‘People really miss it’: John Polson on how and why Tropfest returned from the dead
Mumbrella goes deep with the founder of Tropfest on his motivations in bringing the world’s biggest short form film festival back to life.
The world’s largest short film festival is returning to Sydney in 2026, with a free event in Centennial Park next February likely to draw tens of thousands of people out to a night of cinema under the stars. And like many great Australian stories — this one features Bryan Brown.
Actor and director John Polson first launched Tropfest in a Darlinghurst cafe in 1993. An audience of 200 locals squeezed into the ‘homely’ Tropicana Caffe on Victoria Street to watch a series of short films shot by Polson and a bunch of ambitious amateurs.
Over the subsequent years it grew into a behemoth, spreading into The Domain in Sydney and drawing audiences in excess of 100,000 at its peak — far larger crowds than the annual Carols by Candlelight and the once thriving Big Day Out music festival ever pulled to the city.
