State Library NSW launches short film prize

The State Library of NSW (SLNSW) has launched a short film prize to encourage filmmakers to engage with the library’s collection, reports ArtsHub.

Films submitted to the Shortstacks prize must contain a reference to at least one of six selected items from the SLNSW collection. These items include a manuscript for a Dorothy Mackellar poem, paintings by Herbert Badham and George Lambert, early Australian photography and a letter from a German detainee in an Australian internment camp during World War I.

The prize is open to filmmakers of all ages, with a $15,000 general prize for filmmakers 18 years and older, and a $5000 youth prize for filmmakers 17 years and younger.

‘Filmmaking was one of the things that we’d never explored before, and it’s one of the things that we as a country excel at,’ said state librarian John Vallance. ‘We have some fantastic talent in Australia, and we want to encourage filmmakers to engage with us and our collection.’

Vallance said the selected items were representative of different parts of the library’s collection. ‘We’ve got a huge collection of paintings, drawings, watercolours, photographs, manuscripts, books, all sorts of things. It’s an incredible collection and we want as many people as possible to come and explore it,’ he said.

Category: Library news