Wild weather can’t dampen spirits as winner adds some fizz to
Tropfest
Garry Maddox – SMH – February 20, 2012
Winners are grinners … Alethea Jones (with some other dude in the background)
IN THE race between the films and an approaching thunderstorm, the films won –
but only just – at the 20th Tropfest in the Domain last night.
In heavy rain and intermittent lightning, a judging panel that included Cate
Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Toni Colette, Asher Keddie and John
Polson gave the top prize at the country’s biggest short film festival to Alethea Jones
forLemonade Stand, a comedy about a man and his grandfather whose efforts to sell
lemonade bring a clash with an officious council officer.
She collected her prize in a near-deserted Domain, without a working microphone,
amid a few hundred hardy souls sheltering in the VIP tent.
Jones said she was ”absolutely thrilled” and ready to take the next step in her
filmmaking career. Asked whether she planned to step up from shorts to a feature
film, Jones said: ”I’ve got five ready to go.” She is the third woman to win in the past
five years, winning two weeks after signing up for the dole.
In a year in which the 700-plus entries were required to include a ”lightbulb” as the
signature item, Jones’s prizes include a trip to Los Angeles to meet film industry
executives, a $6000 camera and $10,000 cash.
Second prize went to actor Rupert Reid for Boo!, a comedy about an elderly couple
who play tricks on each other, while Michael Noonan’s Photo Booth, about soldiers
who stumble on a mysterious photo booth, was third.
The festival was almost a repeat for Marie Patane, whose film How Many Doctors
Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb? was washed out during the dramatic storm
that closed down Tropfest in 2006. The sequel to that film, How Many More Doctors
Does it Take To Change A Lightbulb?, was the final film to screen in torrential rain
last night. She won the women in film award.
Veteran Don Reid was named Best Male Actor for Boo!, which also won the Crowd
Pleaser Award. Best Female Actor went to Kate McNamara for the comedy Kitchen
Sink Drama, about a proposal gone wrong.
The stellar guest list included Baz Luhrmann, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Gia
Carides and Rachel Ward. On the black carpet, Blanchett said she was ”shellshocked”
by how the festival had grown since the early years at the Tropicana Cafe in
Darlinghurst. ”It’s more than just the films, we’re celebrating the whole industry and
it’s future,” she said. Just back from the United States, Kidman said short films were
important for actors as well as filmmakers. ”Each little step is a chance to learn and a
chance to grow,” she said.
The Trop Jr competition was won by two 15-year-old school friends from Melbourne,
Max Barden and Tim Sheehan, withLet’s Make A Movie, a comic short about
choosing a genre to enter the competition.