Australian films test the market in Cannes ALMOST directly across the road from the manic scenes of the Cannes Film Festival red carpet, a banner unfurled on the fourth floor of a modest building reads simply: "Australia." No, it's not a fan tribute to Baz Luhrmann's festival opener The Great Gatsby, or a holiday-goer's show of national pride. For two weeks this is the headquarters and heartbeat of the Australian film industry at the world's biggest film festival. While Luhrmann's Gatsby has created plenty of glitz, glamour and headlines in Cannes this week, important work has been taking place behind the scenes in Screen Australia's office. Staff work tirelessly to help Australian producers and directors shop their films to international distributors and potential financiers. A small showing in competition - with Rodd Rathjen's eight-minute short film Tau Seru the sole representative - doesn't reflect Australia's true presence at Cannes 2013 with Screen Australia assisting in the promotion of more than 30 films. And the early signs have been strong, with Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket announcing on Friday it has secured a north American release through US distributor Kino Lorber. The Rover, the much-anticipated second feature from Animal Kingdom director David Michod starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce, was also attracting plenty of interest, Screen Australia said. The Railway Man, starting Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, and Wolf Creek 2 are other popular films in the works. "Of course Cannes is the most important festival in the world but it is also the most important film market in the world," Screen Australia head of marketing Kathleen Drumm told AAP. It means there's an opportunity here for Australian producers and Australian films to get some profile with key people - the key acquisitions executives, festival directors, financiers and others. What we're doing is supporting the efforts of producers to screen their films in the market, to pitch new projects and we're also profiling films that are upcoming or in pre-production. Screen Australia also runs a producer induction program in Cannes, where emerging Australian producers spend time with international counterparts to learn about the business and share ideas. Among them is Victorian College of the Arts graduate Rathjen, who hopes to use the in-competition screening of his short film as a platform to pitch his idea for a feature film. "It's been really informative hearing from sales agents about what projects they take on and why," he said. The reasons don't surprise me but it's very interesting to see how the industry works on an international scale. Being here at Cannes is a big learning experience and that's really the biggest thing. Other Australian films screening to market this week include Andrew Traucki's The Jungle, Adoration - starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright - and comedy horror film 100 Bloody Acres.