Still Searchin’ Productions would like to thank all the people who helped us make Made in the West 2022 the resounding success it was!
The team at SSP has much to be thankful for!
Not only do we get to organise and host the BEST night of the year for the local filmmaking community, we also get to shine a spotlight on the incredible talents and stories the region has to offer AND do it with an incredible team who are just as passionate as we are in our vision to build a strong, supportive and more connected creative arts community in Sydney’s west.
The community of filmmakers that we celebrate are dedicated, creative and bold. We are always impressed by the ambitious and unique stories being made in the West each year, and the 2022 Official Selection films show exactly what Western Sydney is made of!
For our team, having hundreds of filmmakers (and their friends and family!) in the cinema cheering for each other’s work is, without a doubt, the best part of the night (and a huge part of WHY we do what we do).
Many moving parts come into play on the night and we rely on the generous help, time and talent of our festival crew and contributors. This year, we worked with 20 contributors on the night to bring the festival to life, alongside the legendary team at Event Cinemas Liverpool who support our event.
HUGE THANKS to these rockstars for their help at this year’s film festival!
To Jumana, Diana, Thomas, Sam and Nathaniel - our team of incredible volunteers who assisted us all night long - whether at the doors with ticket check-in, assigning seats, managing the foyer space and queues or assisting the camera crew on the night, we thank you all for your contribution to this year’s festival. We really appreciate your help!
To Lexy Potts, Dan Thornton, Nataly Thomson and Liam Dealtry - our red carpet photographers - thank you for spending the night snapping photos of all the finalists filmmakers and guests throughout the intermissions and in the cinemas. All of your photos look GREAT and we can’t wait to share the official photo album soon!
To Catie B - our graphic designer - your design for this year’s Made in the West poster was out of this world! It was uplifting, it perfectly captured Western Sydney, and it propelled us into the best festival we’ve ever hosted. Thank you for your incredible work. Y’all can check out more of Catie’s work here.
To Adrian - our head honcho of merchandise! Cheers to you for sitting by our merch desk all night and flogging our awesome lines of festival memorabilia and limited edition magazine to our wonderful attendees. We appreciate your help!
To Shetu, Daniel and Daragh - our Red Carpet host, camera operator and producer - we can’t wait to see this year’s Official Selection finalists shine on screen in our Festival Highlights. Thank you for capturing all the emotion and excitement of Western Sydney film’s biggest night of the year! Follow Shetu’s work here.
To Prudence, Vuk and Ross - our Online Festival host, camera operator and producer - thank you for capturing the night for our viewers around the country and the globe! The 2022 Online Festival is streaming NOW until the end of summer, featuring a marathon line-up of films plus all the interviews and highlights from the red carpet. You can follow Prudence online here.
To Maria - our wonderful MC for the in cinema screening - our biggest thanks for the energy you brought to our bumper crowd in the cinema. You put everyone at ease and helped the house kick back and enjoy some of the best short films we’ve ever screened! Follow Maria online here.
To the team at Event Cinemas - Teoni, Chris, Ashlyn, Paul, as well as all your staff on the night who worked hard to help us put on a great night - thank you for ongoing support and encouragement of the filmmaking scene in Western Sydney. We love our festival home and we love the support you show to the community here. We’re already keen to come back to Event Cinemas for our 12th annual festival next year!
To Luke Walker Productions - for providing the camera crew, equipment and lighting on the night - you are THE MOST fun team to work with and SO professional at what you do! We absolutely love your work and we appreciate your generous support and friendship. Follow Luke online here.
And last, but certainly not least, thanks to the entire crew of contributors and friends at Still Searchin’ Productions including Ross presenting awards throughout the evening and producing the Online Festival content during intermissions, Misty managing the ticket desk and arrival queue, Casey and Jay supervising FOH, Emily assisting VIPs and assistant producing the highlights,
Hayden and Steve up in the projection booth, Maria and Aaron for assisting with prep and bump in, and Nathalie for coordinating our social media -- what a team! Thank you.
We simply couldn't do all this without you.
Your ongoing commitment to Made in the West over the years has meant hundreds of local filmmakers now have a dedicated space to share their stories on the big screen here in the suburban heartland of Sydney and now also on a national and international stage as well.
We would also like to pay special tribute to two wonderful Western Sydney University students who joined Made in the West this year for a 12-week digital internship and contributed immensely to our 2022 festival campaign: Alex and Van.
We have loved working with you both - whether it was spreading the word about submissions, lining up radio interviews and podcast guest spots, scheduling social media posts, sending media releases out into the world, communicating with our stakeholders - you both shone in your roles and we loved working with you. From Ross, Misty and Jay, we say thanks to you all for helping us pull off an amazing night for the Western Sydney film community -- our best yet.
Made in the West Film Festival is also incredibly grateful for the support offered by our Gold+ Screen sponsor WSU, Luke Walker Productions, our new event sponsors AFTRS, all the festival judges and also our wonderful prize sponsors for making the night so special.
Made in the West Film Festival is made possible by the support offered by all our contributors and WE CAN’T WAIT to return in 2023 with even more amazing people on our side.
We’ll be celebrating our 12th birthday next year and we are excited because there's going to be some BIG NEWS coming your way soon…
Hint: we screened a sneak peek promo at this year’s in-cinema screening. Did you catch it? No? Well, here it is again!
And by the way, if you’re reading this and you think you’d like to work with us next year at Made in the West and contribute your time or talent to the event, get in touch and tell us what you think you can do to help! We’re always happy to hear from new collaborators.
But we’re not done for 2022 just yet!
We need you to SHARE the great news: Made in the West Film Festival is streaming this year’s finalist films ON DEMAND for our fans and friends across the country and across the globe, all summer long.
It’s only $5 USD to watch the show on Vimeo On Demand and they’ll have one whole week to complete the viewing and VOTE for their favourite film.
Which film will WIN the People’s Choice Award this year?? We love seeing the online audience vote – it’s the final major award of the season and this year we’ve even got some new genre awards to make things even more exciting!
That’s right, this year we’re upping the ante with new awards and laurels for Best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Horror, Best Sci Fi, Best Animation, Best Documentary and Best Web Series!
So tell your friends and family to settle in on the couch this summer for the biggest and best 3-hour marathon of short films, complete with filmmaker interviews and highlights from the red carpet at Made in the West 2022.
The Online Festival is available to stream online until 31 January 2023. We’ll see you again when it’s time to announce the WINNERS!
Thanks again to our wonderful crew and happy holiday viewing, everyone!