AFTRS shorts in Victoria and Western Australia

This winter, AFTRS short films will meet audiences in Victoria and Western Australia as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), CinefestOZ and Flickerfest programs. 

The MIFF runs from 7 to 24 August, with a program showcasing over 250 features and shorts. The festival will be followed by CinefestOZ from 30 August to 7 September in Western Australia. Flickerfest has been touring locations across Australia all year. 

Following its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Interview With a Hero will screen at MIFF and CinefestOZ. The short tells the story of a Cambodian-Australian shadow puppeteer who appears on TV to reconnect with his estranged daughter, only to have a hidden secret from his past revealed. 

The Master of Arts Screen film is nominated by the Australian Production Design Guild (APDG) for the Emerging Designer for a Screen Production Award. Interview With a Hero will take Celeste Diep to MIFFS’ Accelerator Lab, a directors’ development program designed to nurture emerging screen directors on their journey towards their first feature. Previous AFTRS participants include Dylan Ferenc Nyerges, with the world premiere of the AFTRS short film BÅ‘r (2024), after Noora Niasari (Shayda) and Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth) attended in previous years. 

Jane Campion’s short Passionless Moments will also represent AFTRS at MIFF, screening alongside the restored version of Jane’s debut feature, Sweetie, four decades after the short received a special award at the same festival. The AFTRS production is part of the Jane Campion trilogy, which screened widely throughout Europe and the UK after Peel was awarded the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1986. 

The film was also awarded Best Experimental Film (Australian Film Institute Awards, 1984) and received a Special Award for “unique artistic merit” (MIFF, 1984), followed by a screening in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes International Film Festival (1986). 

Six AFTRS productions are screening at CinefestOZ, with Echoes of Dissent, Fracture, Set Menu, Under the Water, and Not a Documentary About Jorts joining Interview With a Hero. 

Echoes of Dissent had its world premiere at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, and it has screened alongside Hydraulic (Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia as part of their NAIDOC Week program. Echoes of Dissent and Hydraulic will also travel with Flickerfest to Broome, as part of the Indigenous Spotlight Shorts 2025 Tour. 

The Master of Arts Screen film pieces together the tragic life story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal man who protested Indigenous rights in early 1900s Europe. Enlisting his father to re-enact Fernando’s famous protests, the director Dylan Nicholls uncovers the legacy of his words.  

Set Menu, Fracture and Under the Water are also Master of Arts Screen films, Set Menu had its world premiere at SXSW Sydney, and it has screened at Westpac OpenAir Cinema, Cinequest Film & VR Festival USA, St Kilda Film Festival and Revelation Perth International Film Festival. 

Not a Documentary About Jorts is a Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production short documentary that had its world premiere at the Westpac OpenAir Cinema and has since screened at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. 

AFTRS alumni also showcase their films at MIFF and CinefestOz. This year, AFTRS alumni Zoe Pepper (Birthright) and Samuel Van Grinsven (Went Up The Hill) are nominated for the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award.  

Birthright is Zoe’s debut feature, which entered production after becoming the 2022 recipient of Screenwest’s West Coast Visions initiative, helping the film secure production funding from Screenwest and Screen Australia, with Madman as the ANZ distributor.  

Samuel Van Grinsven’s second feature, Went Up The Hill, reached the screen five years after the premiere of his debut, Sequin In a Blue Room, produced as his graduate project in the Master of Arts Screen program at AFTRS. Went Up The Hill received production investment from the New Zealand Film Commission and Screen Australia, along with financial support from Screen CanterburyNZ, Fulcrum Media Finance, the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Rebate, and Head Gear Films. 

Here’s the roundup: 

• Alphabet Lane | MIFF 

An isolated couple reinvigorate their relationship with parallel imaginary correspondences in this offbeat exploration of isolation, creativity and the mysteries of love.  

AFTRS alum and cinematographer Gregoire Liere (Graduate Certificate in Cinematography Fundamentals 2012)
Writer/Director – James Litchfield
Producers – Lucinda Reynolds, Joey Charlton and James Litchfield 

• Birthright | MIFF | CinefestOZ 

Drawing battlelines between baby boomers and millennials, this theatrical pitch-black comedy offers a fresh slice of Australian Gothic. 

AFTRS alum and writer/director Zoe Pepper (Graduate Certificate in Directing Fundamentals 2012) 

• Deeper | MIFF 

A lauded Australian documentarian and one of the heroes of the Thai cave rescue come together for a gripping adventure into deep water. 

AFTRS alum and director Jennifer Peedom (Master of Screen Arts and Business 2017) 

• Journey Home, David Gulpilil | MIFF | CinefestOZ 

After his passing, legendary Yolngu actor David Gulpilil is brought back to his home country in a continent-traversing commemoration worthy of his transcendent talent. 

AFTRS alumni producer Rachel Clements (Master of Arts Film & Television – Producing 2000) and cinematographer Allan Collins (Specialist Extension Course Certificate Cinematography 1996).
Directors – Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas
Producers – Jida Gulpilil, Lloyd Garrawurra, Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas 

• Never Get Busted! | MIFF 

A Texan narc turns maverick decriminalisation activist in this outrageous, colourful, hugely compelling saga set amid America’s drug and culture wars. 

AFTRS alum and director Stephen McCallum (Graduate Diploma in Directing Fiction & Non-Fiction 2011)
Director – David Anthony Ngo
Producers – Erin Williams-Weir, Daniel Joyce, David Anthony Ngo, Louise Schultze and Cody Greenwood 

• Surviving Malka Leifer | MIFF 

The inside story of a titanic struggle for justice – crossing years and international borders – within Melbourne’s Jewish community. 

AFTRS alum and cinematographer Bonnie Elliott (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media Cinematography 2006)
Director – Adam Kamien
Producers – Ivan O’Mahoney, Edwina Waddy and Joel Pearlman 

• Went Up the Hill | MIFF | CinefestOZ 

Two strangers are possessed by grief, shared trauma and the same ghost in this chilly Antipodean Gothic. 

AFTRS alum and director Samuel Van Grinsven (Master of Arts Screen 2018) 

• Westgate | MIFF 

Over the course of a single day, an Italian-Australian single mother in Melbourne’s working-class west must draw on all her resources as she confronts the ghosts of her past. 

AFTRS alum and costume designer Gail Stroud (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media Costume Design 2006) 

• Zombucha! | MIFF 

Hoping to strike it rich with an organic beverage empire, a struggling couple inadvertently unleash a sentient killer kombucha. 

AFTRS alumni and cinematographer Calum Riddell (Master of Arts Screen 2019), production designer Emily Jansz (Master of Arts Screen 2021)
Director – Claudia Dzienny
Producers – Danielle Redford, Claudia Dzienny and Emma Leonard