Jumping for Joy at Tropfest

Dan Ilic jumps for joy on the black carpet.

The Tropfest short film festival is back in a big way and superstars turned out to support the founder John Polson as our snaps show : Rebecca Gibney, Mel Gibson ( pictured below with John Polson) and Simon Baker.
Winners of this year's prize were animators Spencer Susser and Daniel Cloud-Campos.
whose stop-frame animation with real clothing called Shi picked up the gong.

 

And well worth reading is Gary Maddox's article in the Sydney Morning Herald about some of the woes that bedeviled Tropfest. 

Given the recent background of the festival, it's remarkable that John Polson has been able to resurrect the popular event so quickly.

They're back !!!

Tropfest attracts the biggest stars in the business

 Admittedly Whispers has been a critic of Tropfest in the past. But overall, it really is a fantastic event.

Tropfest founder John Polson & Jamie Foxx- a Tropfest fan

How pleasing then to announce that reports of
Tropfest's death have been greatly exaggerated (we are guilty too). Fortunately they have found a new sponsor and the event will take place on Sunday February 14th this year. The location will be Centennial Park and the weather should be perfect at that time of the year instead of the original December date which really can be quite humid.. And that's a Very Good Thing. And congrats should go to Tropfest found John Polson for persevering in the face of adversity.
# A few years ago Whispers was privileged to lunch with actor and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx at Royal Randwick. Foxx enthused about Tropfest which he had just attended calling it the very best short film festival he had ever attended : "I intend to tell everyone back in LA about how fantastic it is" said Jamie.
For more details, bookings etc go to the Tropfest official website here.

Too hot for Tropfest

In 2013 we wrote "has Tropfest peaked?" after attending the first festival in it's new location at Centennial Park in December. Whispers had a feeling it's days were numbered and now founder John Polson has conformed that Tropfest is kaput and in serious financial difficulties.
Why the organisers moved to a hollow in a park away from the harbour in hot December is a mystery. The crowds seem to evaporate in the sweltering heat. If there was an international star in town they were only to eager to support Polson but they just aren't here in December. The Domain with it's cooling harbour breezes was a blessing in the evening of the festival.
Here are a few highlights with some of the local and international stars Poulson invited and who attended.

Has Tropfest Peaked?

It seemed appropriate : a Mars Rover rolled around the grounds of Centennial Park, the new home for John Polson's Tropfest. At first the venue looked little different than The Domain where the event has been hosted for the past 12 years but after an hour in the unrelenting hot December sun without the pleasant and cooling harbour breezes many in the audience were soon dozing off.

Tropfest founder John Polson and Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic

Noticeably lacking were sponsors. They were few and far between food & drink concessions with their exorbitantly priced produce, a 20c bottle of Supermarket water going for $5. And the main sponsor nearly caused a riot.  
SBS TV raised the hackles of a dozen photographers who had arrived a good three hours early to score a precious media spot which meant waiting in that hot sun without promised refreshments. Just as the event began suddenly two SBS film crews of about 20 positioned themselves directly in front of the angry snappers. Talk about frayed nerves.

Spot The Star

And where were the stars ?. John Polson has performed miracles in getting every Hollywood actor in town to the event but this year there were none. The only LA name of note was film director Robert Luketic of Legally Blonde & Paranoia fame. At the very first Tropfest in the Tropicana Cafe in Kings Cross 22 years ago the Shuttle was amongst the 40 guests that included Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. This year it seemed to be television stars, mainly from Foxtel.
The jury is out- should Tropfest, a great idea in it's time, be put to bed ?

Tropfest 2011

Film-maker John Polson's mastermind Tropfest, the largest short film festival in the world once again screened to a live audience of around 10,000 in the Domain on Sunday while hundreds of thousands watched live via Foxtel around the country.








Each year the entrant's films must feature the same object -this year a key. Winner of the festival was Damon Gameau with his entrant Animal Beatbox.



Stephan Elliot * Olivia Newton John



 It's been 19 years since the first Tropfest began and many winners have gone on to work on main stream film productions.

There is always a host of celebrity judges and this year they included director Bruce Beresford, John Polson, Rachel Ward and Priscilla Queen of The Desert director Stephan Elliot.

The red carpet (which was purple) is also a great for star-spotting as dozens of  Australian and International movie people arrive.

 What seemed like the entire cast of Stephan Elliot's new film Few Best Men strode in-Olivia Newton John, Tim Draxyl and Xavier Samuel.




Leana Wallsman

 

* Few Best Men is currently being filmed around Sydney and in the Blue Mountains. The word is out-Xavier Samuel looks destined to be our latest star and heartthrob !





Few Best Men stars : Tim Draxyl, Kevin Bishop, Xavier Samuel, Kris Marshall



Hollywood beckons for Abe

   At only 19 young actor Abe Forsyth has won the 18th Tropfest short film festival with his movie about a radio DJ-Shock .  How scary-tSS went to the very first Tropfest at the Tropicana Cafe in Kings Cross all those years ago when Abe was just a baby !.

John Polson, Abe Forsyth, Elijah Wood (c)

    From a night at the coffee shop Polson's baby has grown to a phenomenal size that attracts Hollywood stars to judge the 15 finalists in the short film festival. Polsons own film career is blooming and Tropfest has a life of it's own. Sponsors fall over themselves to get involved and 75,000 people attended the festival in the Domain on Sunday night. Similar numbers likewise in Melbourne, Perth , Brisbane and so on. (tSS received an email on Friday from a previous judge-Jamie Foxx asking if we were attending and to request we pass on our regards to Polson!)

  Polson  has a New York version underway in association with Robert de Niro 's Tribeca Film Festival-tropfest@tribeca and will be launching a European version next year.

    And previous winners have gone on to great success. 1995 winner Gregor Jordon directed Two Hands, Buffalo Soldiers and Ned Kelly with the late Heath Ledger. His latest thriller Unthinkable with Samuel L. Jackson and Carrie-Ann Moss will be released this June.

Bryan Brown

Elijah Wood (c)

  

 2005 winner of the Tropfest best comedy Alister Grierson is currently directing his first feature, the 3D film Sanctum staring Richard Roxburgh and Welsh star Ioan Gruffudd. Sanctum is being produced by Avatar director James Cameron who chose Grierson after watching him work on Avatar.

   

Part of Forsyth's prize includes a trip to LA to meet some film bigwigs. Amongst this year's judges-Toni Collette, Elijah Wood and Bryan Brown.

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## What Would Warhol Blog?

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What would Andy Warhol think of the internet ?

Fomer friends from The Factory ponder on what the artist would have thought of the WWW.