Attention would-be filmmakers, the sixth annual SmartFone Flick Fest (SF3) wants you to stop with the incessant selfies and get a little more creative. Calling for movies shot and edited entirely on phones or tablets, the Australian-based festival has a worldwide reach. They've even added a brand new category for the strange days we find ourselves in.
Joining shorts, feature-length, kids and virtual reality sections, the SF3 ISO category is for three-minute or less films shot within local lockdown rules wherever you are in the world, requiring some smart thinking to work with what we’ve got.
Co-founder and director Angela Blake, who runs SF3 alongside Ali Crew, told Time Out it would have been remiss of them not to acknowledge what was going on in the world. “This is such a huge event and the arts is here to document, reflect, and comment on what happens around us, so introducing the SF3 ISO just seemed like the important thing to do. You also have a whole world of not just artists, but people of all ages and walks of life stuck in their homes with not much more than their imaginations and their phones, so this is the perfect way to funnel this creativity and time.”
Festival Ambassador and filmmaker Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, Dead Calm) said, “the SF3 Iso category is one of the most important film festival awards of the year, because it is going to be a historical record of this strange time in our world and all our lives.”
As Blake sees it, our phones have kept us connected. “Unable to see each other in person and or create outside our homes, phones have been the way we have all stayed together and really given rise to this feeling that we truly are all in this together.”
She and Crew have been impressed with the quality of the entries they’ve received so far. “The calibre is always so surprisingly high, but this year it has been such a pleasure to see so many new names entering this SF3 Iso category, from filmmakers we have never seen entering before. This is exactly what we set out to do; inspire anyone with a smartphone to tell their stories through film.”
And how have folks adapted to the very specific parameters? “The thing I love about us Australians is that no matter where we are or what life throws at us, we are strong and never give up,” Blake says. “The films we entered so far are primarily with a crew of just one or two. Families and flatmates making a film together, instead of with a large film crew. The stories are more intimate and personal. People are digging deeper within themselves. We’ve also seen a rise in the amount of comedies entered in the Iso category. Aussies love to laugh in the face of disaster and it’s getting us all through this together.”
You can check the rules here, and submit your entry here until midnight on Saturday, August 1.
Need some inspiration? Sydney’s cinemas are re-opening in July.
This article is supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
