St Kilda Film Festival Director - Richard Sowada Interview

·29 min·2 clips

How a win at this Australian short film festival can make your film eligible for the Oscars.

The episode is an interview with Richard Sowada, director of the 2022 St Kilda Film Festival, hosted by Christina and Rachel on Art Smitten. Sowada begins by outlining the festival's focus on celebrating short films and short-form media, featuring 72 new Australian works produced in the last year across genres including science fiction, horror, drama, and animation. He discusses how the festival embraces convergence with other media forms like games and VR, and how COVID-19 forced festivals to rethink audience engagement and streaming. Sowada shares his personal draw to the festival, noting its reputation as a major stepping stone for emerging filmmakers and its informal, playful atmosphere compared to larger festivals like Sydney or Melbourne. He describes the festival's competition with 16 categories, such as best editing and best animation, and reveals its accreditation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making winners eligible for Oscar consideration. The selection process involves 10 assessors and Sowada reviewing about 600 submissions, with only 10% accepted based on storytelling and frame composition. He emphasizes the importance of curating films to 'talk to each other,' creating a journey for the audience akin to hanging pictures in a gallery. Sowada highlights the Under the Radar competition for young filmmakers, sharing an anecdote about a 12-year-old filmmaker selected annually for seven years. He names the LGBTQIA+ program as a favorite, screening at the Pride Center in St Kilda, and explains how themes like horror, sci-fi, and documentary are curated to allow films to shine in different contexts. The episode concludes with practical details about the festival dates and ticket booking.

As heard by us

A clear look at how a short-film festival shapes hundreds of submissions into a deliberate screen program.

St Kilda Film Festival's 39th year opens up the tricky craft of programming short films. Director Richard Sawada frames the festival as both a showcase and a professional stepping stone, explaining its Academy accreditation, the 72 brand new Australian shorts in the lineup, and…

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Want a backstage pass to how 72 Australian shorts become a festival with an idea quietly running through it?

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