Remember May 2020? The full fury of the pandemic and the lockdowns in Melbourne and around the country? Scary times.

BOFA Online was conceived then and we became the first online film festival in the country .. and we decided  to be FREE as our way of pushing back against what this virus was doing to our lives.

And  with Melbourne and other states in lockdown and the numbers shooting up again,  we kept our free online film festival open for an extra 2 weeks as our way saying “Let’s take a deep BOFA and push back again”.

However, all good things have to come to an end, so BOFA ONLINE IS NOW OVER!

BUT, OUR STORIES OF TASMANIA SHORT FILMS ARE STILL LIVE! NO ACCESS CODE NEEDED. JUST CLICK AND PLAY

ALSO ….. our Icons of Tasmania have the perfect antidote to winter or lockdown blues – Tassie’s finest wines, spirits, food, products, experiences and accommodation. Check them out at https://breath-of-fresh-air.com.au/icons-of-tasmania/

CLIMBING BLIND

“I have a genetic condition that affects my eyes.” As an understatement, this is up there with the best; Jesse Dufton was born with very limited vision, and things have gone downhill since then.

PHOTOGRAPH

Have you ever told a white lie? Street photographer, Rafi, (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) pretends he has a fiancée to keep his grandmother from fretting about his marriage prospects.

LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS

Two amazing child prodigies, both recognised for their talent. Two brothers, pulled apart by the Cold War, and set on different life paths.

STORIES OF TASMANIA

Short film makers who live in Tasmania, those who wish they lived here and those who wish they’d never left were challenged to tell us their favourite Stories of Tasmania. Why not vote for YOUR top picks!

JEZ: A LETTER FOR LIFE

When a young politician is told he has incurable cancer, he decides to make a film for his newborn children Grace and Michael who will never fully know their father.

BLACK MAN’S HOUSES

Set on stark and beautiful Flinders Island, this film looks at changing social attitudes; and the context of Australia’s shameful colonial past.

ROSIE

Sometimes described as a film about homelessness, this is more a film about the fragility of life and resilience, seen through the eyes of an ordinary Dublin family.

FREEDOM STORIES

This is a film about a real estate agent, a mechanic, an aspiring truck driver, a tiler and more. But they have one thing in common – they all sought refuge in Australia.

THE OLIVE TREE

In many Spanish villages, the most important historical artefact is not the church, or the town hall, or the Roman ruins. It is the thousand-plus year-old village olive tree.

THE BOYS WHO SAID NO

Slickly edited archive footage and live interviews from activists like Joan Baez trace the birth and spread of the 1960’s Vietnam War draft objection movement.

MY SWEET PEPPERLAND

A cross between a western thriller and a quirky social commentary, My Sweet Pepper Land (the name of a bizarre cowboy bar in Northern Kurdistan)

JAILBREAK PACT (PACTO DE FUGA)

In 2002, Chilean film maker David Albala was hit by a car. He survived, and went on to make the definitive film about the end of the Pinochet regime.

CHARLATAN

This film weaves together a complex bundle of emotional threads, and presents them to the viewer through the tiny, dark, and powerfully focused camera lens of director Agnieszka Holland.

HOPE

Here’s a great plot: famous dancer gets a terminal cancer diagnosis, her lifetime partner is distraught, the family is thrown into chaos. This film pulls no punches as a stable world spins into delirium.

CRESCENDO

This highly awarded film is about hope, about the transformative power of music, and about the courage of young people who want to make a real difference.

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER

In 2007, flea-market hunter John Maloof snapped up a box of old photos for $380. It turned out to be the tip of a 100,000 strong archive of possibly some of the most accomplished street images ever.

THE ART OF INCARCERATION

Aboriginal people in prison are not all “drug addicts, alcoholics, crooks and bad people.” Many of them are talented artists, some with successful global careers.

MAKING A MOUNTAIN

The Danes have a reputation for being clean, neat and correct. In this film,  architect Bjarke Ingels shows they are also capable of combining those traits with some seriously whacky ideas.