It was announced this week that the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, along with the organisers of the Dungog Film Festival, filmmakers Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis, have joined forces for the inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival.
Scheduled to run in late 2012, the five-day festival will focus on Australian cinema. It is said that it will screen around 200 Australian film and 100 international films in a world cinema sidebar. This makes it the biggest festival of its kind in Australia, and the largest showcase of Australian films in the world. It is expected that the festival will attract 15,000 patrons.
Cockatoo Island is a heritage listed island in the middle of beautiful Sydney Harbour, where patrons can either camp out or catch the ferry to the six custom-built screens that will be housed on the island. Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol, with dry-docks that were first built by convicts in 1857. It was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list last year.
The Cockatoo Island Film Festival can be found online on their Facebook page and their website is coming soon at http://www.cockatooislandfilmfestival.com.au/
