The Kinoites Arrive!

This morning Marianne and I got up at 7am to pick up the first international guests from the airport. Fresh off a 30-hour flight from Montreal, Eza, Ianic, Marina and Jules were already thinking up ideas for films to shoot in Sydney!

The team are in Sydney to take part in Kino Kabaret, a week-long collaborative film experiment which will see them shoot short films alongside up-and-coming Aussies, to be shown on the closing night of the Canadian Film Festival.

Marvelling at the heat (it's 0°C in Montreal right now), the Canadians were ecstatic to finally be in Australia. As it was too early to check them into the hotel, we took our wide-eyed guests for a Paddington walkabout, trying to avoid the puddles of vomit from last night's celebrations (following Austalia's victory at the tri-nations tournament no doubt). We ended up having coffee at Jacquie's, where we were sat next to Australian actor Hugo Weaving.

Eventually the filmmakers were able to leave the glamour behind and check into their fleabag motel for a well-deserved shower. Today they will start exporing Sydney, no doubt scouting for locations for the films about to be shot here.

You can meet the Quebec filmmakers on Wednesday December 6th, when they present their short films shot during the festival. We wish them the best of luck!