Dimitri Ellerington

A Tropfest Tragic

Three times finals, five times shortlisted ....nine times entered. Is there a bigger Troptragic on the planet?

For those that don't know, Tropfest is world's largest short film festival that screens yearly to a live audience of 40+k and online to 100,000's more. Judges have included Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Margot Robbie, Sarah Snook and many more prominent filmmakers.

My first entry, Suckface, was a terribly directed romantic comedy that crashed and burned...literally - we blew up the dolly we had borrowed....sorry Glen!

After a couple of other embarrassing entries my first shortlisted film, Dream What You Want, actually made it into the finals, though I suspect it was making up the numbers. Problem was it only encouraged me more...

The Road to Success staring the fantastic Mr Don Hany, did not succeed. That was discouraging as I thought it was a pretty tight film. Still it went onto festival and Vimeo Staff Pick success and actually made sales in the US and Russia. Who needs Tropfest!

Similarly Ruby made the shortlist, but didn't get a gong....even with the amazing Annie Byron in the title role.

I get knocked down, but I......finally struck gold again with The Squirrel King, a doco on the amazing uncle sloppy of the lower east side, Ricky Powell.

And so it's 2026 and Tropfest is back after 7 years.....bigger and better than ever! And you guessed it, to celebrate, the TropTragic sneaks a film into the finals. Eat Now Pay Later is a loving look at a chilli eating contest....definitely the hottest film in this year's crop. Come to Tropfest on Feb 22 or watch it live on YouTube. Be a part of Trop history!