Made in the West Film Festival has a lot to be grateful for. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by such talented local filmmakers -- it is a real joy to share their stories on the big screen every year.
The community of filmmakers that we celebrate are dedicated, creative and very ambitious. Being in the crowd on Saturday at the festival was just electric, and for SSP, having hundreds of filmmakers in the room cheering for each other’s work was, without a doubt, the best part of the night (and a very large part of WHY we do what we do). We think this year’s festival showed exactly what Western Sydney is made of, and we were blown away.
Still Searchin’ Productions would like to thank some of the people who helped us make the 2019 Made in the West Film Festival possible. There are many moving parts that come into play on the night and we rely on the very generous help, time and talent of our festival crew and contributors.
Thanks to these heroes for their help at this year’s Made in the West:
Ashleigh Morton our Front of House Manager who kept the red carpet in line and our intermissions running on time! Thank you for coming on board this year to help things run so smoothly, we were so lucky to have you with us.
Elizabeth, Bridget, Regina and Carly our wonderful volunteers who assisted us with at the doors with ticket check-in, wrangling interviewees and collecting the votes at the end of the night. Thank you all for your time, we really appreciated your help!
Dan Thornton our red carpet photographer who spent the night snapping photos of our filmmakers. He captured such great shots of everyone and we can’t wait to release our gallery of photos in the next few days! You can check out more of Dan’s work HERE.
Lexy Potts our photographer who snapped the cast & crew pics on the red carpet and each of our festival award winners. Watch this space as you’ll all be seeing those pics very soon! You can see more of Lexy's work HERE.
Victor Hawk our red carpet photographer who spent the festival shooting our filmmakers on the red carpet and in the cinema. We can't wait to share his beautiful photos with you. Check out his work HERE.
Our hosts - MC Laura B and TV host Helder Fernandes - who brought their A-game to the cinema and the red carpet. Thank you for doing what you do best and helping us shine a light on the true rockstars of the Western Sydney film scene! You can follow Laura HERE online and Helder HERE.
Daragh Lane our TV cameraman who filmed the night and all our finalist and special guest interviews, thank you so much! We’re looking forward to seeing the footage you shot on the night and we’re sure the red carpet highlights are going to look amazing.
Geline Garcia our video editor whose work always begins once the festival is done! You'll see her mastery revealed with our red carpet highlights video next week! We love GG’s work and we know she’ll make all the night look awesome, as always.
To the wonderful team at Event Cinemas (Amy, Sharrie, Victoria & Teoni) thank you for opening your arms again to us this year and for helping us plan an extra special night for our filmmakers! Your team was fantastic keeping up with our thirsty guests on the night and prepping the DCP with us in the weeks prior. We are so grateful for your support of the Western Sydney filmmaking community and we look forward to working with you again next year!
Clayton, Taylor and the team at Macquarie Hotel - thanks for keeping the kitchen open and hosting us until late into the night! We did our best to drink you out of Espresso Martinis and you took it all in your stride :) Cheers to you!
And last, but certainly not least, thanks to the entire team of contributors at Still Searchin’ Productions including Ross, Misty, Jay, Casey, Nat, Steve, Dave and Carissa. Your commitment to Made in the West over the years has meant hundreds of local filmmakers now have a dedicated space to share their stories on the big screen.
Western Sydney’s film scene is firmly on the map and we’re thankful you are all part of it.
Made in the West Film Festival is incredibly grateful for the support offered by our contributors and we can’t wait to return in 2020 with even more amazing supporters on our side – it’s going to be our best year yet, we’re sure of it!
And by the way, if you’re reading this and you think you’d like to join us next year at Made in the West and contribute your time or talent to the event, get in touch and tell us what you think you can do to help! We’re always happy to hear from new collaborators.
Finally - if you’ve made it this far (thank you!) keep your eyes peeled over the coming days / weeks: we’ll be releasing all the photos from the night, our highlights reel featuring red carpet interviews with all the winners and the next edition of Made in the West TV will be here online before the year is out!
What a way to finish a great year of films!
Until next time,
SSP