Australians have won big at the New York instalment of Tropfest over the weekend, with Tristan Klein and Nick Baker's The Unlikely Maestro scoring the top prize for the 2013 event.
The animated film tells the story of a humble rat that dreams of becoming a world-famous conductor, a tale which captivated the jury, as well as the 22,000 strong audience who made their way to Brooklyn's Prospect Park for the world's largest short film festival.
Watch the film below:
For winning the main prize, Baker and Klein have score $20,000 in cash as well as a week of meetings in Los Angeles with some of the biggest executives and producers in the film business.
They beat out Carmine Famiglietti's Rooftop King and Max Damashek's University Glimpse, which took out second and third places respectively. The judging panel this year featured the likes of Academy Award-winning producer Fisher Stevens, actress, writer and director Lake Bell, screenwriter and producer Charles Randolph and journalist Malcolm Gladwell.
