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Family of film festival finalists

A western suburbs family has been selected as film festival finalists for each of their short films.

Filmmaker Tez Frost (Tez Vi Truong), his seven-year old daughter Alexis and his five-year old son Charlie will head to the Sydney Opera House in January for the SmartFone Flick Fest (SF3) gala finals, with all three of their films to be screened on the night.

SF3 is one of the world’s biggest smartphone film festivals, celebrating stories shot entirely on smartphones and tablets.

Tez said the whole family is excited by the news.

“For us it’s quite a big deal, all three of us. The reason why I wanted to join is so I could be a part of this event for my kids,” he said.

Alexis entered the festival last year as the youngest director in the competition

This year, her brother Charlie will take the title as SF3’s youngest creator.

Alexis’ short film is titled, ‘Maxton and the Moon’, and Charlie’s stop motion film, ‘Looking for Parking,’ was completed when he was only four.

Tez’s short film, ‘The 5-Minute Empire,’ will be the first film ever to be screened in SF3’s AI (artificial intelligence) category.

Tez said he wanted to demonstrate that AI can support creativity without losing the human touch.

“The storytelling is still human centred. AI just allowed me to create worlds and moments that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible,” he said.

The SF3 Gala Finals will be held on Friday 23 January at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse Theatre.

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