A Complete Guide To St Kilda Film Festival
It’s that time of the year again… when St Kilda’s much Film Festival returns to St Kilda and this year’s event calendar is jam packed with exciting special programs, screening and events. With SO much going on, we have a prepared a complete guide to this year’s festival! Check it out…
Opening Night @ Palais Theatre
The highly anticipated gala event’s Opening Night will take place at the magnificent Palais Theatre on Thursday 18 May. It will be the first event to be hosted in the historic venue since its major restoration and refurbishment works near completion. More than 2,700 film and television guests and industry professionals will walk the red carpet to preview a selection of films that represent the range of programs screening at the 2017 Festival. Tickets here.
SoundKILDA
On Thursday 25 May, the St Kilda Film Festival will also showcase the country’s best music videos made by Australian filmmakers, featuring local and international musicians. SoundKILDA will feature music videos from the likes of Courtney Barnett, Client Liaison, Ball Park Music, Lisa Mitchell, Dena Amy and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Tickets here.
Australia’s Top 100 Short Film
St Kilda Film Festival provides the most comprehensive overview of the national short film industry, screening the Top 100 short film entries received each year from across Australia. This year’s highlights include:
The Eleven O’Clock – (Victorian premiere) Comedy. Directed by Derrin Seale, starring Josh Lawson and Damon Herriman. The delusional patient of a psychiatrist believes he’s actually a psychiatrist. As they each attempt to treat each other the session gets out of control.
Fish with Legs – Comedy/Animation. Directed by Dave Carter, starring Frank Woodley and Barry Otto. A school of fish wakes one morning to discover that everyone has grown legs. Is it evolution, or a curse from God?
Big City – Drama. Directed by Jordan Bond and Lachlan Ryan, starring CJ Fortuna and Gurvinder Atwal. A short film about making a friend on the ride home. Tickets here.
Virtual Reality (VR) Cinema
The St Kilda Film Festival is also proud to partner with the Virtual Reality (VR) Cinema at this years festival by offering a unique viewing experience for audience members. Patrons will be able to watch a selection of short films and music videos for free, whilst wearing VR headsets to be simultaneously immersed in the content. Attendees will view four to five VR shorts uninterrupted, showcasing the creativity and passion of the burgeoning VR scene.
Japanese Short Film Festival
For the first time, St Kilda Film Festival has this year partnered with Academy Awards® accredited international film festival, Short Shorts Film Festival Asia. The 2017 program will showcase eight films across two night – Monday 22 May and Saturday 27 May 2017, highlighting the future of Japanese filmmaking with a selection of short films being shown from the largest short film festival in Asia. Tickets here.
Australia’s Favourite Web Series
St Kilda Film Festival presents a taste of Australia’s favourite web series which are becoming more deeply creative and now showcase stories you’d never seen on the bigger small screen. Tickets here.
Short Black – Indigenous Short Film Retrospective
The Indigenous retrospective will again feature short films by prominent indigenous filmmakers, and this year well-respected Indigenous directors and producers will take part in a free forum prior to the screening. Tickets here.
Vimeo Short Film Showcase
The Vimeo Showcase will screen eight films curated by Jeffrey Bowers on Sunday 21 May at 7.30pm including When We Were Knights; The Producer; Whale Valley; The Bigger Picture; It’s A Date; Territory; Thunder Road; and Say Something Intelligent, followed with a Q&A with Vimeo Senior Curator Jeffrey Bowers, who will be flying in from New York especially for the event. Tickets here.
The Big Picture
One of Australia’s biggest free Filmmaker Development Days, will take place on Saturday 21 May, granting attendees access to forums, Proudly Produced by Government Partners workshops and couch conversations with leading industry professionals such as Neil Triffett (Emo the Musical) and Keily Lefever (City Homicide, Something in the Air, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries). Tickets here.
The National Film and Sound Archive – “GRAHAM KENNEDY: THE KING OF TV”
The event this year is running in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the first episode of The Graham Kennedy Show going to air and will include career highlights and milestones of Kennedy’s long and successful career. Tickets here.
More information and full program here!