Film

Tropfest Has Been Cancelled Indefinitely: “There Has Been A Terrible And Irresponsible Mismanagement Of Funds”

Amidst an outpouring of support on social media, fans and film-makers are calling on the festival to find another way.

by Steph Harmon  12 November 2015

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23 years ago, 200 people gathered at Tropicana Cafe in Darlinghurst, Sydney, for Tropicana Short Film Festival, an event founded by film-lover John Polson. These days, Tropfest is known as a very different beast.

Over the past few decades, Tropfest has grown to become the biggest short film festival in the world. It’s also one of the most iconic events on Sydney’s cultural calendar; the live screening that used to be held in the Domain was moved to Sydney’s Centennial Park in 2013 and now attracts around 100,000 people who brave the weather on too-small picnic blankets, to watch the sixteen final films (whittled down from an average of 700) compete for a $10,000 cash prize, a new camera, and a week of networking in LA.

With occasional live broadcasts, satellite events held around the country, and a YouTube channel that clocks up millions of views, the high profile of the event is matched by its judging talent, which has in the past included names like Nicole Kidman, Baz Luhrmann, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, Keanu Reaves, Cate Blanchett, and, one year, Samuel L Jackson. The festival has expanded with Trop Jr. — an imprint for film-makers under 15 — and a number of brand-presented prizes, and over the past decade Tropfest has also expanded globally, holding events in New York, Los Angeles, Japan, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Toronto, New Zealand and Bangkok.

In a country whose film industry is notoriously difficult to break, it’s not just a fun night out for punters; it’s considered a stepping stone for many film-makers to get their work in front of a proper audience. It’s those folk who’ll be feeling last night’s news the hardest: the Sydney Morning Herald announced that this year’s event, scheduled to take place on December 6 with the theme “cards”, would be cancelled after a financial dispute between John Polson and the company who had been managing the event.

“Suddenly, wham, we’ve got this huge hole,” he told the SMH. That hole, he said, was “well into the six figures”.

“It is devastating for me to announce today that Tropfest will not be taking place as scheduled in Centennial Park this year,” Polson said in a Facebook post last night. “In the past week or so, I have been made aware that the company contracted to raise the funding and administer the Tropfest event is unable to move forward for financial reasons. Despite a challenging sponsorship climate, Tropfest has done reasonably well in attracting support this year; however, to my great surprise, the management company has informed us that it is unable to proceed.”

Polson expressed regret to the 16 finalists scheduled to screen their films in December, which would have been judged by a committee that this year included Susan Sarandon. “It is too early to tell what has actually happened here, although it is hard to avoid concluding there has been a terrible and irresponsible mismanagement of Tropfest funds. I and others will be spending the coming weeks and months investigating what has transpired.”

There’s been a huge outpouring of support on social media, with fans and film-makers calling on the festival to be brought back by the national broadcasters, philanthropists, or a crowd-funding campaign.

APRA AMCOS have announced that their Tropscore Initiative, a satellite prize that awards the best in film scoring and syncing, will still be judging and awarding its cash prize, but there’s no news yet of what will become of the sixteen finalists due to screen in the official competition.

“It’s like being in a bad dream,” Polson told the Sydney Morning Herald. “This is 23 years of work. It’s a stunning, shocking blow, with really no hint of what was to come.”

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Feature image by Torsten Blackwood for Getty.