The festival will go ahead as a solely digital event.
From Friday June 12 to Saturday June 20, the St Kilda Film Festival makes its return with an event like no other. Across nine days, the festival will showcase some of the world’s best filmmakers in the one place, in an extravaganza broadcast completely for free online.
Holding its legacy as Australia’s largest and longest-running publicly-owned short film festival, the program brings you some of the most daring and curious minds from this sector of the industry, with pictures that push the boundaries of regular short cinema. On top of that, the St Kilda Film Festival has an epic filmmaker development program instore, where live post-session Q&As will be held as well as live webinars so punters can pick the brains of those at the top of their game.
As is the case with every other year, the festival will commence with the much-anticipated Opening Night extravaganza, bringing fans, patrons and talent together online for a preview of what’s to come. This will go down on Friday June 12.
Some of the program highlights include:
- The Australian Animation Explosion presented by Indomie – showcasing the best new Australian animations.
- Female filmmakers will be celebrated as part of Shifting the Gaze, presenting short documentaries, essays, experimental works, biographies and thrillers from the very best female talent. This will be presented by WIFT Victoria.
- A range of powerful dramas will question your decision-making in Damned if You Do.
- There’s comedy through the Australian Comedy Showcase – expect hilarious shorts exploring everything from Indigenous horror to naive documentary.
- World Perspectives will expand our thinking and redirect our gaze to real-life stories and honest issues facing society overseas.
- For the horror buffs comes Dark Matter, a program showcasing the most unnerving cinema. This will go hand-in-hand with a Q&A with APRA AMCOS to discuss the dark soundtrack that decorates this part of the program.
Outside of that, Tales of Mystery & Imagination will be presented by Screen Producers Australia and will showcase elusive narratives through the lens of ancient history, deep space, fairytales and mythical concepts. Then there’s Forbidden Fruit, exploring films encompassing gender, relationships, sexuality and society. The whimsy and good fortune that can come with chance encounters is explored in the Outsiders From The Inside section of the program.
And that’s just the start. With the likes of everyone from Brett Climo, Gary Foley, Gary Sweet, Diana Glenn, Sean Keenan, Red Symons, Victoria Haralabidou showing their face on the screen, this year’s event will be like none other that has come before it.
Alongside St Kilda Film Festival’s proven recipe of bringing you an ambitious, genre-bending program year-after-year, in 2020 they’ve introduced the Your Place competition, giving budding short filmmakers from regional Victoria the chance to showcase their work. Entries for the competition are open until Friday May 29, and all entered films can be documentary, fiction, animation or experimental and must be no longer than three minutes.
The St Kilda Film Festival goes from Friday June 12 until Saturday June 20 and will be broadcast for free via the St Kilda Film Festival website. For regional filmmakers keen to express interest in the Your Place competition, head here. Applications close on May 29.
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