With more than 400 languages spoken around Australia, it's no surprise that its city restaurants are a cultural smorgasbord. And that love affair with everything from Italian to Iranian, Mexican to Moroccan, is now also up on the big screen.
In Melbourne alone, industry experts estimate there is almost one specialist film festival a week on average. They are not just showcasing dozens of cultures, but also focusing on a variety of subjects ranging from surfing to sustainability, to senior citizens.
For the film buff it's an embarrassment of riches. But even while some cinema professionals see these festivals as a launch pad to successful distribution, others say they are cannibalising themselves and the art-house cinemas.
Kristian Connelly, general manager of Melbourne's 15-screen Cinema Nova, looks upon Australia's second most populous city as possessing a general festival culture. But he sees the numerous film festivals - whether they run from two to three weeks (such as the Melbourne International Film Festival, and French Film Festival) or just a few days (including the Palestinian Film Festival and Iranian Film Festival) - as "a double-edged sword" in one of the strongest movie marketplaces in the world.
Connelly worries that, in these "me first" social media times, when audiences have already had a chance to see a film, box-office takings are likely to be down on opening weekend and the season shortened.
"People miss them because of the short seasons, because it has been 'white anted' [an Australian term for having been subverted from within] by the festival screenings," he says. Connelly cites - filmed in Laos, winner of festival awards around the world and a hit at the Melbourne International Film Festival - which ended up being released on only three screens here and doing poorly at the box office.
Connelly's Nova cinemas host the Reel Anime Festival and genre films at Monster Fest and hire out cinemas for others such as the Transitions Festival, which shows environmental films. But he also believes some festivals, once a means of screening niche films which would not be distributed, are becoming more commercial, screening films with distribution already arranged.
