The $80 Tropfest film that changed Nash Edgerton’s life

When Nash Edgerton entered Tropfest in 1997, he wasn’t chasing a breakthrough. He was racing a deadline. 

Nearly three decades later, the 'multi-hyphenate' - who would go on to receive a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - still sees Tropfest as the moment everything shifted. 

At the time, he and his friends were making short films on tight budgets, often paying for them themselves.  

“I’d never been to Tropfest before. I knew a couple of people making shorts for Tropfest. My brother [Australian actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton] was making one,” he says.  

“I was editing a couple of other people’s shorts that year, but I didn’t really know much about the festival,” he says.  

But once he experienced the scale of the event, which saw streets closed and thousands gathered outdoors to watch the finalists, he realised it was something much bigger. 

“It was like the biggest thing I'd ever been to,” Edgerton says.  

A film made against the clock

Asked about his Tropfest debut, Edgerton says he had originally planned to submit another short film. It didn’t meet Tropfest’s rules, running too long and having already screened elsewhere. With entries closing that week, he decided to start again. 

He returned to Tropfest founder John Polson’s office with a bold pitch. He would make a new film for the festival but only if Polson agreed to appear in it. Polson was surprised, but once he heard the idea, a filmmaker scrambling to submit his film before the deadline, he thought it was funny and agreed to accept the entry. 

There was no script. Edgerton had come up with the idea only minutes earlier and didn’t have time to write one. 

“So I wrote his dialogue on a lunch bag, went and knocked on the door and handed him [Polson] the dialogue on this beetroot-stained brown paper bag,” he says.  

Much of what came to be titled Deadline came together instinctively. Edgerton says he knew the structure and how it would end, but much of the project evolved during production. 

“I was kind of making the film up as I went,” he says.  

The entire project cost about $80. He handed it in just before the deadline, unsure whether it would even be selected. 

“I didn't think I was going to get in,” he says.  

The night everything shifted

On the night of Tropfest, Edgerton says was genuinely impressed by the calibre of films around him. Robert Connolly’s Rust Bucket announced as runner-up, was a stand-out. 

Watching from the crowd alongside brother Joel, Edgerton says he found himself questioning the judges could pick anything over it. 

“I remember turning to my brother going, ‘Hey, what's going to win? Like, if that's a win?” he said. 

Edgerton’s own film had already drawn a strong response earlier in the evening, with one moment in particular catching the audience off guard. 

“I punched John Polson in the face in the film,” he says. “I think anyone who's made a film for the festival and got rejected, probably cheered.”

The response in the crowd was unmistakable. “We got this massive reaction, which was quite a buzz,” Edgerton says. 

Then came the result. 

“They announced it was me and Deadline. I think I was in shock,” he says. 

In the blur that followed, his brother needed to physically nudge him forward toward the stage.  Winning, Edgerton says, felt enormous at the time.

“It was a massive deal.” 

But the impact of that night ran deeper. Edgerton says it reshaped how he saw his future. 

“I think the main thing that changed for me was I suddenly took directing seriously,” he says.  

“It’s a feeling I probably still chase… getting an audience to react to the things I do.  

 “I think that's why a lot of my films or TV I make has visceral stuff in it that gets a reaction out of the audience, because I crave that feeling.” 

Credibility, confidence and momentum

Edgerton says before Tropfest it was difficult to persuade other people to join his projects. 

After the win, that changed. Crew members who had seen the film approached him and offered to collaborate. 

“Suddenly crew were coming up to me… [saying] if I'm ever making anything else, they would help me out,” he says.  

For Edgerton, the response of the audience that summer night in Centennial Park became a lasting benchmark, a reminder of the power of storytelling to move people in a shared space. 

Nearly 30 years on, Edgerton’s story shows how grassroots filmmaking can create real momentum - sometimes starting with a tight deadline, a small budget and the courage to back your idea. 


CommBank is proudly presenting Tropfest on Sunday 22 February, 2026 at Centennial Park, Sydney, and online via the Tropfest YouTube channel. Visit tropfest.com for more information.