Flickerfest brings Oscar-nominated shorts to town

TWO Oscar-nominated films will screen at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival Tour in Mullumbimby next week.

A Friend of Dorothy, starring UK actors Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Fry, is a heartwarming tale about a lonely widow whose life is transformed when a teenage boy accidentally kicks a football into her garden.

The Singers is a genre-bending adaptation of a 19th-century short story by Ivan Turgenev, following a down-on-their-luck pub full of men who find unexpected connection through an impromptu sing-off.

Both films feature in the Best of International Shorts program at Mullumbimby Civic Hall on opening night. The following evening, the Best of Australian Shorts program will showcase the moving drama Tuesday Tuesday, starring Peter Phelps, alongside the dark comedy Baby Shower, written and directed by Rake actor Matt Day and starring Hugo Weaving.

 

The festival also offers a free filmmaking workshop and a Q&A with Suffolk Park-based actor and director Wayne Blair, best known for his roles in Redfern Now and Mystery Road.

The event also encompasses the Byron All Shorts Competition, highlighting short films from the Northern Rivers region, and the Short Laughs Comedy program.

“After months curating these films for Sydney, it’s nice to screen them in the local community,” Flickerfest’s Mullumbimby-based national director Bronwyn Kidd said.

Proceeds from the festival support the maintenance and future development of Island Quarry Reserve, a former basalt mining site on Ewingsdale Rd that is earmarked as a community arts, cultural and eco hub.

Flickerfest Mullumbimby & Byron All Shorts runs at Mullumbimby Civic Hall from 26 to 28 February.

For more information and tickets, visit iQ.org.au/flickerfest-mullumbimby-byron-all-shorts-2026