EXCLUSIVE

Two days after cancelling Tropfest, John Polson is "cautiously optimistic" of reviving the iconic short film festival.

"There's been a huge amount of goodwill and support," the festival's founder said. "It's unbelievable.

"I honestly thought there was almost no chance it was going to come back but the phone literally hasn't stopped ringing."

Polson, who started the now international festival in a Kings Cross cafe in 1993, is holding discussions with a number of companies that have offered financial and other support to stage the event.

He is hoping to find a "guardian angel" that will allow Tropfest to take place next year - possibly in February.

That would mean covering the financial deficit of "well into six figures" that emerged this week, which Polson has blamed on the mismanagement of the company handling the fundraising and day-to-day operation of the festival.

Tropfest's managing director, Michael Laverty​, has been running the event on licence through Tropfest Festival Productions (TFP), which has laid off its staff and has not been answering its phones.

Various companies employed by TFP to organise the festival have unpaid debts, with one owed more than $40,000.

It was a sudden crisis for a festival - a falling out between friends Polson and Laverty - that has expanded over more than two decades to include a Trop Jr competition for young filmmakers, a filmmaking workshop and international events in the US, Middle East, South East Asia and New Zealand. Its high-profile sponsors include Qantas, Nikon, Destination NSW, Screen Australia and Screen NSW.

What Baz Luhrmann once described as the film equivalent of a stadium rock show has fostered directors who have gone on to make such films as Kenny, Two Hands, The Square, Fat Pizza, The Black Balloon, The Boys, Little Fish, The Bank, Balibo, Paper Planes, Red Hill, Wish You Were Here and The Gift, while others have worked successfully in television.

While plagued with wet weather in recent years, which led to a switch from February to December two years ago, it has been a night when VIPs traditionally dress down and revellers turn up with eskys, picnic baskets and blankets.

But since the cancellation, Polson said from New York where he is executive producer of the Sherlock Holmes TV show Elementary, that he had been moved by the support from filmmakers, actors, corporations, government agencies and fans.

"Not all of it has been glowing praise," he said. "Some people understandably have mentioned our flaws, of which I'm sure there are many.

"But when you're on the verge of losing something, maybe it can make you go 'this isn't perfect but what if it's not here?'

"Now it's about trying to get through the conversations and messages and emails offering support - its been like 'we have these screens you can have, we have a venue you can have' - and really drill down to the financial issue.

"There are a couple of very real conversations going on with people that are in a position to help."

The festival was scheduled to take place in Sydney's Centennial Park on December 6, beamed to public sites around the country with a live broadcast by SBS2. Hollywood star Susan Sarandon was to be president of the jury, joining such high profile past judges as Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Keanu Reeves.

Polson is now hoping to use that date to announce a revived event that could be financed with crowdfunding as well as new corporate backing.

​"I'm not going to be popping any champagne till I'm standing there at a press conference with the finalists who've obviously been left out in the cold, like everybody else, to announce our plans for the future."

One of those finalists, Yianni Rowlands, was delighted to hear in Nanjing, China, that Tropfest might be revived.

The 15-year-old student learnt he had made the finals of Trop Jr for the fourth time in five years, with the stop motion animation Chess People, while on a school trip.

"That's great news," he said. "I'm very happy to hear that it might be back on."​

Like other finalists, Rowlands had been hoping to screen his film somehow after hearing about the cancellation. He has found the festival hugely encouraging for young filmmakers.

"It's a really important part of Australia's film industry, bringing filmmakers to the light and giving them the opportunity to show their films to a large audience and appreciate what it's like to be a professional filmmaker," he said.

While there have been concerns about what the Tropfest crisis and the imminent closure of training organisation Metro Screen means for emerging talent, one festival director believes there are many other valuable alternatives.

"The more outlets to screen Australian short films, the better," said Bronwyn Kidd, director of the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival. "But there are still many festivals doing great work, including Flickerfest, Sydney Film Festival through the Dendy Awards and the St Kilda Film Festival, with perhaps less fanfare."

Behind his optimism about the festival's future, Polson admitted that discovering the financial crisis had been a personal blow.

"I was just shocked and dismayed about what I felt was a lack of transparency, lack of communication," he said. "That problem is going to be around for some time.

"But in the foreground, it's very much full speed ahead to see what we can do."