News

Overseas festivals may not increase local audiences, says Australian Film Festival director

Maximum Choppage is one of the independent films playing at the inaugural Australian Film Festival.

Barry Watterson, director of the new Australian Film Festival, says that filmmakers and distributors try to generate buzz by doing the international festival circuit, but that’s no guarantee of local box office success.

“We had a few filmmakers say they wanted to do overseas festivals before Australian ones, generating buzz through them, but it’s not necessarily going to increase their audience here,” he told Encore.

Being a new festival, one of the great challenges was securing new high-profile Australian films to be part of the line-up, which has not happened this year.

“We asked for those films, but they have their own distribution strategy. Those are coming out a little later in the year and they felt that it was best if they pushed all their local efforts into a smaller window before the release date,” explained Watterson.

“Distributors don’t’ know how well the festival will perform, so they wanted to wait until after the first edition. Next year we expect to have a lot more high-profile films involved,” he said.

Mad Max and Happy Feet may not be new, but they will be the two best-known titles in the program and according to Watterson, they will help raise the profile of the rest of the films.

“Those unreleased films are not well-known, and audiences tend to go to things they do know about.”

Both titles were directed by George Miller, but Watterson says it is less of a conscious tribute to him and more of a coincidence resulting from having an industry where few filmmakers have had a successful long-term career. Miller has not declined the invitation to the events, but has not committed to attend either.

The festival is being curated by Peter Castaldi, director of the independent distribution company The Pack, but Watterson says the program is not just an opportunity for Castaldi to showcase his slate.  Also, there is no official connection between The Pack and the Australian Film Festival.

“We’ve been very careful about a conflict of interest. We have the same vision; some films came from The Pack and others from SPAA Fringe. More than half the program is not from Pack titles,” he said. “But I don’t see a problem with a distributor approaching us and offering their film.”

According to Watterson, the major difference between the Australian Film Festival and other initiatives is that they will assist films with distribution and exhibition after the event itself.

“We’re giving Australian cinema an opportunity to work almost like a foreign film festival and become more noticeable,” said Watterson.

The organisers have set themselves a goal of selling 50 percent of all tickets, with the exception of the Mad Max opening night – which they expect to sell out – and the free Clovelly beach Happy Feet screening, which they hope will attract a big crowd.

The inaugural Australian Film Festival will take place in Sydney from February 24 to March 7, and the full program can be viewed here.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.