Screen Hunter manager Annette Hubber believes the Real Film Festival is integral to Newcastle.
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The festival celebrates its fifth year this year and will be staged over three days starting Friday.
Ms Hubber, the festival director, said the event is expected to inject nearly $2 million into the Hunter economy while also showcasing the region to the Australian film industry heavyweights.
“We’ve seen the festival evolve into a significant player on the Australian film festival scene, one that is fast becoming entrenched in the Australian arts calendar,” Ms Hubber said.
“The festival attracts some of the industry’s elite and, while these film professionals are in the region, we intend to promote the Hunter as an ideal location for their next production.”
Ms Hubber said the Real Film Festival celebrated Newcastle as a city brimming with creatives and aimed to build and sustain the film industry in the Hunter.
“Festivals like this are significant to the culture of Newcastle,” she said. “For our industry to sustain itself we need to have talented people stay here, study here and collaborate here.”
The festival aims to deliver a program to “engage emerging filmmakers and people who were looking to move into the creative industries but not knowing how to get into it”.
It will feature workshops, film screenings and an expert panel discussion.
“It’s going to be everything from shooting your entire video or film on an iPhone through to screenwriting, sound design, editing,” Ms Hubber said.
There will be workshops in special effects make-up, directing and screen acting and more than 3000 people are expected to attend.
“I grew up in this town until I was 19 and it is a really creative town,” she said.
“A lot of creatives come out of the Hunter region and we don’t want them all running away, we want them staying.
“I know coming back 20 years later I couldn’t believe how much it had changed and the change from the coal city to the creative city.”
Films will play at Tower Cinemas and there will also be a free outdoor cinema screening of A Dolphin’s Tale on Saturday at Civic Park from 6pm.
