A Wollongong man is celebrating after his first role as a producer resulted in the film being recognised as one of the top 16 at the world's largest international short film festival on the weekend.
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Kieran Cato has worked on many films since establishing a company for the film and television industry called Cato Logistics two years ago.
He has also worked on the actual production of films such as Circle of Lies, formerly Short Beach, partly shot in Wollongong's northern coastal villages, and The Great Gatsby.
Last year he was asked by friend and writer/director Matt Cerwen to produce the short film Inside for entry into the Tropfest short film festival.
It made the shortlist of the top 700 films a few weeks ago and then the top 100.
But when Inside was named among the top 16 finalists it screened live at the festival and on SBS Australia.
"This was the largest possible platform for us to showcase our talent," Mr Cato said.
It is estimated the film was seen by 150,000 festivalgoers at events around Australia via satellite link from Sydney's Domain.
It also appeared on smh.tv after the festival, and Rebecca Gibney liked it so much she gave special mention to lead actress Shannon Ashlyn before announcing the winner of that category.
And while Ms Ashlyn was working on the 6½-minute drama/black comedy she heard she had secured a role in Wolf Creek II.
Mr Cato said after Mr Cerwen contacted him there was about two weeks work in pre-production, two days of shooting and then four weeks of post-production.
The two men met when Mr Cerwen was a director for Circle of Lies.
Mr Cato was the unit manager responsible for managing logistics and ended up being credited as an associate producer.
Mr Cato now plans to further develop Cato Logistics, which provides infrastructure, traffic management and security for the film industry.
But he would also like to produce another film for the next Tropfest.
Inside was shot at Callan Park Mental Hospital.