Alethea Jones, from Melbourne won Tropfest’s 20th Birthday competition.  Jones’s film “Lemonade Stand” was awarded first prize by a stellar judging panel of Oscar Winners - Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and acclaimed actresses Toni Collette and Asher Keddie.   Australian directors Alex Proyas and Kieran Darcy-Smith, visiting New Yorker - screenwriter Charles Randolph, Tropfest Arabia Winner Jassem Al Jabbouri and 2011 Movie Extra Tropfest winner ...

As festival judge Geoffrey Rush announced the winners in front of a 130,000 strong national audience, bursting at the seams to fit into Sydney’s Domain for Sydney’s Tropfest, he proudly declared; “When I look out here at the enormous crowd, and at all the talent up on stage, I see the Australian film industry is not in the doldrums!” It was a night full of surprises; Firstly, because it didn’t rain. (Gloomy weather had threatened to rain on Sydney’s red carpet parade, but just as ...