The CinefestOZ film festival was founded in 2008 by David Barton and Helen Shervington, "as a cultural celebration of the French bicentenary of Antipodean exploration of the South West corner of Western Australia". The opening film at the inaugural festival was the highly-acclaimed Australian film Black Balloon.[1]
The inaugural CinefestOZ Film Prize was awarded in 2014.[2]
In July 2023 it was announced that funding for the festival would continue for at least a further three years, until 2025.[3]
The festival awards the CinefestOZ Film Prize of A$100,000, to feature films and documentaries first screened in Western Australia.[7] The CinefestOZ prize is the largest cash film prize in Australia, and one of the largest in the world,[6][8] and is decided by a jury of five Australian and international filmmakers.[3]
The festival has staged IndigifestOZ since 2015, which provides a showcase for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander filmmakers,[1] screened for free as "Community Days".[3]
The 2021 festival was the 14th edition, taking place from 25 to 29 August 2021.[9] The feature documentary film Under the Volcano, produced by WA producer Cody Greenwood[5] and directed by Gracie Otto, had its Australian premiere at the festival,[10] while Akoni, a film about a Nigerian refugee struggling to integrate into Australian society by Australian filmmaker Genna Chanelle Hayes, had its world premiere.[11][12] The Australian drama film Nitram, based on the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, won the 2021 Film Prize.[8][13]
