Splendid time as students land in Winton for film festival

IT is better known as the birthplace of Qantas, but the outback township of Winton is flying high with film students from China.

Twelve students from the Beijing Film Academy are in Winton with the academy’s vice- president, Professor Sun Lijun, for the fourth annual Vision Splendid Film Festival.

The students have camped out in the bush, been on a station, boiled the billy and played touch football against rugby league annihilators, the feared Winton Devils. It’s the experience of a lifetime for the film animation students, who have come from a city of about 25 million people to a town of just over 900.

They have fallen in love with the clear blue sky and the stars at night.

Peter Moyes, director of the animation program at the Griffith University Film School, said they “could not get enough” of the night sky.

He said bringing the students to Winton along with others from India, Germany and Australia was part of a goal by the Griffith Film School and the festival committee to help develop a film industry in the Outback.

He said the Beijing Film Academy was the largest and most prestigious film school in China, receiving more than 20,000 applications a year.

The Chinese students do not speak English, but Mr Moyes said they had expressed the opinion that Winton was a place in which they could find peace.

“In Beijing there is so many people and so much pollution, it is hard for them to find the sort of peace that they find here,” he said. “They are saying it is a time to let their brain unwind.”

Mr Moyes said those students who became professionals in their field would always remember Winton and the Queensland Outback. He said it was a way of bringing the Winton area to the fore in the minds of overseas filmmakers.

Winton Mayor Butch Lenton said the visiting film students were an integral part of the festival.

“They literally take over the streets of our town. The community has welcomed them with open arms and let the students take free rein of our locations,” he said.

Australian film industry critic, producer and television personality Margaret Pomeranz opened this year’s festival.

The program involves writing and producing workshops, the Qantas Short Film Competition and the screening of contemporary, classic and cult Australian films, all inspired by the Australian Outback.

This year Ms Pomeranz was honoured with a permanent tribute on Winton’s Walk of Fame.

The festival, which started on June 23, ends on Saturday.