Wedneday, September 20---------- A little bit of Australia is making its way to downtown Manhattan this Sunday, when Tropfest@Tribeca 2007, the latest venture by the Tribeca Film Festival, gets into gear to offer New York film buffs a chance to sample some of the world's most provocative short films. Tropfest began in Australia in 1993 and has become the world's largest short film festival. Now, a New York version will unspool as a FREE EVENT (nice)  at the World Financial Center Plaza near Ground Zero. Expect an exceptional evening of film and music under the stars.

The evening kicks off at 5 p.m. with a live music event featuring Massachusetts singer-songwriter Haunt, Australian pop-rockers SecondDan, and NYC’s very own DJ Shorty. Red carpet arrivals begin at 6:00 pm, with noted guests expected to include Famke Janssen, Damon Dash & Rachel Roy, Josh Lucas, actress and juror Rose Byrne, director and juror Griffin Dunne, Academy Award®-nominated director and juror Bennett Miller, director and juror Tom McCarthy (Station Agent), director and juror Mary Harron (American Psycho), director Andrew Jarecki (Academy Award®-nominated documentary Capturing the Friedmans), director Fred Schepisi (Empire Falls, Roxanne), NBC Chairman Ben Silverman, director Josh Marsten (Maria Full of Grace), Anne Jones and daughter designer Charlotte Ronson, Australian Ambassador Robert Hill, Tropfest founder John Polson, and Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff. 

The film program follows at 8pm, with world premiere screenings of 16 shorts from four countries, selected from 161 submissions. Each short film offers a riff on this year’s Tropfest Signature Item, the slice, in seven minutes or less. Their subjects include a man forced to part ways with his beloved canine companion, a pizzeria with an extreme new approach to the slice, and a documentary about falconry at JFK Airport. Also premiering is the winner of the Nokia NSeries “Slice of Life” contest, which invited the public to submit 30-second cell videos, shot on mobile phones and depicting a moment in the day.

After the show, the jury (comprised of Australian actress Rose Byrne, New York actor/director Griffin Dunne, actor/director Tom McCarthy and Academy Award-nominated director Bennett Miller) will announce the Best Actor and Best Actress winners, and  present the Target Filmmaker Award to the winning director. The lucky winner of the Target Filmmaker Award will receive a cash award of $10,000 and a trip for two to Sydney, Australia from Australia.com and Qantas Airlines (nice.......). 

For more information on the Festival, view the films' trailers and get more information on the evening's festivities, log on to the website: http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/t365-tropfest-feature.

Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor