A GREAT WEEKEND GETAWAY
For the second year in a raw the Sandfly Film Festival transformed a beautiful Jervis Bay into the home of high quality short film cinema. Sydney Film School thesis ‘Camera Obscura’ won the Best International Film Award (the film was written and directed by our Portuguese student Marta Maia) and the Best Performance award went to Sarah Jane Coombe for her role in ‘Reflection’ (thesis film by graduate Kyle Sellers).
Taking place on November 12th the Sandfly Film Festival showed 36 short films from around the world. Altogether six Sydney Film School produced films (Part 2 Major Drama ‘Letters Home’ and Thesis films ‘Diogenes’, ‘Reflection’, ‘The Trip’, ‘Broken Wings’ and ‘Camera Obscura’) were selected to screen at the historic Huskisson Pictures Theatre located in the picturesque small town of Huskisson on the shores of beautiful Jervis Bay, approximately 180 km south of Sydney.
Selected were also 4 Secret Film Society (graduate) films: ‘Liminal’, ‘Magpie’, ‘Why We Trade’ and ‘TGIF’, a short film ‘Kelly’s Blues’ by our Screen Studies and Meet The Filmmaker teacher Peter Galvin and a short film ‘The Good Neighbour’ by graduate James Crisp. ‘Why We Trade’ by Michael McLennan took home the Session 3 Audience Award.
Being organised by Marshmallow Productions, a small studio based partnership of artists, dedicated to fostering emerging and professional film-making talent, SandFly Film Festival is not only creating a new forum for filmmakers to show their films but also to share their experience of filmmaking with the audience and other filmmakers aiming to create a lasting and active network of film artists.
This year’s program included an engaging assortment of dramas, comedies, animations and music videos screening throughout 5 different sessions. The festival director Ulysses Oliver says he is “very excited about the depth and range of films in this year's program. The selections were in line with the festival’s vision to promote quality grassroots film-making. Films that entertain, engage, and push boundaries.”
“We have mixed up the program so we go from light to shade, from still to high energy, from drama to comedy, from serious short to light hearted music video. There was something in there for everyone in every session,” says Ulysses.
* Interview with Kyle Sellers about ‘Reflection’ can be found on page ___
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