The prize is a part of a sponsorship deal with Eventscorp’s Regional Events Program, funded by the WA Government’s Royalties for Regions. CinefestOz’s film selector, co-founder and director Helen Shervington said that the aim is to provide “a premiere showcase of new Australian feature films at the festival.”
Helen finds that one of the issues for Western Australian film festivals is getting the product and getting new films. “We’re very much an audience focused festival, and we saw [the prize] as something which would really shine a light on Australian feature films,” she said.