Saturday November 26 at Bondi Pavilion.

Festival director Francis Coady said: “Each year we are blown away by the exceptional quality of submissions and 2011 is no different. It was really difficult to choose just 14 finalists from so many amazing films. I’m really looking forward to presenting the final selections to our audience.”

Films will compete across seven categories, best film, best cinematography, best actor, best music, best script, best design, and People’s choice.

There is a prize pool of $10,000 judged by a panel of film industry experts.

Film finalists:

The Unspoken – director: Jason Van Genderen

Squeeze – director: Will Goodfellow

Physics of Harvesting – director: Amy Mack

Murder Mouth – director: Madeleine Perry

Mongrel’s Creed – director: Tom Noakes

Henry and Aaron’s Perfectly Adequate Christmas...