{"id":497633,"date":"2026-02-22T22:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497633\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T22:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:59:16","slug":"film-about-new-mother-wins-as-tropfest-returns-to-sydney-with-crowd-of-35000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497633\/","title":{"rendered":"Film about new mother wins as Tropfest returns to Sydney with crowd of 35,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sydney mum has taken out the top prize at Tropfest for her film Crescendo, as the festival returned after a seven-year hiatus.<\/p>\n

More than 35,000 people braved the rain at Sydney’s Centennial Park on Sunday night for the revived festival, which was a fixture on the city’s cultural calendar before financial troubles forced it to shut down in 2019.<\/p>\n

Out of more than 700 entries, only 16 shorts made the premiere, but it was Sydney mum Lianne Mackessy who won the $50,000 award.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Winner Lianne Mackessy says she just had a baby when she learnt of Tropfest’s return.\u00a0 (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)<\/p>\n

When naming the winner, jury president Margot Robbie described the short as “pitch perfect”.<\/p>\n

Ms Mackessy said the inspiration for the film, which is about a mum whose babysitting plans fall through on the morning of an audition for a career-defining role, was inspired by hearing the return of Tropfest while looking after her three-month-old.<\/p>\n

“I felt so much pressure to hurry up and get back into things after having the bub, so it was really just about that,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

The audience braved the rain to attend the first Tropfest since 2019. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)<\/p>\n

“The lead, Laura Bunting, also had a baby \u2026 she was a big part in getting it up.”<\/p>\n

Coming in at second place was Jasper Sharpe with his short We Don’t Take Breaks and in third place Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe with her film Silent Night.<\/p>\n

The jury was led by Australian actor Robbie and included fellow actors Sarah Snook, English actor Taron Egerton, and US director James Cameron, who participated virtually.<\/p>\n

Snook said the time away gave organisers an opportunity “to come back stronger than ever”.<\/p>\n

“I think in some ways it’s kind of good to have a hiatus. You need those hibernation times to work out what was working, what wasn’t,” she said.<\/p>\n

Tropfest started with organised screenings at the Tropicana cafe in Darlinghurst in 1993 for around 200 people, before moving to Centennial Park as it rose in prominence.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Over 20 years Tropfest grew in popularity before its abrupt end in 2019. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

At its peak, the festival drew crowds of almost 200,000 and gave emerging filmmakers a global stage to showcase their work.<\/p>\n

Its return has been backed by an unlikely group of investors, including Racing NSW boss Peter V’Landys, philanthropist Sarah Murdoch of the Murdoch family, property investor Richard Weinberg and actor Bryan Brown.<\/p>\n

Founder John Polson said he was not sure if Tropfest’s comeback would spark the same interest after seven years away.<\/p>\n

“When I look around it’s almost ridiculous when you think about it \u2026 [Tropfest] was a little TV screen and a little somewhat average film in the corner of a cafe,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what happened. I just blinked and it turned into a massive thing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tropfest founder John Polson said he didn’t think there would be an appetite for the festival’s return. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)<\/p>\n

Over its 33-year run, notable Tropfest alumni include, Joel Edgerton, Rebel Wilson, Rose Byrne and Sam Worthington.<\/p>\n

The festival would go on to stage events across America, China, Africa, South-East Asia and Japan.<\/p>\n

\"Massive<\/p>\n

At its peak, the festival drew crowds of almost 200,000. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

But in 2015, the event was cancelled due to financial “mismanagement”, then again in 2019 less than a month before it was due to go ahead.<\/p>\n

The COVID era and ongoing funding issues would see the festival go on hiatus for the next several years.<\/p>\n

On the festival’s return, Mr Polson said he was “in shock” at the turn-out.<\/p>\n

“It’s a communal event, it’s a gift to the community,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s Sydney borne \u2026 I think it’s something we should be very proud of.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sydney mum has taken out the top prize at Tropfest for her film Crescendo, as the festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,250440,250447,134,250438,250441,250446,250451,250439,250452,250445,250453,250437,250443,250448,250450,250449,250442,250444],"class_list":["post-497633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brazilian-fields-centennial-park","tag-director-jasper-sharpe","tag-entertainment","tag-film-festival","tag-john-polson","tag-lianne-mackessy-winner","tag-margot-robbie-tropfest","tag-open-air-film-festival","tag-sarah-snook-tropfest","tag-sydney-mum-lianne-mackessy","tag-taron-egerton-tropfest","tag-tropfest","tag-tropfest-2026","tag-tropfest-crescendo","tag-tropfest-silent-night","tag-tropfest-we-dont-take-breaks","tag-tropfest-winner","tag-who-won-tropfest-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}