LAFF at the Barbican London Australian Film Festival, supported by the
Australian Film Commission (AFC), was held at the Barbican Theatre. The inaugural
film festival in March 1994 screened 12
feature films and eight
short films. It continued to screen most major Australian feature films and documentaries made each year, along with selected shorts and films from the archive. It was founded by The Barbican's director of cinema and festival director, Englishman Robert Rider, with support from the AFC (which later closed its London office), after he had previously organised two successful short seasons of Australian films. In 2003, the ninth edition of the festival, half of the screenings were sold out before opening night, and the week-long program was extended to 11 days. In that year,
Indigenous Australian films had a significant presence, including
Rabbit-Proof Fence and
The Tracker. In 2005,
National Australia Bank was its chief commercial sponsor, which gave it naming rights to this 11th edition, while it continued to be supported by the AFC, in partnership with the Australia International Cultural Council (AICC), an initiative of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the
Australian High Commission in London. The festival included a program of shorts (one before each feature), presented for the second year in association with
Flickerfest, as well as the London edition of
Tropfest. In addition, for the first time, several feature films and documentaries selected from the festival toured the UK between April and June 2005, including
Manchester,
Cardiff, and
Edinburgh. By the 15th edition in 2009, after
Screen Australia had been created to absorb some of the functions of the AFC, the new funding regime was a generous one, especially to established Australian filmmakers. Films screened that year included
Baz Luhrmann's
Australia and
Gillian Armstrong's
Death Defying Acts. In its 16th edition in 2010, the festival included two genre sections, featuring
horror and
comedy films.
Warwick Thornton's debut feature
Samson and Delilah played on the opening night, and other films included
Robert Connolly's documentary feature
Balibo and
Rachel Perkins' musical
Bran Nue Dae. The 17th edition in 2011 appears to be the final edition. ==Current festival==