Global film festival heads to Geelong

CINEVERSE has taken to the big screens across the globe for the past decade, and for the first time will make its way to Geelong with the inaugural festival to tale place on May 20 at Pivotonian Cinema.

The film festival supports emerging filmmakers, showcasing diverse films and giving makers a way to network, learn and show off their creations.

This year, Geelong will be added to the suite of cities and countries hosting the event, alongside the likes of Paris, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, New Zealand and Melbourne.

Geelong show co-ordinator Mia De Rauch said they are starting to bring the film festival into the regions, with so many film makers in the area.

“We’re really hoping the film makers will be able to get excitement of being able to get their short films out in their local area and regional film makers from other regional areas.

“We want to be able to have those face-to-face networking abilities for actors, producers, directors, crew to be able to meet and potentially start a whole new team of film-makers.”

Geelong was chosen in particular for its number of local film makers and the number of films that come out of the area, along with the love of creatives in the community.

Six films will be screening on the night, with some of the writers and directors participating in a Q&A session, where they will speak to their process, style and what they are trying to achieve with their films.

Film directors and producers were required to apply to be part of the festival, with Cinevese as a group looking at the submissions and selecting the ones that have are “immensely good and show important topics”.

“There’s a range of criteria that we try to get across and, especially for this regional one, we were very specific about making sure they were all regional film makers,” Ms De Rauch said.

“You’ve got films that were made along the Murray River, documentary that’s made down here on the Surf Coast, we tried to get a range of the people not in cities that are still trying to create something.”

Tickets are available from cineversefilmfest.com/melbourne