The nine days of film curated by the festival’s creative director Greg Dolgopolov and based on the theme, Celebrating Women in Film, premiered with a screening of David Stratton’s A Cinematic Life in Winton’s historic open air Royal Theatre. The documentary’s director, Sally Aitken, David’s longtime TV co-host, Margaret Pomeranz, and actor Roy Billing were among the cinematic luminaries who attended the opening night celebrations, which kicked on into the night at the adjacent North Gregory hotel.
Locals joined a band of visitors from Brisbane and interstate celebrating the extended week of film with breakfasts with the stars, masterclass lunches and workshops extending the festival’s program. A contingent of film and marketing students from Australian, Indian and Beijing film schools joined the event and created short features in and around Winton during the festival. The Vision Splendid organisers hope to build on the success of the festival and eventually have a film production studio in Winton so other film makers will be encouraged to come to the town. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, new movies will be added to the remote town’s credit list, which already includes The Proposition, Mystery Road and Goldstone
