Wild weather can’t dampen spirits as winner adds some fizz to
Tropfest
Garry Maddox – SMH – February 20, 2012
Winners are grinners … Alethea Jones (with some other dude in the background)
IN THE race between the films and an approaching thunderstorm, the films won –
but only just – at the 20th Tropfest in the Domain last night.
In heavy rain and intermittent lightning, a judging panel that included Cate
Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Toni Colette, Asher Keddie and John
Polson gave the top prize at the country’s biggest short film festival to Alethea Jones
forLemonade Stand, a comedy about a man and his grandfather whose efforts to sell
lemonade bring a clash with an officious council officer.
She collected her prize in a near-deserted Domain, without a working microphone,
amid a few hundred hardy souls sheltering in the VIP tent.
Jones said she was ”absolutely thrilled” and ready to take the next step in her
filmmaking career. Asked whether she planned to step up from shorts to a feature
film, Jones said: ”I’ve got five ready to go.” She is the third woman to win in the past
five years, winning two weeks after signing up for the dole.
In a year in which the 700-plus entries were required to include a ”lightbulb” as the
signature item, Jones’s prizes include a trip to Los Angeles to meet film industry
executives, a $6000 camera and $10,000 cash.