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Newtown Flicks Short Film Festival

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Newtown Flicks Short Film Festival was an Australian competitive film festival featuring short films. It was held annually in and around the Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia, from 2006 until 2012. After that, the organisation turned to film production.

History

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The Newtown Flicks was established as a non-profit organisation in 2005, "to meet the demands of the underground Sydney short film industry". The festival was created by Martin Kelly, Bill Jordan, and Spiros Hristias while the three worked as equipment operators in the bio box of New Theatre, a live performance venue in Newtown. Meeting in local cafes, the creators developed the festival's name and logo, its aim and awards categories.[1]

After setting up the enterprise with their own money Kelly, Jordan, and Spiros looked for outside sponsorship for the festival. Since 2006, the festival's major sponsor has been JVC Professional, donors of filmmaking equipment. As a result, the JVC Encouragement Award is presented to a filmmaker showing potential not yet fully realised. Cash prizes are offered in the other categories together with bags for audio-visual accessories made by Crumpler and statuettes made by a local arts collective.[citation needed]

Over the years Newtown Flicks received grants from City of Sydney and Screen NSW. It became a national film festival for Australia in 2009.[citation needed]

Design of the statuettes and posters changed with each festival.[citation needed]

After the 2012 festival, Newtown Flicks announced that the organisation was moving into film production.[2]

Notable participants

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In addition to showcasing the future of the Australian film industry, the following industry personalities have been involved with Newtown Flicks :

Winners

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2006

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Held at the New Theatre between 15–17 April

Award Winning Title
PICK OF THE FLICKS # 1 Tackle
PICK OF THE FLICKS # 2 The Chess Set
DIRECTORS CHOICE # 1 Birthday Present
DIRECTORS CHOICE # 2 Europe

2007

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Held at the Newtown Theatre between 30 March - 1 May

Award Title Director
BEST STUDENT FILM Still Life Tahnee McGuire
BEST INDEPENDENT Transient Craig Boreham
BEST TREEHOUSE Wally Tonnette Stanford
DIRECTORS CHOICE The Death of an Official Natalie Lopes & Marlene Palmeiro
JVC AWARD Not Sitting Still Sarah Antill

2008

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Held at the PACT Theatre between 20 May – 1 June

Award Title Director
BEST STUDENT FILM Modern Primitives Kate Witchard
BEST INDEPENDENT Playground Eve Spence
BEST TREEHOUSE Floating Chih-Kuang Tu
DIRECTORS CHOICE The Cypriot Vincent Taylor
JVC AWARD One Shoe Billy Aiden Koegh

2009

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In May 2009 Newtown Flicks Short Film Festival returned to the New Theatre, where the judging panel was led by twice Academy Award-nominated director Bruce Beresford.

Award Title Director
BEST STUDENT FILM Reach Luke Randall
BEST INDEPENDENT Fade Vincent Taylor
DIRECTORS CHOICE Burden Ben Field and Liam Doyle
JVC AWARD Mercury Vapour Zoe Barnes

2010

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In June 2010 Newtown Flicks Short Film Festival landed at the PACT Theatre, where the judging panel was led by director Bruce Beresford.

Award Title Director
BEST STUDENT FILM Tundra Claire Phillips
BEST INDEPENDENT Frail Alex Murawski
DIRECTORS CHOICE Identity Theft Stuart White
JVC AWARD Me, Myself and iPod Aidan Prewett
PANAVISION AWARD What If Girl Heremaia Rudkin

References

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  1. ^ Robinson, David (26 January 2019). "About Us". Newtown Flicks. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d "Important Announcement!". newtownflicks.com.au. 27 February 2019. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2024.