Tropfest Roughcut returns for another year. This year, it’s at Sydney’s Darling Quarter on July 26. And it’s a full day event about creativity in the film and TV industry, with MC Australian TV and radio’s Marc Fennell (The Feed, That Movie Guy, Hungry Beast). There are networking sessions, panel discussions and conversations with industry greats, and tickets are just $30.

So, which of the film industry’s big hitters will show off what they know and do?

Wolf Creek star, John Jarratt, is going to share his experiences – making it onto the big screen in 1975’s The Great Macarthy, nailing a TV career and being in McLeod’s Daughters, getting the whole world to know his name via Wolf Creek, Australia and Django Unchained, and making the move to directing and his upcoming StalkHer.

Australian motion picture stills photographer, Jasin Boland (Mad Max: Fury Road, Skyfall, The Matrix), and one of only 45 members accepted into the LA based Society of Motion Picture Stills Photographers, will also grace the stage. Still photography is one of the first points of contact between film maker and audience, so capturing strong key art is an important part of the film production process. Jasin will share what he knows about conquering the challenges in capturing strong stills from some of the most expensive film sets around the world.

Dan Ilic will share how crowd-funding created the opportunity for his ABC Radio National show A Rational Fear to be transformed into a digital comedy hub. The project reached the $50,000 crowd-funding goal to cover production of a 10 week digital season early this year.

Facebook AU will be running a session on social media marketing, using case studies to show what (and what not) to do, to help filmmakers reach audiences on a larger scale.

Visit the website to find the speakers as they are announced and buy tickets.

Are you planning to enter Tropfest? Here’s what you need to know.

• 16 Finalists will have their short films premiere live to a national audience of around 150,000, as well as broadcastfree-to-air on SBS 2.
• A panel of industry and celebrity judges will select a winner live on the Festival Night
• The 1^st prize winning filmmaker will take home a new Toyota, $10,000 cash, a trip to Los Angeles for a week of meetings with film executives thanks to Motion Picture Association and the Australian Screen Association, plus a Nikon D800 + $2,000 RRP worth of lenses and accessories.
• Entries officially open on August 14 and will close on October 2, 2014.
• Films must be no longer than seven minutes and must include this year’s Tropfest Signature Item (TSI): “MIRROR”.
• This year’s Trop Jr’s signature item is “FLY”.
• Enrants get to interpret how they will include the TSI in their film and filmmakers are encouraged to be as creative or as literal as they like.

Everything you need to know about Tropfest is here: