The Sunday Telegraph
Gone Troppo - How five minutes of
fame changed lives - The making of our brilliant careers
By KERRIE DAVIES
From its humble origins in a Kings Cross cafe, Tropfest has emerged as the world's premier short-film
festival. Kerrie Davies reports.
From cramped and casual beginnings at the Tropicana Cafe in
Kings Cross, the Sony Tropfest has become the biggest
short-film festival in the world.
Tonight, under the stars in the Domain, the winning
film-makers will score a dramatic short cut to taking their place on the world
stage.
Tropfest alumni include the
festival's founder, John Polson, Little Fish director Rowan Woods and Ned Kelly
director Gregor Jordan, whose 1995 Tropfest-winning film went on to win the Jury Prize at the
Cannes Film Festival.
Rose Byrne and David Wenham starred in Tropfest
films before they became known for somewhat bigger productions such as Lord Of The Rings.
This year, there's a special prize, the Cointreau
Women in Film Award, and former television presenter Marie Patane
is one of four women finalists.
Emma Freeman -- the only woman to win Tropfest
(with Lamb in 2002) -- is developing her first feature film, Father Lands, set
in Milwaukee, and is about to go to Cannes.
But before winning Tropfest,
Freeman was just another film-school graduate desperate for
a break.
``I scraped together $1000 to make Lamb. Mum was on boom and
did the catering, and the actor Robert Menzies did it
for free, because he liked the script so much,'' she says of her shoe-string
film budget.
``I just had to make it happen. I was working in a bookstore
and in a bar to survive.
``I was scrounging to pay the rent, and I had to rely on
people's generosity to donate their time.''
That night, the spotlight shone on Freeman.
She has gone from a $1000 budget for Lamb to television
commercials with $500,000 budgets, then TV series such as The Secret Life of
Us.
Now she's anticipating a budget of millions for
``They won't work for free,'' Freeman laughs.
``I have no doubt that if I hadn't won Tropfest,
I wouldn't be in the position I'm in today.
``It was the first year I entered, and I was so happy just
to be part of the festival because the atmosphere is so extraordinary, and has
such energy.
``I was totally shocked and overwhelmed to win, because Lamb
was quite a dark film, and comedy usually won.
``Gabriel Byrne presented me with the award, which was so
exciting. When you hear your name, you're so overwhelmed that everything's a
blur.
``But then afterwards, I thought: `I got my award from
Gabriel Byrne!'''
Part of Freeman's prize was a trip to LA for meetings with
agent powerhouses and studios.
Through her new contacts, she was invited to join the Fox Searchlab initiative for emerging film-makers.
``I met so many great agents like CAA and ICM, which manages
Rob Marshall, director of Chicago and Memoirs Of A
Geisha, and the Coen brothers.
``While it was incredibly exciting, I've always had my feet
firmly on the ground.
``At times, I felt like I was in Get Shorty:
all your ideas about being in
Freeman now feels ready for
``It's an American story, so the story is driving me to the
``I don't think you should try to break into
It's been a huge turn-around for Alister
Grierson too.
The 2005 Tropfest best comedy and
best screenplay winner's debut feature, Kokoda, will
be released in April and is the most anticipated Australian war film since Mel
Gibson's Gallipoli. ``I was doing night shifts at Foxtel
and thinking of giving it all away,'' Grierson says.
``I had all these high expectations out of film school, but
just hit dead end after dead end for ten years.
``I had responsibilities, and a family to consider. I'd entered Tropfest so many times and
never made the final.''
But at Grierson's lowest point
came the breakthrough that has led to his ``overnight'' transformation from
unknown to uber-talent.
``My Tropfest film, Bomb, was a
signpost that I could be a director,'' he says.
``It gave me credibility, and the confidence to keep going.
But I'm older, too, so while a younger guy might think it's all about being the
hot director who can date supermodels, I have my family, so my head's in the
right place.''
To add glamour to glory, Tropfest
winners are given a shortcut to the VIP circuit.
They've been congratulated by celebrity judges such as Keanu
Reeves, Toni Collette and
``There's no bigger buzz for a film-maker than their film
screening in front of Bryan Singer, who directed Superman, or (Mission
Impossible 2's) John Woo,'' says John Polson, the founder of Tropfest.
The stars at Tropfest are
testament to Polson's persistence, his
But he, too, remembers the days when he was just another
struggling director and actor who couldn't afford to hire a cinema to show his
short film Surry Hills 902 Spring Roll.
``I asked the owner of the Tropicana Cafe, where a lot of
the film was set, if we could screen it there.
``The night of the screening, all these people showed up,
and I thought: `Wow, all these people are loving this
idea of watching short films at a cafe. How about we start a festival?'
``The idea just started itself.''
From those beginnings, Polson's own career accelerated with
acting in blockbusters such as Mission Impossible 2 with friend Tom Cruise, and
directing big-budget films such as Swimfan.
He's now based in LA, but returns each year to oversee Sony Tropfest with the Tropfest Team.
The first year, 1994, 500 people showed up at the Tropicana
Cafe for Tropfest -- but the festival was nearly
finished before it began when police tried to shut it down.
``So many people had shown up that they were spilling out on
the street, and traffic couldn't get by on
``The police were called with flashing lights and
everything. I remember thinking: `If I can't talk these guys around, there'll
never be a Tropfest again.'
``So we were there, talking to the cops, and they were like:
`Dude, you don't get it -- turn it off right now.'
``Then one of the older cops started watching the movie, The
Red Dress, by James Middleton. David Wenham was in it -- not that anybody had
heard of him then.
``He really started getting into the movie, and turned back
to the younger guys and said: `Let it run.'
``He became emotionally involved in it, and realised what the festival was about.
``I'm convinced that if he hadn't done that, there'd be no
festival today.
``It would have just been remembered as a good idea that
they tried to do, but it didn't happen.''
Tropfest gets a global boost
FROM its humble cafe beginnings, John Polson's little
festival has joined forces with Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival in
``Like the Tribeca Film Festival,
John Polson's Tropfest has created a distinctive
cultural event,'' says De Niro -- who, with Jane
Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, created the Tribeca Film Festival to help reinvigorate lower Manhattan
after September 11.
``We look forward to offering this unique experience.''
Eight films made specifically for the
Films must be no longer than seven minutes, and the TSI (Tropfest Signature Inclusion) for Tropfest
Tribeca 2006 is Manhole Cover.
Every year, Tropfest films must
include a TSI; at tonight's event, it's a bubble.
For entry details, log on to www.tribecafilmfestival.org