On Sunday, February 27, this year's top prize at the world’s largest short film festival, Sony Tropfest, was won by a film called Australian Summer, reports Reeltalk’s Australian affiliate Robert Ford. The sixteen films making it to the Tropfest final were beamed by satellite to outdoor festival audiences in five Australian cities -- Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Canberra and Hobart. An estimated 130,000-150,000 people attended these free events. It was a big weekend for movie fans. Because of the time difference between Australia and Los Angeles, people were able to watch Tropfest on Sunday and the Academy Awards on Monday.

Australian Summer, directed by Luke Eve, beat a record 791 other short films to scoop Tropfest’s Best Film award. The ironically titled film is about two homeless men, sleeping under a bridge, who have to imagine themselves surfing on a golden beach just to get through the cold night. The film cleverly subverts Australia’s reputation for glorious days of surf and sun. Eve's film was judged Best Film by a panel led by X-Men director Bryan Singer. Past judges have included Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and Salma Hayek.

Every film entered into Tropfest has to feature the TSI - Tropfest Signature Item. This year it was an umbrella, but some of the TSI’s from previous years have been a teaspoon, a bug and a kiss. The only other restrictions are that the film must be no longer than seven minutes and Tropfest must be its first public screening. Entries do not have to be from Australia. As the festival’s international reputation grows each year, it gets more and more entries from around the world. This year entries were received from countries as far afield as Korea, Norway, the USA and South Africa.

Winning Tropfest can do great things for a filmmaker’s career. The 1995 winner, Gregor Jordan, has gone on to direct star-studded features like Buffalo Soldiers and Ned Kelly. Rowan Woods, who won in 1997, has since made the acclaimed The Boys and is now working on a film called Little Fish with Cate Blanchett. Even the festival’s founder and director, John Polson, who started Tropfest in a tiny Sydney café in 1993, is now directing Hollywood films like Hide and Seek starring Robert De Niro.

Of course nothing can grow as huge as Tropfest without creating a bit of backlash. Tropfest is sponsored by big companies like Sony and Intel as well as individuals like Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe. The festival’s detractors feel that it has grown too big and corporate/celebrity-driven. Critics of Tropfest believe it's lost touch with its indie roots, and some have gone as far as creating an event called SquatFest, which shows films in abandoned buildings on the same day as Tropfest.

But to many, Tropfest is one of the annual highlights of Australia’s summer. People across Australia gather in tens of thousands to picnic on the grass and enjoy the films. On Sunday, the largest crowd congregated in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney. Against the stunning backdrop of the downtown skyscrapers, the films played on three giant screens. Many had arrived hours before the official start time to get a good spot. And they were not disappointed -- when the sixteen short-listed films finally played, some great filmmaking talent was on display.