An exciting preview of the upcoming 2018 St Kilda Film Festival has been released with the announcement of the special screenings program. St Kilda Film Festival provides opportunities for both emerging and established filmmakers, producers and directors to gain recognition among their peers and the general public. Among the exciting ten-day calendar there will be a range of special programs screened at this year’s Festival. Mexico’s largest film festival, Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF), comes to St Kilda with a specially curated session of Mexican short films. Nina Rodríguez, GIFF Director of Programming, will be attending the 2018 St Kilda Film Festival as this year’s international guest. Filmmakers will have the opportunity to meet Rodríguez at the event, who will be offering up advice on international film competitions and the future of short filmmaking.
Renown filmmaker, David Batty (Bush Mechanics, Black As), will reflect on 35 years of filmmaking in remote Aboriginal Australia at special event, A David Batty Retrospective. Personal anecdotes interspersed with clips from his vast archive will include rarely seen gems from Manyu Wana (a Warlpiri Sesame Street), Cuz Congress, the iconic Bush Mechanics series, Black As and more. The National Film & Sound Archive (NFSA) will be pressing play on its program Right There On My TV: Re-discovering Australian music television from the 1970’s. This event will celebrate classics such as Countdown, Nightmoves, Bandstand and Thank God It’s Friday At The Zoo, while also screening unearthed clips from the archive, alongside a very special panel of guests for a Q&A after the screening.
A special program for the whole family will also showcase visual content not found on TV screens, including both Australian short films and a selection from the Guanajuato International Film Festival. The full Festival program including Australia’s Top 100 Short Film Competition, the SoundKILDA Music Video Competition, Under the Radar Competition and free filmmaker development program will be announced Tuesday 24 April.