MEDIA RELEASE
Cockatoo Island to host world’s biggestfestival of Australian film
The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust will host the world’s biggest festival of Australian film in a five-dayevent on Cockatoo Island next year.
Being staged for the first time, the Cockatoo Island Film Festival will celebrate Australian film,
television and digital content. The festival will also include a World Cinema sidebar of new independentworks. It will be managed by Dungog Film Festival co-founders AllanahZitserman and StavrosKazantzidis, whose offices will be based on Cockatoo Island from September.
The Cockatoo Island Film Festival is scheduled to run in the final quarter of 2012 in the convict and industrial precincts of CockatooIsland.
Around 200 Australian and 100 international films are expected to be screened to audiences of more than15,000 people in the first year. As well as the five-day festival, there will be public programs throughoutthe year covering script development workshops, education programs, student film projects andresidencies. Packages with camping and accommodation and education programs will be on offer.
“As well as being a tourist destination for Sydneysiders and visitors, Cockatoo Island is an inspiring workenvironment,” said Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Executive Director, Geoff Bailey. “The trust isencouraging more cultural organisations to base themselves on the island as we establish more
sustained activity.”
Later this year Cockatoo Island will be transformed into an urban art festival called Outpost Project,
running for five weeks from November 4. Outpost Project, Art from the Streets is an inaugural
free event with large scale installations, exhibitions, live art moments, films and forums. It will include
innovative education workshops and art-making projects as well as pop up bars, artist battles,
demos, DJs, tours and activities for families.
Dungog Film Festival director AllanahZitserman said the move to Cockatoo Island was a way of extending thefollowing built by the Dungog festival in the past five years. Dungog attracted around 10,000 festival-goers tothe NSW town this year, a 550% increase on when it started.
“The growth and success of Dungog has highlighted the community’s appetite for Australian film, as well as thepotential for fostering and celebrating screen culture. Dungog offers a rich cultural experience in a rural settingand will remain a signature event on the arts calendar,” Ms Zitserman said. “Cockatoo Island Film Festival is an opportunity to attract new city and international audiences for Australian film.”
For further information please contact Kym Druitt at eckfactor
on (02) 8570 5511 or 0418 272 018 or
Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour is open to the public daily, offering major events, exhibitions, venue hire, accommodation, tours and
business tenancy. It is one of the magnificent sites managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, a self funding agency created by the
Australian Government to protect and improve public access to former defence and Commonwealth sites around Sydney Harbour. Other
public spaces and parklands include: Snapper Island in Sydney Harbour, Woolwich Dock and Parklands, HMAS Platypus in Neutral Bay,
Headland Park and Chowder Bay in Mosman, North Head Sanctuary in Manly, Marine Biological Station in Watsons Bay and Macquarie
Lightstation in Vaucluse.