History

The Bondi Short Film Festival was established by Francis Coady in 2001. Starting at the North Bondi, the Bondi Short Film Festival quickly out-grew the venue and two years later moved to its new home, the Bondi Pavilion.

Initially the festival began as a favour to friends who had missed out on entering films in other festivals in Sydney as they had already been screened previously.

“I was watching some incredible short films made by my mates and their associates and there were limited opportunities for the filmmakers to screen their films “in competition”. If the film had already been in another festival it was excluded from screening. I thought the nature of exclusivity limited the Directors ability to show their creativity to a wider audience. So I pulled a party together and screened them and we are still having a party 12 years on.” said Francis Coady.

The Festival has firmly established itself as one the finest short film festivals in the country with a principle focus on the filmmaker. Added to the great prizes, the Festival provides filmmakers with the opportunity to showcase their film to a sell-out crowd year on year, including a judging panel of heavy hitters from the Australian film industry. Previous judges have included Bruce Beresford, Margaret Pomeranz, Sam Worthington and Brendan Cowell to name a few.

The Bondi Short Film Festival screens 100% Australian content and is completely independent. Having attracted more than 3,000 quality entries over the past twelve years it is little wonder that the festival has reached cult status amongst the independent film industry.