Coming late in the year gives BOFA a chance to source the hit films from film festivals throughout the world. Here are just three of the many international prize-winners:

Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.

The great Iranian director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) has never let being barred from filmmaking stop him. For the third time since the ban was imposed, he’s managed to apply his considerable art to production on a very small scale – and to get the resulting work out of Iran and into competition at a major international film festival.

In Tehran Taxi, shot entirely inside a car, he poses as a cab driver and films interactions with a succession of lively customers, not least his own feisty niece who’s making a film too. It’s never entirely clear whether the passengers are aware of their participation, adding an ambiguity all the more teasing for being in their best interests. The surprisingly informative, entertaining and layered sampling of life in Tehran that emerges won the Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlin.

12.30pm
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, QVMAG THEATRE
 

Naji Abu Nowar- Best Director, Venice Film Festival

A coming- of-age story  about a young Bedouin boy Theeb ( wolf in Arabic) who is prematurely burdened with the responsibilities of manhood by the First World War, when his tribe is unwittingly pulled into the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire by an Englishman passing through their camp with his Arab agent. When his older brother is appointed as the visitors' guide to their mysterious final destination, Theeb sets out to follow them, eventually joining the group over the Englishman's vehement protests. Using novice Bedouin actors  and stunningly filmed in the harsh, awe inspiring desert, this is a wonderfully intimate human story of a boy torn between his code of honour and gratitude for the kindness of a stranger.

7.30pm
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, THE ANNEXE THEATRE

-Silver Bear  for Best Narrative Screenplay, Berlin Film Festival.

It’s an extraordinary achievement for a documentary to win the Best Screenplay Award at a major film festival. The imagery is stunning throughout this questing, curious, expansive film, but what unites and elevates it is the flow of its ideas and director Patricio Guzman's (Nostalgia for the Light) scintillating narration. The story Guzman is telling is rooted in a deep sorrow for his country Chile’s losses (of lives, of innocence, of native know-how, of its relationship to the ocean). And while born of Chile's shameful colonial history and recent past, this is a lament that resounds anywhere in the world, where people have set aside their basic humanity, and their basic relationship to the environment in the name of “progress”.

2.30pm
SUNDAY, NOVEMEBR 8 – TRAMSHEDS THEATRE

HAVE YOU GOT YOUR BOFA 2015 PROGRAM YET?

FOR THE COMPLETE 2015 PROGRAM, AND TO BOOK AND BUY YOUR TICKETS, GO TO HERE

One of the highlights of BOFA 2014 was our BOFA IN ACTION session Regional Innovation, State Growth. The keynote speaker was Dr Anton Kriz of the University of Newcastle, developer of the Regional Innovation Management (RIM) model, which has been used with great success on the Central Coast of NSW.  Dr Kriz will return for this year’s BOFA IN ACTION session Creating Innovative Regions, which recognises innovation as the key to Tasmania’s future growth and prosperity. 2015 has been a year of innovation in many Tasmanian regions and representatives from Federal and State Government, councils and regional  development organisations will talk about their successes and challenges  as they have worked to create innovative regions over the last 12 months. BOFA will also report back on its Tasmanian Regional Innovation Survey – a snapshot of where the state is now. FREE copies of the survey can be obtained by emailing owentilbury@bofa.com.au

If you’d like to be involved, you can book through the BOFA web site

9.00am to 4.30pm
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, TRAMSHEDS THEATRE
COST: $110 (inc. lunch)

BOFA will recognize and reward outstanding Tasmanian innovators at the inaugural Innovative Tasmania Awards to follow the Action Day- a special cocktail party at 5.30pm, Friday November 6,  at the Tasmanian Design Centre. The  Keynote Speaker is ex-Tasmanian Karl Mattingly, Slow Capital, who is building a disruptive international financial forecasting business using expert networks (crowd sourcing) which outperform traditional experts. Truly innovative and a breath of fresh air!

COST:  $35
BOOK AT THE BOFA WEBSITE