Harbour Trust confirms review of Cockatoo Island Film Festival
The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust has confirmed that it will review the future of Cockatoo Island Film Festival.
During a meeting of the Trust yesterday, the organisers of the Cockatoo Island Film Festival tweeted its future was ‘bleak’.
A statement from the Trust this morning said: “The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust was a sponsor of the inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival. The Harbour Trust is currently conducting an independent post-event review of the Cockatoo Island Film Festival and its sponsorship. The outcome of this review will assist the Harbour Trust to determine how it will move forward.”
While the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is the Leadership Partner, the festival was also sponsored by NSW Mining and Hoyts as Strategic Partners. The festival was organised by Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis who are also behind the Dungog Film Festival.
The festival suffered a PR disaster on it’s opening night after 200 people were turned away at the gate, and the festival’s Facebook page inundated with complaints throughout the festival.
The organisers of the Cockatoo Island Film Festival did not return several calls. Last night, the festival also posted a message to Twitter, which it later deleted, saying: “Harbour Trust has stalled its decision on Film Festival … We are left hanging. Don’t know how Festival can go on.”
Immediately following the event, Geoff Bailey, executive director of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust said: “The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is proud to be a Leadership Partner of the Cockatoo Island Film Festival.
“Our vision is to revitalise the world-heritage-listed Cockatoo Island into a venue for exciting events and cultural activities. It was great to see how the film festival organisers transformed the industrial halls into state-of-the-art cinemas for the first time.”
Maybe they should get a new managing director or festival organiser, cause someone there has no idea to run an event this size and of such ambition.
Its a film festival. The patrons and audience should be priority.
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