Tropfest_2011
Tropfest in Australia Creative Commons/Wikipedia

The world’s largest short film festival is returning this Valentine’s Day to Sydney’s Centennial Park, just months after the 2015 event was cancelled in the last minute due to a lack of funds.

Now having secured funding from CGU Insurance, Tropfest will also be broadcast on SBS 2 on February 14, with its founder John Polson labelling the film festival’s resurrection as “the comeback story of the decade”.

For several months, Tropfest’s suppliers and contracted partners had been experiencing payment delays. According to Polson, the 2015 festival was shut down due to an alleged mismanagement of funds by his long-time Tropfest partner and managing director Michael Laverty.

This revelation and the resulting festival cancellation had urged many on social media to call for more sponsors and supporters.

Polson also launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to keep Tropfest an ongoing annual festival.

“The Tropfest Pozible campaign aims to raise $100,000, which will be used to hire financial advisers to put the festival back on track,” he said.

“We will be using the funds raised to help us work with advisers to restructure our business, identify future sponsorships and to make sure Australian film makers and Australian culture continue to have a strong voice through this organisation.”

Founded in 1993, the annual film festival is a free outdoor event and has an audience of approximately 150,000 in Australia. It has also expanded to New Zealand, North America, South-East Asia and the Middle East.

The competition entry requirements include films being no longer than seven minutes long, and featuring the TSI (Tropfest signature item). It also has to be the film’s first public screening.

Aspiring filmmaker Beth Cappellazzo has attended the festival every year since 2013 and is looking forward to the mix of films to be shown this year, with the TSI being a card.

“While YouTube might be seen as an International platform where anyone can showcase their videos, nothing compares to a physical audience sitting together and experiencing the film together. It’s an important part of the film watching experience where you can react together and have a sense of community,” Cappellazzo told the International Business Times Australia.

“It’s also great as a filmmaker to see the audience's reaction, as ultimately your film is made for audiences to experience, so it can help hone your craft; you can see whether the comedy was well received and whether the audience engaged emotionally with a character or a moment.”

Throughout the film’s 23-year history, the judging panel has seen the likes of Naomi Watts, Elijah Wood, Toni Collette, Russell Crowe, Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith and Salma Hayek.

The film festival’s name originated from the first ever festival being located at the Tropicana Caffe in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and was originally called the Tropicana Short Film Festival.

One of the finalists that will have their short film screened this February will be TripleJHack social media producer Angela McCormack.

The 22-year-old from Epping, Sydney, only recently finished her degree in media arts/production at the University of Technology Sydney, but has already completed her first independent film

The comedy film ‘Tay Man”, written and directed by McCormack, centres on three men’s closet obsession with Taylor Swift.

“It’s a really interesting comedy, mockumentary hybrid that kind of satirises masculinity and these men who are ashamed of going against masculinity,” she told the Daily Telegraph.

Eager to follow in the footsteps of McCormack is Cappellazzo,who one day hopes to be a Tropfest finalist herself.

“Tropfest is an important platform for emerging filmmakers to screen their short films to a huge audience. It allows them to get their work and name out there, and it can open doors for more opportunities,” she said.

“The biggest film festivals around the world such as Sundance and Cannes have the best of the best entering their films and competing to be selected, which can make them difficult for an emerging filmmaker with no budget to compete, so film festivals like Tropfest are a good training ground for emerging filmmakers to learn, develop their skills and collaborate with others.”