Flickerfest returns to Broome featuring local films and award-winning selection of shorts

Australia’s leading Academy qualifying and BAFTA recognised short film festival, Flickerfest, is heading to Broome this month with a specially curated selection of highlights fresh from its Bondi festival. Flickerfest returns to Sun Pictures in Broome with its 2024 National Tour on Friday August 23, showcasing the Indigenous Spotlight Shorts and the Best Of Australian Shorts programs, chosen from 3400 entries. Indigenous Spotlight Shorts features nine multiple award-winning short films from some of the country’s most creative Indigenous talent, both behind and in front of the camera, including two films by Broome filmmakers — Marlu Man, and Pressure And Release. Written and directed by Zac James and produced by Brooke Collard through their Broome-based production company Goguljar Yok, Marlu Man tells the story of an Aboriginal man who is pushed to his limits by a racist society and creates a superhero alter-ego — Marlu Man. Pressure And Release, a documentary written and directed by Pete Ward and produced by Jody Bell from Broome-based Ramu Productions, follows Nyangumarta woman Professor Juli Coffin as she uses her herd of horses to connect with young people in a region devastated by a pattern of tragic youth suicides. The Best of Australian Shorts program includes the premiere of Cold Water starring industry legend Bruce Spence, who delivers an electrifying performance as a man for whom the past cannot be divorced from the present; Ashes starring comedy masters Michael Caton and Michala Banas; the fun outback tale The Bank Manager, based on the true events of a 1932 bank heist, and many more. Starting at 6.30pm at $20.50 a head, the 33rd iteration of Australia’s largest film festival aims to give Broome audiences a window into the hottest contemporary shorts from at home and across the world today. The full program can be viewed on Flickerfest’s website.