Twenty-four years ago the St Kilda Film Festival created history as the first in Australia to be organised by a local government. It continues to make history today and a win at the St Kilda Film Festival can now be the first step towards the red carpet at Hollywood’s Academy Awards.

Last year Peter Templeton and Stuart Parkyn’s The Saviour won Best Achievement in Screenplay at the Festival. This year it was nominated for an Oscar. The surprise Australian hit, Kenny, also got its start as a short in the 2004 Festival, where it won both the comedy prize and audience choice.

St Kilda’s love affair with the flicks stretches back a century to when both locals and visitors queued to get into open-air picture theatres on the foreshore. In 2007 the laughter, the tears and the ideas remain as big a part of the deal as popcorn and choctops. And, whatever the vicissitudes of television dramas and feature films in Australia, short films continue to shine.

Janet Bolitho
Mayor, City of Port Phillip

The St Kilda Film Festival provides a unique platform for Australian short filmmakers working in a large talent pool. Thanks to the adoption of digital formats, short film culture is much more diverse in form and content and there is a dramatic increase in the amount of work being produced.

The new approach is to go out, grab a camera and create – never mind about serving an apprenticeship or writing funding applications. Whichever strategy you employ the end result takes on a life of its own when your work is subjected to public scrutiny. And the results are often surprising as your fellow peers view, offer feedback and pass critical judgement on your creative endeavours.

This is the single aspect of a film festival which never changes – and makes these events so exciting to participate in.

Paul Harris
Director, St Kilda Film Festival