Tropfest

Tropfest, originally known as Tropicana Short Film Festival, is Australias most famous short film festival and is one of the most iconic cultural events. It is also the largest short film festival in the world. Tropfest is recognised for its enormous contribution to the development of the Australian film industry by providing unique platforms for emerging filmmakers through its events and initiatives, and new and expanded audiences for their work. The festival's name is derived from the first year's location- The Tropicana Cafe in Darlinghurst, an inner-eastern suburb of Sydney. Created by John Polson, the first festival was held in 1993 with the films projected onto a blank wall and was called the Tropicana Short Film Festival in that first year. Inspired by the turn out, John decided that a full-fledged short film festival was the next step. The festival itself is an outdoor celebration complete with live music and entertainment on the Gibson Artist Stage, public catering and bars, red carpet arrivals and the highly anticipated film screenings followed by an awards ceremony. The event is hosted at Sydney’s Domain in the Royal Botanic Gardens, with live satellite links to outdoor locations in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide and Surfer’s Paradise. Tropfest is free to attend. The competition is taken very seriously and is considered the winner’s ticket to a successful career in film or television. What makes a Tropfest Film? The Tropfest staff are asked this question almost daily and the only requirements are these: the film must have had no prior public screenings, must be less than seven minutes and must contain the Tropfest Signature Item (TSI). The TSI was initially introduced to encourage production. Each year filmmakers wait with anticipation for the announcement of the coming festival's TSI. The way I see it, Tropfest is worth everything because it is a spectacular event which showcases all talents of film making at any age and is not...