‘Creativity meets opportunity’: Margot Robbie heads to Sydney for Tropfest revival

The revived short film festival Tropfest is having no trouble attracting big names for its return early next year.

First, festival founder John Polson announced it would be run by a new not-for-profit foundation chaired by Sarah Murdoch that had Peter V’landys, Bryan Brown, business executive Richard Weinberg and himself on the board.

Now he has lined up Margot Robbie to be president of the jury when Tropfest takes place in Sydney’s Centennial Park on February 22.

Robbie, who became one of Hollywood’s most influential actor-producers when Barbie took more than $US1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) at the worldwide box office two years ago, said she was excited about joining the festival.

“Tropfest has long been an important launchpad for filmmakers,” she said in a statement. “It’s where creativity meets opportunity, and I’m incredibly excited to help celebrate and support the next wave of storytellers.”

Polson, who has been shuttling between his home in New York and Australia during festival planning, said it was a privilege welcoming Robbie home for Tropfest.

“Her remarkable body of work, both in front of and behind the camera, perfectly reflects the creativity, courage and ambition we’re championing in Tropfest’s next chapter,” he said.

Growing out of a short film screening that Polson organised in the Tropicana Caffe in Sydney’s Darlinghurst in 1993, the festival expanded into Victoria Street then Rushcutters Bay Park before becoming a major summer event that attracted tens of thousands of short film fans to the Domain, Centennial Park and Parramatta Park.

It looked to have been killed off by the pandemic until V’landys learnt from a young filmmaking talent there was no real way into the industry after university. He decided to create a new short film festival as a crowd-pulling event for Sydney that would provide opportunities for young filmmakers.

But after getting Murdoch and Brown involved, they realised it was better to help Tropfest return for the first time since 2019. Polson, whose two teenage daughters had been lobbying for it to come back so Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams could attend, was keen.

“[It’s] not about trying to go back in a time machine,” he said when it was relaunched in September. “It’s about trying to keep what was amazing about it, then reinventing it.”

Robbie, who has Wuthering Heights opening in cinemas just before Tropfest, will join the ranks of previous big-name judges such as George Miller, Susan Sarandon, Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Martin and Russell Crowe.

After two days of workshops for budding filmmakers, Tropfest will be livestreamed around the world by YouTube. Sponsors include the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Nine Entertainment (publisher of this masthead), the NSW Government, Destination NSW and Greater Sydney Parklands.

Entries open next Monday , with prizes including $50,000 for the winner, $30,000 for second and $20,000 for third.

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