Smartphone Film Fest Finals Showcase the Best of Australia – And the World!
-Sydney Opera House and Chauvel Paddington 23-25 January 2026
Australia’s own hit international film fest the Smart Fone Flick Fest (SF3), reaches its glittering climax January 23-25 when its 11 th annual festival weekend debuts a world of films all made on smart phones and screening at the Sydney Opera House and Palace Chauvel in Paddington!
SF3 – the biggest festival of its kind in the world – received around 450 entries from all over Australia and the Globe from filmmakers of all ages this year. Now, the best of them face off – in front of celebrity and industry judges – for a share of more than $50,000 in prizes.
They’re competing across 5 categories:
SF3 Gala Finals, SF3 Kids, Feature Films, SF3 Mini (for films 3mins or less -this year with a theme of ‘Breath’) and SF3 AI.
The premiere event, the Gala Finals, takes place on Friday 23 January from 8:30pm at The Playhouse Theatre at the Sydney Opera House – all starting with a pre-show red-carpet reception. The screening will feature the best 16 short films from across the globe, the awards presentation, VIPs, filmmakers and their stars on the red-carpet, photographer, videographer and a cash bar.
The SF3 Kids screening takes place Saturday 24 January from 1:30pm in the same iconic venue.
This will feature the best short films made by filmmakers 18 with all the same attendant razzamatazz!
The SF3 Mini &Feature Films screenings follow on Sunday 25th January from 1:30pm at The Palace Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, Sydney. Likewise with all the red carpet, camera flashes and awards. Plus the opportunity for filmmakers to network with industry top guns.
SF3 lives by its motto of making filmmaking affordable and accessible to all. This year its filmmakers range in age from 4 to 79! It’s also screening multiple films from filmmakers living with disability, including Bevan Garozzo, an emerging filmmaker with Down Syndrome, two other films by neuro-diverse high school classes and a Gala film by Indigenous filmmaker, Brandon Fairley, a Bus Stop Films student with neuro-diversity who learned all about smartphone filmmaking in a masterclass run by SF3 thanks to a grant from Sydney Water.
SF3’s pre-selection panel was headed by Festival Director, Angela Blake and Jordon Briggs, with incredible talent from across the industry and Screen Illawarra watching over 400 short films and 40 feature films to select the finalist films for screening. Entries were received from more than 60 countries, with the lion’s share from Australia, America and the UK. But China, Afghanistan, Iran, Morocco, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and France also featured!
This was also the second year of the SF3 AI Best Film Award and with four-fold increase in entries in this category since last year. The best of them, The 5-Minute Empire by Tez Frost, appears in the Gala Finals line-up. It’s a hybrid AI film with the human creator front and centre of the creation process. Festival director Angela Blake said SF3 will continue to support AI and AI filmmakers “but always keeping human creativity and ethics at the forefront of all SF3 AI films and entries”.
All info and bookings: www.sf3.com.au
SF3 & 11th Season Sponsors are:
Major Sponsors – Blackmagic Design and Rode
Silver Sponsors – Melodie, Luma Touch and Try & Byte
Bronze Sponsors – Chicken & Chips Casting and Waterloo Studios / Sydney Film School &
Sydney Actors School
Venue Partner – The Sydney Opera House
Government Partners – The City of Sydney and Screen NSW
Prize Sponsors – StoryBoard Quick, The Australian Cinematographers Society, the
Australian Writers Guild, The Australian Directors Guild, The Australian Guild of Screen Composers, The Screen Producers Association, Ribbet, The HubStudio, Ink Tip, iPitch.tv, WIFT NSW, AACTA/AFI, Backstage, StarNow, Shot Lister, Film Local, Writer Duet, ACTS, Iron Bark Digital, Trenear Printing, Kino Sydney, Song Saga, Spineless Wonders, Film Ink and Reeflex Lenses.
Ambassadors are:
Phillip Noyce, Kriv Stenders, Kerry Armstrong (pictured below), Nicole da Silva (pictured presenting SF3 awards, below left), Garry Maddox, Pieter de Vries, Christopher Stollery, mJason van Genderen, Emily Prior, Anthony Kierann and Luis Fernandez. Award categories: The finalist films are now all with our judges who will award over $50,000 in prizes across 36 award categories including our SF3 Best Film Award, People&Choice, Best Director, Best Cinematographer, Best Screenplay, Best Kids Film, Best Mini Film, Best Feature Film and many more.
Our 11th season judges are:
Louis Nowra (pictured below)), Jack Brislee, Serhat Caradee (below right), Ros Gentle, Nick Kapetanios, Yolandi Franken, Thomas Duncan-Watt, Megan Riakos, Pieter de Vries, Anthony Montes, Jess MIlne, Nick Bolton, Stephanie Pringle, Alison Fowler, Veronica Wain, Joe Ochman, Anthony Kierann, Wayne Tunks and Nadine Torney and our SF3 Kids Judges – Rebecca Kirwan, Karishma Mathur, Michèle Jedlicka, SJ van Breda, Callum Pritchard, Oladipo O'Fresh, Adrian Jeffs and Jonathan Lagudi.
All info and bookings: www.sf3.com.au
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
Angela Blake – Festival Director and Co-Founder SF3 – & Bringing SF3 to the Sydney Opera House for our 11th season is beyond exciting. The fact that we get to show the best films shot on tiny screens up on the big screen at one of the world's most prestigious theatres is just phenomenal. The quality in both story-telling and cinematic use of phones blew us away this year and it was nearly impossible to pick our finalists. We wanted to screen all the entries!
But we are deeply proud of the films in our live screenings which represent the absolute best from across the world in smartphone cinema, independent
filmmaking and diverse story-telling.”
Phillip Noyce – Festival Ambassador and Hollywood Director – & SF3 represents a significant leap forward in making filmmaking accessible, empowering storytellers, leveraging technology, and supporting independent voices. As a filmmaker, I am immensely inspired by the festival& impact and its contribution to the evolution of cinema. SF3 is more than just a festival; it is a movement, a testament to the power of storytelling, and a beacon for aspiring filmmakers worldwide. I am honoured to support this incredible platform and excited to see the myriad of stories that will be told through its lens in the years to come.& Narelle Nash – Veteran SF3 Filmmaker and Gala Finalist –
Smartphones have democratised the filmmaking process. You no longer need expensive, complex equipment to create an impactful film – just a great story and a determination to get it made. Nobody showcases mobile films better than SF3, my experiences with them over the years have enabled me to grow as a filmmaker, as I have watched them grow into a global leader of smartphone festivals. I’m so proud to have my short film screen at SF3.& Ryan Burke, Portfolio Director from Rode Microphones – & RØDE we have always believed that powerful storytelling doesn’t require big budgets – just big ideas. SF3 continues to showcase filmmakers who are pushing creative limits with the gear they already have, and we are proud to support that. Sound is at the heart of great cinema, and we’re excited to help bring these stories to life.& Derek Choi from Silver Sponsor, Try & Byte – “SF3 proves that great storytelling doesn’t require expensive equipment – just vision and creativity. That’s exactly what we stand for at Try and Byte, which is why we’re proud to sponsor SF3 and can & wait to see the finalists& films at the Opera House and Chauvel Cinema on the big screen.
Evan Buist from Silver Sponsor, Melodie – "We absolutely love being part of SF3 – it is such a brilliant celebration of creativity, innovation, and community. We can&wait to see these incredible films come to life on the big screen at the Opera House. Huge congratulations to Angela and the talented smartphone filmmaking community.
All info and bookings: www.sf3.com.au
Some featured films and their filmmakers in a nutshell:
The actor in Narelle Nash and Gala Finals film, Viol8te, Pedj is a former professional soccer player who once played for Australia A-League side Sydney FC.
Zac Deren – SF3 Kids Filmmaker and past award winner (pictured left) – was lucky enough to use the Barwon Park Mansion in his filmThey Call Me Bart. It is located in Winchelsea, Victoria. It was built by Thomas and Elizabeth Austin between 1869 and 1871. It was built to host royalty such as the Duke of Edinburgh. Thomas Austin was most famous (or infamous!) for introducing rabbits into Australia. Zac says: The SF3 is a fantastic Film Festival. It gives me the motivation
to work hard on making a short film each year. My favourite part of being a finalist is seeing my film come to life on the big screen and hearing the audience enjoying it as well as laughing at the funny parts.
Tez Frost’s (Tez Vi Truong)The 5-Minute Empire is the first SF3 AI film to screen in our Gala Finals. Shot entirely on an iPhone in a single afternoon, The 5-Minute Empire blends live performance and AI-generated imagery. Tez’s creative process focuses on human-centered storytelling, using AI not to
replace people, but to support emotion-driven performance and expand visual possibilities. His children, Alexis (7) and Charlie (5 – pictured right), have also been selected as finalists in the SF3 Kids Finals, making this an extraordinary year for the Truong family; it’s the first time in SF3 history that a family has had multiple films selected across both Gala and Kids Finals in the same season.
Former Disney Writer and Guinness World Record breaking film director Tatjana Marjanovic’s Fed Up (pictured left) is a deeply personal story. “This is a story I’ve been itching to tell forever – and needed to before Novak Djokovic inevitably retires! As an Australian-Serb, I wanted to show my community in a way we rarely get to see – funny, chaotic, and full of love. In the media, Serbians are often portrayed through heavy political lenses, but our families and traditions are rich with humour, warmth and passionate absurdity. Fed Up celebrates, the laughter, the stubbornness, and the heart. It’s my love letter to my family, my culture, and, of course, our lord and saviour Novak Djokovic!”
Finally, two Feature Films have been selected for the finals:Unholy Union – the second ever SF3 Kids Feature Film finalists by the teen class at The Hills Drama School and Aaron Scully; and Fire Alive (right) by James Demitri, a former winner who is back with a found footage horror film created especially for SF3.
It stars Tatjana Marjanovic, mentioned above!
All info and bookings: www.sf3.com.au
