Tropfest, Australia’s most prestigious short film competition and the largest short film festival in the world, took place at Paramatta Park over the weekend as tens of thousands of people turned out to see the breakout of a band of fresh new filmmakers.
The 25th iteration of the festival, which culminated with 16 finalists all vying for top prize and exposure crowned its winner on Saturday. Matt Day of NSW won Tropfest 2017 with his short film The Mother Situation; a comedy about three adult siblings assist their terminally ill mother in committing suicide.
“I didn’t expect this to happen. I was just really looking forward to getting my film in front of as many people as possible so receiving the win is just a bonus. Tonight was the first time that I saw the film off of my laptop and I do my own post-production work so I was just pleased that it all came together” said Matt.
Matt has won $10,000 courtesy of Kennedy Miller Mitchell; a return trip to LA for meetings with industry professionals and networking, courtesy of The Motion Picture Association; a Hyundai Tuscon for a year; Western Sydney University Studio Prize Package valued at $12,500; a one year associate membership with the Australian Director’s Guild; a one year account with Getty Images; a $1,000 Westfield Parramatta voucher; $1,000 worth of Uber credit; and a one year pass to Event Cinemas Gold Class.
Meat & Potatoes by Arielle Thomas & Ellenor Argyropoulos took second prize. Their project focused on a vegan couple are stuck in the apocalypse without food.
Daphne Do’s Wibble Wobble, the story of a large jelly that complicates the sale of a man’s deceased grandmother’s fridge snatched third place.
The judges for the crop of films included Head of Jury, Rose Byrne , George Miller, Sam Neill, Rachel Perkins, Bruna Papandrea and Will Gluck.
Faces even fresher than the finalists in the main event had their chance to shine too. The 9th annual Trop JR Short Film Festival saw another 16 finalists aged 9-15, showcase their incredible talents
Nick Ward of NSW won TROP JR, which took place at Event Cinemas at Westfield Parramatta.
Nick’s winning film is a tale of a boy who goes to school surrounded by the blinded and must decide whether he should be a victim or a hero.
Head of Jury, Justine Clarke said, “being part of TROP JR again this year is a great honour. This year’s finalists are a wonderful group of storytellers with the trop signature item ‘Mask’ being cleverly incorporated in all of their films. The winning film was chosen by myself and the judges as it had a tremendous amount of originality which we all agreed made it the stand out film for the day. We wish Nick all the best with his future as an Aussie filmmaker.”
Tropfest also awarded seven filmmakers Craft Awards, which celebrate all the wonderful things that go on behind the scenes.
Winner of Best Cinematography: Tim Tregoning – Love, Steve
Winner of Best Editing: Eugene E~NRG – Mutonia Burnout
Winner of Best Sound: Shane Vancuylenberg – Going Vego
Winner of Best Original Score: Katya Sourikova – The Beekeepers
Winner of Best VFX: Tristan Klein – The Wall
Winner of Best Production Design: Kim Ritchie – Meat and Potatoes
Winner of Best Screenplay: Matt Day – The Mother Situation
For those of who didn’t get to see the show live, Red Bull TV has you covered. The stream (which includes every film and all the winning films from the past 24 years) is now available to view anytime, anywhere.
For any other information on Tropfest check out the official website HERE.
———-
