The move by Primus Telecom -- a major sponsor of the world's largest short-film festival, Intel Tropfest 2003 -- to attract broadband subscribers by offering exclusive content will be seen as a boon by much of inner-Sydney, which has jumped into the film-making craze whole-heartedly.
It is telling that offering the short films that were not good enough to make it to the finals are deemed to be a drawcard for people to sign on to Primus for broadband.
Tropfest has enough street cred to attract big names to its screening -- the 2003 festival saw Russell Crowe, Claudia Karvan and director Gillian Armstrong as judges -- and winners have gone on to create cult TV shows such as Pauly Falzoni's Pizza.
Primus also announced it would make one of the finalists' movies available to its subscribers, but neglected to say which one. Personally, we hope its You are so dead , a combined animation/live-action film about four schoolgirls who hire a hitman to solve the problem of the school bully once and for all. Who hasn't had such thoughts?
John Polson, founder and creative director of Intel Tropfest, said the partnership with Primus would generate new audiences for the short film format. -In conjunction with Primus Telecom, we have put together a selection of films that we feel highlights the diversity of Australian story telling and showcases the work of Australia's emerging filmmakers," he said.
