The 2012 Stranger With My Face featured the inaugural 10 By 10 Short Script Challenge, which saw 60 registrations and 40 completed scripts. Many of the winning scripts went on to be optioned or produced, such as Heidi Douglas’s Tasmanian Gothic re-telling of Bluebeard, Little Lamb.

The 10 By 10 Short Script Challenge returned in 2013, and there were over a 100 registered participants, from Tasmania, around Australia and countries including the USA and Canada, the UK, Mexico and Switzerland.

A new part of the festival from 2013 was the 48-Hour Tasploitation Challenge, in which teams were given 48 hours to make a short horror film. It was kindly supported by Events Tasmania.

Stranger With My Face values both of these aspects to the festival, as they generate ideas and encourage production and new collaborations. While the main festival focuses on films directed by women, both of the Challenges are open to both male and female participants, in line with the festival’s overall goals of inclusivity and exchange.