ReelOzInd! 2021 returns for its sixth year with an online festival that premieres on Sunday 10 October 2021 at 1pm WIB / 5.00 pm AEDT.
To celebrate, a new festival trailer has been released that provides a sneak peek at some of the Australian- and Indonesian-created shortlisted films that will be showcased.
This year’s theme is connection/koneksi, an “antithesis of the isolation and separateness we have all experienced in 2020 and 2021,” according to festival director Jemma Purdey.
“During this time of continuing pandemic, when we are kept apart from our loved ones and neighbours by restrictions imposed locally and internationally, these relationships and connections have taken on a new and enhanced value in peoples’ lives that will shape our societies into the future,” Ms Purdey said.
The films screening at the premiere have been selected by our jury of leading film professionals and critics as best in their respective category: Fiction, Documentary, Animation and Young Filmmaker (13-18 years). A total $AUD15,000 prize pool is on offer to winning selections.
“Despite the challenges over the past 18 months, we have received our highest ever number of submissions from filmmakers in Australia and Indonesia, and the quality of films across all categories is exceptionally high,” Ms Purdey said.
This is ReelOzInd’s second online festival, embracing a model that allows creatives and audiences the flexibility to engage with both the films and one another. Established in 2016, the festival also offers the ReelOzInd! Retrospective 2016-2020, an initiative that revisits past festivals in the lead up to this year’s big event.
ReelOzInd! 2021 will premiere on the ReelOzInd! website and the Australia-Indonesia Centre YouTube channel.
For more details about the festival stay tuned to the ReelOzInd! website and its social media channels.