We recommend: 60 Second Journeys

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL – MOBILE MOVIE COMPETITION



The festival has added two new award categories to recognize screen stories made through the lens of a mobile phone.

One winner, decided by a panel, will take home winnings worth more than $10,000 including cash of $4000, while the People’s Choice winner, decided by downloads from a website, will be given a mobile phone valued at $649.

Entries must be no more than a minute long, based on a theme “transport yourself” and MMS’d to 044SYDFILM. Submissions accepted up until June 21, with winners announced at the Sydney Film Festival’s Gala Closing Night, June 23.

Read all about it here and watch the current submissions there. Come on Kinoites, represent!

Photos from Kino #4!

Check out pictures from Kino Sydney on our flickr site!

Kino #4 - May 15th @ Chalkhorse

Want to sign up to show a film at KINO #4 ?
Email Marianne at kino@thefestivalists.com asap.

For more info, visit our temporary kino page.

Kino #3 - Debrief!

KINO SYDNEY #3: DEBRIEF

Tuesday March 27th 2007 - 6:30pm

Could Kino be the victim of its own success? Audiences doubled for our second night at the lovely Chalkhorse gallery, with 70 film buffs joshing for position in our cosy screening space. It was great to see so many familiar faces, and thrilling to meet a whole new batch of Kinoites.

A few filmmakers premiered brand new films finished just in time for Kino #3. Frances Anderson followed up Kino #2's In Africa (which was recently selected for the St Kilda Short Film Festival following its world premiere at Kino) with the abstract horror of Hotel. David Gacs gave the experimental animation Hegemons, while Minto Macpherson presented his first ever Kino film, the animated Technik.

We screened recently completed films from Shane K. (H.R. Pufnsnuf and Sky High), Garnet Mae (Kung Fu Shuffle) and JackFeldstein (The Great Oz Love Yarn).

Finally we showed two films made at other Kino chapters worldwide. From Kino Montreal we had Stéphane Lafleur's Inventaire (Inventary) and from Kino Adelaide we screened Dave Wade's Detached.

In between films, there was a lot of networking going on, and a few projects for Kino #4 were being discussed around the room and outside on the sidewalk. The open bar served red wine, white wine, beer and soft drinks until stocks ran out, while our sushi and homemade cakes buffet proved v. popular. A big thanks to the people at Chalkhorse for the friendly venue!

If you're making a film for Kino #4, don't forget to check out the rules, and to inform us of your intentions by emailing kino@thefestivalists.com.

Kino #4 is May 15th at Chalkhorse!

Coming soon: the Kino Sydney website!
In the meantime check us out on Myspace or see pics of Kino #3 on our Flickr page!

We recommend: SFF website

We Festivalists can't get enough of film festivals. We've just wrapped the 2nd edition of Young at Heart and the Possible Worlds Tour. We're about to host Kino#3 and are already planning for a mystery event to be held later this year. It's exhausting work!

So today I thought I'd take some time off and see a movie at the French Film Festival, Christophe Honoré's amazing Dans Paris. It's my ninth film (and one of my favourites) at a festival with its share of great titles. But of course, the one we're all really waiting for is just around the corner... the Sydney Film Festival is back in June!

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive a text on my way home: a reliable source informing me that the new website of the Sydney Film Festival had just gone live! I ran the rest of the way home, and I wasn't disappointed. This is not just some cynical marketing exercise... Not only do we get a preview of the stunning visual identity for 2007 (including some moody photography and a sh*t-hot new logo), but more importantly, there's a sneak peak at the program.

We learn that there will be a spotlight on Turkey (which is great news as it's a national cinema I know very little about - and I'm sure I speak for many of us), a sidebar just for kids (though I suspect a few adults might sneak in too), a John Huston retrospective and a program of films about or made by people with a disability.

The World Views program will bring us some of the best titles in new world cinema - films sourced at major festivals around the world by Artistic Director Clare Stewart and programmer Jenny Neighbour. Manoel de Oliveira's Belle toujours (a sequel of sorts to Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour) is in there, as is Jia Zhang-Ke's thought-provoking Still Life. André Téchiné's Les Témoins gets an Australian premiere, and there's an intriguing South African comedy named after a curry bun. Just enough to whet our appetite.

What impressed me most about the website is that it draws you in, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what it takes to put on an event of this scale. There are insights into the programmers' travels (which if expanded, would make for a very readable blog), a bit about the making of the visual identity, and you even get to know the (mostly) new members of the team a little (the instant noodle moment in The Host rocks). For all of us Sydneysiders, this is, after all, our festival.

The Festival takes place June 8th to 24th and the full program will be announced on May 9th. I, for one, can hardly wait.

-MR

Kino #3 - Mar. 27th @ Chalkhorse

Kino #2 - Debrief!

It was great to see so many lovely people at our first monthly night at Chalkhorse in Surry Hills last night. A few filmmakers premiered their spanking new films to much applause: Frances Anderson (In Africa), David Gacs (Bad Times), Michael Samer (The Astronaut) and Matt Robinson (Graff Dogs).

We also screened a recently made shorts by Mark Alston (Rockdale '83, Wok) and Loosie Craig (Mavis), as well as some films made in kino cells around the world: Matt Ravier's Love in the Black City (Manchester), Jules Saulnier's Kompetenz (Hamburg) and Justin Sprecher's Status Quo (Adelaide).

Snacks were served, lollipops were sucked on, lucky door prizes were won, and beer & wine flowed all night. A big thanks to the people at Chalkhorse for the fantastic venue!

See pics of Kino #2 on our Flickr page!

KINO SYDNEY #3

Tuesday March 27th 2007 - 6:30pm

CHALKHORSE Gallery, 56 Cooper Street, Surry Hills

$10 - free snacks, wine, beer and soft drinks - (free if you're screening a film)

Open your diaries and circle March 27th with a big fat magic marker: it's Kino #3!

Want to sign up to show a film at KINO #3 ?
Email Marianne at kino@thefestivalists.com asap.

For more info, visit our temporary kino page.