flickerfest

Oh yes. If you're like us and can get a little restless during a mammoth movie session, then Flickerfest - Bondi's short film festival - may be for you. It's on from the 6th to the 15th of January and we're already scouring the program for gems. Aletha Jones won the Flickerfest Audience Award last year, and has directed this year's trailer, which you can see below. We had a little chat with her ahead of the festivities.

For those who don't know about Flickerfest, how would you describe it to them? Flickerfest is so many things all in one. It's quite an epic festival but also has a real hand-crafted, boutique feel (like frankie magazine!) Tell us a little about your experience with Flickerfest. Flickerfest is one of those festivals that makes you squeal if you're lucky enough to get accepted. Often short film makers get swept aside, as shorts are made by people at the start of their careers. Flickerfest treats you with so much respect, which is such an important thing for a young film maker's self esteem. How is Australian cinema currently changing? Right now, I feel that our voice is as strong as ever, with films like Snow Town and of course Animal Kingdom. But we're also making more broadly appealing work such as Griff The Invisible or Red Dog. I think it's important that both types of cinema keep happening: one that continues to evolve our cultural voice and one that attracts Australian audiences. Who or what is exciting you in the Australian film industry at the moment? Awesome chicks making awesome work. Women are still a minority in the industry at a ratio of something like 10:1 but there's this generation of directors coming through (who happen to be female) who are making such exciting work. What can we look forward to at this year's Flickerfest? If you can make it to Bondi on any of the evenings for a Flickerfest screening, you can look forward to some dancing and hanging out with fun genuine creative types who are making a go of film making. I love that sort of proactive energy. It's pretty inspiring stuff.

Head to Flickerfest's website for more details and the movie screening times.