Filmmakers from across Australia and around the globe entered into What the Film Festival as independent artists in 2023. Photo: WTF Festival.
What’s your favourite movie? What do you love about it? For 150 filmmakers who entered into the very first What the Film Festival (WTF Festival), bringing their story to life on screen is the best part.
Created by Canberra-based independent filmmakers and cinema buffs Ophelia Hyde and Stephen Cooke, WTF Festival was born to celebrate, support and encourage independent filmmakers.
Media manager Grace Barbic said the team is thrilled with the success of their first event, held on 7 October at the National Film and Sound Archive.
“It was certainly a hard task to choose our official selections. We were blown away by artists from Australia, Iran, Austria, Columbia, Kazakhstan, USA, Canada, France, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Taiwan and Ukraine,” she said.
“We wanted to highlight film artists as creators of a truly unique art form and provide an opportunity to have their work shown not only in a capital city, but on a prestigious theatre screen.
“Film is a competitive industry and often very profit-focused, so it can be difficult to pitch films that don’t follow the status quo. Many of our selections may not have made it into profit-focused festivals, simply because they aren’t about the money. They’re about the story, and the people behind its telling.”
Winners were announced and celebrated in the final hour of the full-day event. Pseudo (Jack Alejandro Young, USA) won Best Actor and Best in Festival for its eerie depiction of a lonely character waking up in a world of perpetual darkness.
“Most of these films don’t have a lot of money behind them, but they often use it to their advantage. Pseudo, for example, used grainy, home-video style footage as a feature to immerse the audience even further into each scene,” Grace said.
“All of the films were told with such earnest energy, whether it was through story, cinematography, acting or other elements.
“It’s wonderful to see just how much talent there is when you give people an opportunity to put something forward that may not have been considered elsewhere.”
Las Torta (Gabrielle Gregoire and Olivia Lawson, Australia) and Una Vita Felice (Gabrielle Gregoire and Niamh Murphy, Australia) each landed an Honorary Mention in the festival’s Blast from the Past category.
“Las Torta is a two-minute film featuring a Canberra actress, and it’s simply footage of someone making a cake,” Grace said.
“It’s a short and sweet, vibrant movie that has no dialogue but is pleasantly engaging.
“Una Vita Felice compiles footage from around the world of people explaining what it means to be happy in their native language. It’s a heartfelt view of diversity and perspective.”
Named Best in Category for Films Under 20 Minutes, Return Shute: The Survival of a Small Town Video Store (Simone Atallah, Australia) is a true story about a video store in Bellingen, NSW.
“This shop is a real staple of the community,” Grace said.
“Its owners would regularly host movie nights and stock an array of unique DVDs that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the region.
“Following cancer diagnoses for both owners and financial difficulty due to the pandemic, the store is shown the love, support and loyalty of the people it has brought together.”
Grace says the WTF Festival team wants to see the event held every year and hopes to expand its reach with each iteration, but industry challenges are harder to navigate than ever.
“We would love to see the festival become a weekend event, perhaps one that allows interstate or even international filmmakers to see their art on the big screen in one of the nation’s most revered cinemas.
“People are drawn to Canberra and filmmakers do want to participate here. But if you want to produce purposeful work, you need the time and resources to fuel it.
“I think our city could build a thriving, prosperous film community, but if we want that to happen, we need to allocate industry-specific funding that supports emerging artists.”
WTF Festival’s full awards announcement can be found on YouTube. Entries for WTF Film Festival 2024 open on 1 March. Visit the website to find out more.
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