“It was standing room only; it was packed, which is fantastic. For ten years we’ve been trying for that and in the tenth year, we got it. In one sense I think, nine years pays off.”

She said the years of hard work and physically making things happen has finally come to fruition. 

Future security for the festival is vital to Stephanie. She knows that with competing requests for council and government funding, arts support can be vulnerable.

She urged people to attend in the lead-up to the festival. 

“If you don’t come this year, I can’t tell you there will be one next year, so get yourself there this year.”

Stephanie said selection of the 2013 judges was a matter of looking to the past. “Most of these filmmakers are previous guests, so when the tenth anniversary came around, we said, ‘Look, we won’t invite new people, we’ll just invite the ones that we’ve had, and see how many come back’. 

“It was alarming because all of them said they’d come back! We didn’t have the budget for them. So thankfully life intervened and some of them couldn’t come.”

She said while participants gained from the experience, the judges and visiting filmmakers also benefited.

“And they come back because they get energised and they get renewed and they feel like they have a worth because they’re imparting knowledge. But they get so much feedback from the young filmmakers.”

International film award winner Jason Van Genderen returned as a judge this year. He shot a documentary about the film festival as it happened and it screened to close the festival. 

Stephanie said his influence made him a role model in the eyes of young area filmmakers.

Though the level of mentorship runs high during the event, the festival reaches outside the theatre walls.

“It’s not just about filmmakers sitting in a theatre in Bingara; it’s about getting out there into the wider community,” Stephanie said.

“Something that slipped under the radar was Alison Richardson who is the head of Accessible Arts at Parramatta Riverside Theatre. 

“We brought her up about three years ago to do film workshops and movement workshops for people with disabilities, and we brought her back again and that’s what she did. 

“She did Brighter Access, she did Warialda special unit, she did Ross Hill special unit.” 

The festival includes categories for documentary, narrative, creative and animation. Classes include open, years 11-12, years 9-10 and one for young students.

Stephanie said the editing software on home computers made filmmaking accessible to even the youngest children. 

“They’re producing films in infant school, and the animations they’re doing are just wonderful. 

“So from six or seven years old, they’re filmmakers. By the time they reach Year 9, they’re film savvy in a way that we didn’t have five years ago we didn’t have Year 9 kids film savvy.

“That’s why you bring these filmmakers in. 

“(The students) already had the creativity; they just needed some of the skills.”

Northwest Film Festival Winners held September 13.

Best Film Overall: Britt Turner-Conley: ‘Today’

 Primary - Documentary: Wally Bremner, ‘Flowers’; Animation: Gum Flat School; Narrative: Goman de Vallance, ‘Godzilla’

Years 7-10 - Creative: Maggie Thomas, ‘Seasons Change’; Documentary: Kaleb Bliefnick, ‘Clontarf Movie’; Animation: (joint winners) Jon Gaukroger, ‘Cliff Highlights and Molly-Ann Hawk-ins, ‘Hope’; Narrative: Year 9 drama class, Inverell High School, ‘I’m Sorry’.

Years 11-12 Creative: Saën Sunderland, ‘The Lads’; Docu-mentary: Britt Turner-Conley, ‘Today’; Animation: Narrative: Cameron Willis, ‘Hostile Takeover’.

TAFE - Creative: Blake Stackman, ‘Katrah!’; Docume-ntary: Robert Trendell and Armidale TAFE, ‘Paws Up’.

Open Animation: Armidale High School with Jonathon Larsen, ‘Shame’;  Creative: Adam Singer, ‘I Ain’t Mad’; Documentary: Julie Collins, ‘Mubali’; Narrative: Shaun Boyd, ‘Last Chance’.