Fleurieu festival gives short-film makers the chance to express variations on a theme

Fleurieu Film Festival is combined with elebrating the peninsula's premium food and wine.

Budding filmmakers have the chance to showcase their creativity at the Fleurieu Film Festival (2015-19, with the next scheduled for 2021) while celebrating the premium food and wine of the peninsula south of Adelaide in February at a McLaren Vale winery.

More than 100 submissions were received from Australia, France, the USA and Russia for the 2018 community festival, with Australian actor Australian actor Erik Thomson who lives on the peninsula, as its patron.

A shortlist of 10 films is chosen a particular annual theme. The 2019 theme was: “Climate change – hot topic/kool films”. The City of Onkaparinga and Resilient South were partners with Fleurieu Film Festival on that theme. Filmmakers had access to the council’s climate change software such as 3D computer modelling of its coastline, used to monitor coastal erosion and sea-level rise, to generate animations and footage.

The 10 films shortlisted for the 2019 festival at S.C. Pannell Winery included one from Aldinga local and director, producer and writer Barry Mitchell. His film Legacy was also submitted to the Elements Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada, and Colorado Environmental Film Festival in Golden, Colorado.

Other finalists were Birthplace, directed by Sil Van Der Woerd and Jorik Dozy (Netherlands); Climate Change and The Community, directed by Craig Cooper and Onkaparinga Council’s Studio 20 Youth Centre (South Australia); Harvest, directed by Brodie Winning (South Australia); Mea Culp, directed by Tom Parolin (South Australia); Semblance, directed by Stephanie Jaclyn (South Australia); The Devil’s Bureaucrat, directed by Gina Cameron (South Australia); Who’s A Fly Bird, directed by Bianca Tomchin and Mathew Harvey ( NSW); Ursula, directed by Rick Davies (South Australia); Wind Giants, directed by Nick Thompson.