It was a busy Friday night last week at Melbourne’s Jasper Hotel, we launched our official program for 2016 and it was a huge success.
With a record number of attendees, Festival Director Steinar Ellingsen proudly announced the program for this year’s festival. In a Melbourne WebFest first, the announcement was streamed live to Facebook.
This year we have selected 55 Official Selection series and 10 Spotlight on Melbourne series. Additionally, this year, we have introduced Best Australian and Best International awards for the genre categories as well as nominees in the other categories.
As the festival transforms into something bigger each year, so too does the magnitude of quality series being submitted. To illustrate the growth of the industry, let’s look back at the last couple of years at Melbourne WebFest to see how much the industry along with Melbourne WebFest has grown.
Melbourne WebFest has emerged into a successful and globally recognised festival to showcase talent, present opportunities, awards and unique storytellers.
The Festival first launched in 2013, with about 100 attendees at Kindred Studios, a small creative hub in Melbourne’s inner West. Since then we have relocated to the heart of Melbourne city, Deakin Edge in Federation Square.
In 2013, web series were still quite a new idea; Melbourne WebFest was just one of four web series festivals in the world and it only ran for one day. Compared to today with more than 30 festivals globally and the Melbourne WebFest program spanning over three days.
Last year’s festival, 2015, was hugely successful. More than 200 submissions were received and 51 Official Selection’s were showcased. There was a wider variety of programs with a number of workshops, screening blocks, a panel and gala events, more than 15 awards given out and over 1200 attendees were present over the three festival days.
This year, with a more extensive program, new partnerships and new awards to present our winners, we are expecting it to be bigger than ever.
The festival will take place 1-3 July 2016, with the Spotlight event on 30 June.
We can’t wait to see you all there!