Tasmania embraced the revamped Breath of Fresh Air film festival, says festival director Owen Tilbury.
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The festival was started by Mr Tilbury and his wife, Helen Tilbury, in 2010 as the state’s first-ever major annual film festival.
The festival was created with the aim to inspire positive change, challenge audiences, and to have fun.
Now, Mr Tilbury said the festival was bigger than ever.
After a brief hiatus in 2017, this year’s festival took place from May 17 to 20.
For the first time since its inception in 2010, BOFA was held at Launceston’s Village Cinemas.
The “festival precinct” also stretched out into the neighbouring Kingsway.
Mr Tilbury said the change of venue from seven years at Inveresk to central Launceston had made him nervous to begin with.
“We really worked hard to make sure we didn’t lose the whole film festival feel to the whole thing,” he said.
“It’s hard to compare apples to apples … but we’ve ended up having more [people in the] audience this year.
“So our actual number that came to each film is 45 per cent more than that in previous years.
“What it says is that we’ve had bigger venues, bigger screens which means more space to sit at them, then better films, better comforts, and a better location.”
Mr Tilbury said the Day on the Kingsway on May 20 was a major drawcard for many festival-goers.
“The Day on the Kingsway obviously was a great success,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of people telling us that they grabbed a bite there, then they went to a movie, then they went out and had something to eat at the Kingsway for lunch.”
Mr Tilbury said about 2500 enjoyed the food, wine, and beer at the event.
“Everyone can relate to eating and drinking festivals, and having the film festival associated with it and the Tale of Ruby Rose stuff happening there we had quite a nice little formula going.”
To celebrate the 30th anniversay of the iconic Tasmanian film The Tale of Ruby Rose, an exhibit of “high country living” took place with a photo exhibition, demonstrations, and a debate on “firestick cultivation”.
“The measure of the success of the festival is that people were really immersing themselves,” he said.
“All of the things were really coming together.
“We really felt that we’ve reached out to the audience every year ... and we wondered whether our audience would come back.
“In my mind, yeah, they’ve embraced BOFA. Not just Launceston, but greater Tasmania and even the mainland.”
Village Cinema will be running encore screenings from June 1 to 3, with tickets available online at villagecinemas.com.au/events/bofa.