Tropfest is returning to its spiritual home – but there’s a huge twist

Having returned after a seven-year break to Sydney’s Centennial Park this year, the buzzy short-film festival will move to the Domain – the site of many of its most celebrated years – in February.

And there’s a twist. For the first time since it started in Darlinghurst’s Tropicana Caffein 1993, Tropfest will be held on a Saturday rather than Sunday night.

Ahead of a launch on Friday morning, festival director John Polson described the Domain as the festival’s spiritual home.

“Some of the best nights of my life have been at the Domain,” he said. “Having a pretty great night with some huge films, some emerging filmmakers [and] some big-name judges from Cate Blanchett to Toni Collette, Nicole [Kidman], Joel [Edgerton] and Ewan McGregor. Everybody was there.”

Polson described the Domain as more central and accessible than Centennial Park, with a cityscape view that added to the atmosphere.

He used to be concerned that holding Tropfest on a Saturday night would send the wrong signal – “people getting too drunk” – but it felt like times had changed.

“We’re just trying to make this as easy as possible for people to rock up, have a great time, not have to worry about anything, not have to run home early or leave before the last film,” Polson said.

The launch at Terrace on the Domain was attended by NSW Premier Chris Minns, Tropfest Foundation chair Sarah Murdoch, board members Peter V’landys and Bryan Brown, Mad Max director George Miller and his fellow filmmakers Nash Edgerton and Bruna Papandrea.

Calling the festival “an Aussie cultural institution” that was a drawcard summer event, Minns said the government had committed $2.7 million to it over three years. “We’re backing Tropfest to support local creative talent and showcase NSW to the world,” he said.

The festival is taking over one of Australian film and TV’s most prestigious accolades, the Byron Kennedy Award for outstanding creative enterprise, which has been won by the likes of Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, John Clarke and Polson over four decades.

Miller had taken it away from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in “disgust” during a bitter dispute, while the Australian Film Institute, which runs the awards, had insisted it made the decision.

“I know George’s feelings about that,” Polson said. “He’s much more across that organisation than I am … I take that seriously but we’re not getting involved in that. We’re really just trying to give [the award] a home that honours this incredible legacy from Byron.”

Miller will speak at Tropfest Roughcut, the three-day workshop for emerging filmmakers on the craft and business of filmmaking, that will be held at NIDA from February 10 to 12.

The festival is also bringing back Trop Jr, the national festival for filmmakers aged 15 and under. Organised with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, it is running across the school year – entries close on October 23 – and will culminate in a grand final at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre on December 4.