Tropfest finalists

Nine will screen two and a half hours of shortfilms from Tropfest 2007 on Saturday April 7 at 9:30pm.

Tropfest is Australia’s most popular short film festival, with crowds of 150,000 gathering in Sydney to watch the contest unfold. Simultaneous screenings are also held in other metropolitan cities.

Every year the filmmakers must insert a secret item in the film to demonstrate the film was made exclusively for Tropfest. Last year it was “a sneeze.”

There are some fantastic and inventive shorts to be seen in the bunch, several with big budgets and stunning production values. But the sneeze is a distraction. It’s hard not to see moods being broken time and again in these. I guess how each deals with it is part of the charm.

Unlikely to be quite as much of the charm is the host for the Nine’s presentation – Richard Wilkins.

I know he’s their Entertainment Editor but really, the films are aimed at a younger, cooler generation. Not generally a group I associate with Mr Wilkins….

Tropfest website (warning spoilers!).