From its early days as a café pop-up to today’s global film industry brand, Tropfest is one Australia’s best-loved cultural experiences and a big part of our creative identity.

It started back in 1993, when John Polson screened a short film for friends at the Tropicana cafe in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. Amazingly, more than 200 people showed up! Inspired by the turn out, John decided that a fully-fledged short film festival was the next step—and Tropfest was born.

Now, 23 years on, Tropfest has become an iconic Australian event, attracting the support of the industry leaders around the world, and remaining a respected platform for Australia’s exciting new talent. Robert Connolly, Emma Freeman, Nash Edgerton, Joel Edgerton, Sam Worthington, Damon Gameau, Jason Gann and Rebel Wilson are just a few of the well-known Australian names that have come up through the ranks of Tropfest.

Nationally, around 150,000 people attend the festival at live sites. The SBS2 broadcast reaches around half a million viewers, and finalists’ films have had almost 40 million views online. Tropfest claims a huge share of voice for Australian talent in the international arena – a talent that is rich and deep and something we are so proud to be part of.

Unfortunately in 2015, the privately-owned company that held the license to manage and run Tropfest in Australia ran into financial difficulties. Just one month out from the December event, they admitted that they were unable to continue with it. The license was terminated and Tropfest was left to figure out how to bounce back from this disaster. At this point, John Polson stepped back in to take control and rebuild Tropfest from scratch.

We are indebted to CGU Insurance, who extended a lifeline partnership that has seen us through our darkest hour. Without CGU, there would be no festival on 14 February. And no platform for the most exciting young voices in Australian film. Now, thanks to CGU, Tropfest is back - but we also need to design our future. And this is where we need your help.

After February 14 we have several major pieces of work to do. These are a strategic review, governance review, and involving our community in the solution through research and group conversations. We will be finding ways for Tropfest to remain true to its values but able to diversify its funding base to ensure a healthy and sustainable cash flow. We need to be in a position to think big into the future and be there for the long haul for young Aussie talent.

By supporting our Pozible campaign, you will help us get this work done, and give Tropfest the stability to stay real and focused on the people that matter most.

At the end of the day, Tropfest is your event. It wouldn’t exist without our talented filmmaking entrants and phenomenal audiences — the tens of thousands of you who come, watch and debate the films, and take note of their makers.

We’ve put together some amazing rewards to say ‘thank you’ for whatever you can do to help us rebuild. Every gift, no matter how small is appreciated enormously by all of us.