Victorian filmmaker wins top Award

Tropfest winner off to LA

VICTORIAN filmmaker Nicholas Clifford is `over the moon' after being presented with the 21st Tropfest fruit bowl trophy from Avatar actor Sam Worthington last night in Sydney.

Clifford's success was for his short film `We've All Been There' which also won best female actor for Laura Wheelwright.

On Channel Seven's Sunrise, Clifford said he had been more confident with `last year's entry' thinking it may have won the award that year but his latest success was a `great surprise'.

The judging panel of Sam Worthington, Magda Szubanski, Rebecca Gibney and The Sapphires director Wayne Blair, believed `We've All Been There' represented top entertainment and deserved to win.

Clifford won $10,000 cash, a Toyota car and a trip to LA, as well as a Nikon D800 and $2000 worth of Nikon lenses and accessories.

Quite unexpectedly, Worthington also created an impromptu award, announcing he and the other judges would award Raymond Borzelli, a dancing busker and audience favourite from documentary Better Than Sonatra, $3000 for best personality. And, the night also saw Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson appear on the big screen with a recorded message from the set of David Michod's new film The Rover in South Australia. All in all a great night was had by all including the estimated 90,000-strong audience.

THE TROPFEST WINNERS WERE: 1st - We've All Been There by Nicholas Clifford; 2nd - Better Than Sinatra by Jefferson Grainger; 3rd - Punctured by Nick Baker and Tristan Klein; Best Male Actor - Nick Hamilton in Time; Best Female Actor - Laura Wheelwright in We've All Been There; and Nikon DSLR Award - Matt Hardie for Let It Rain.

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