THE winner of the inaugural Tropfest Junior, 16-year-old Guy Verge Wallace, refers people to his website if they want to know more about him and his films.

At www.vdubfilms.com you can find all sorts of different small films and animations from his already life-long preoccupation with the art, including a previous entry for Tropfest. School gets in the way of his obsession, however.

It is the wild enthusiasm of kids like Guy, who says he can’t think of anything else he would rather do than make films, that has prompted the organisers of theburgeoning short-film festival to launch a junior version.

Tropfest Junior received 83 entries this year but organisers expect the numbers to rise to hundreds if not thousands within a few years. Even in its first year, it is already the world’s largest short-film festival for children.

Just as Tropfest itself grew from a small event in a Sydney cafe to become the world’s largest short-film festival in a space of 15years, so organisers expect Tropfest Junior to blossom.

The founder of Tropfest, John Polson, told the crowd of children, parents and film teachers yesterday that it was a very exciting day.

“This is going to be huge in the coming years,” he said. “We have been blown away by the response. Thank you for coming out in support of these young filmmakers, these legendary filmmakers of the future. The Australian film industry is in for a very bright and exciting future.”

Guy has already submitted almost 30 animations to the youth animation website New Grounds, and the Sydney school student has had success in film festivals and competitions.

As winner, he received $500 cash donated by the sponsors, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, a video camera and the opportunity to attend a major feature film in production.

Guy, who has been making films since he was 10, said: “I have done many many films; I have been doing it for a long time. Making films is absolutely definitely what I want to do.”

His wining entry, Poor Joshua Verde, uses elaborate painted puppets and a sophisticated voiceover to tell the story of a young boy who loses his father and goes through a very dark period before finding happiness again. Guy made the film over a month whenever he had free time from school. The process was arduous, with each figure being moved a little, a frame being taken then a figure moved again.

Guy couldn’t hide his excitement over winning yesterday: “It’s amazing, crazy, cool.”

Tropfest managing director Michael Laverty said the volume of material they had been receiving from young people led to the establishment of Tropfest Junior.

“Children are no longer just consuming media, they are creating content, they are au fait with the technology (and) not frightened of it. … It is not just kids doing weird things, they are telling stories through the medium of film.”