Celebrities Add Sparkle to Tropfest 2012

19th OF February 2012

Tropfest short-film festival celebrated it's 20th Anniversary and summoned Australia's best acting talent as Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Toni Collette donned the 'black carpet' to judge the event.

Despite the looming weather some of Australia's brightest Hollywood stars walked the "black carpet" in Sydney, before the screening of the 16 finalists at Tropfest 2012.

Alethea Jones, from Melbourne was judged the winner of Tropfest's 20th Birthday competition, with her short film Lemonade Stand. Not a bad accolade seeing as the judging panel was made up of Oscar Winners Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and acclaimed actresses Toni Collette and Asher Keddie.

Nicole Kidman was a surprise mystery judge and is in Australia with her husband, singer Keith Urban. "We just came back as a family. We'll be coming back and forth a lot, so I'm here with our little girls... supporting John Polson too".

Kidman has known Tropfest creator John Polson for almost 30 years, so was more than happy to jump on board as a judge. "When John says 'jump', I say 'how high'," she said.

Cate Blanchett revealed she was at one of the first Tropfests, when it was a small group crammed into Sydney's Tropicana Cafe.

Blanchett was said to be "shellshocked," at the size of the event this year. "There's over 600 entries nationally for this and that has to be celebrated." Rush said Polson's Tropfest has proven "there's no rulebook" when it comes to Australian filmmaking.

"I can't think of any other event where you've got 100,000 out to watch Australian films," he said.

Although they didn't make it in time for the black carpet, The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann and star Tobey Maguire were also set to appear at the event.