top of page
Writer's pictureMade in the West Film Festival

Festival planning during a pandemic

There’s no stopping Western Sydney Film!


Made in the West will be celebrating its 10th birthday this year in December and no matter what, come rain or shine, we’ll be hosting the biggest film party of the year with Western Sydney filmmakers.

We are cautiously optimistic -- may the sun shine on us in December with lifted lockdowns and a return to cinemas!


Of course, we’re planning for the worst, but hoping for the best!


With nearly 5 million people in Greater Sydney and NSW staying at home and that awful sense of dread lingering in the air that the lockdown is never going to end, we’re here to remind you that it will end and WE WILL get through this!


Festival planning during a pandemic is challenging, but if anyone can do it, we can!


In 2020, we were proud to be one of only a handful of film festivals that proceeded, celebrating the stories from Western Sydney filmmakers - ain’t nothin’ gonna hold us down!

We hosted a Covid Safe event successfully, with offset screening times, social distancing, seating bubbles with friends, plus cocktails and snacks enjoyed from your comfy cinema arm chairs. With the support of our great community, we kept everyone safe and still had a great time. Have you seen the highlights?


Ultimately, we can only bring an event to life in line within government restrictions at the time. We are poised and ready to do what it takes to make the festival happen!


We have contingency plans in place to scale up or scale down this year’s in-cinema event, with considerations around the health and safety of our audience and community leading all decisions we make. In the months ahead as planning progresses, we will have more to share with you about what this year’s festival will look like.


Whether we gather IRL at our fave V-max screening house, Event Cinemas Liverpool, or split our screenings between online and offline, or stick to screening entirely online this year, you better believe it - we’re ready to party!


Rest assured, the team at Still Searchin’ Productions is doing its absolute best to bring Western Sydney the kickass 10th anniversary film festival it deserves!


So save the date for Saturday 4 December and the online festival weekend one week later from 10-12 December!


Mark your calendars, pull out your favourite frock, and we’ll see you on the (virtual) red carpet in December.


We hope you can join us!

bottom of page