The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) is celebrating success at the 2026 AACTA Awards, with the AFTRS production Set Menu winning the inaugural Best Student Film and AFTRS alumni receiving 15 awards.
Set Menu writer/director Lindsay McDonald and story producer Neisha Dallamora said being awarded Best Student Film was “incredibly special and a huge credit to the whole team behind Set Menu”.
“To have student work recognised on the national stage means a lot, and we’re so grateful to AFTRS, AACTA, and everyone who helped bring the film to life. This film was built on collaboration, playfulness and many conversations over food, and we’re so proud to celebrate it together,” they said in a joint statement.
Set Menu tells the story of Frances, who is denied the coveted set menu for dining alone at a famously exclusive restaurant. She strikes an unexpected deal with a stranger to access both the menu and a night of peace and solitude.
Lindsay and Neisha made the film while completing their Master of Arts Screen in 2023 alongside fellow students in key crew roles, including writer Roslyn Zhang, cinematographer Sam Bader, production and costume designer Sheree Tam, editor Harrison Finch, composer Carla Dobbie, sound design Luke O’Loughlin, and co-producer Denis Curnow.
Currently streaming as part of the AFTRS showcase on ABC iView, Set Menu premiered at SXSW Sydney and has screened at the Cinequest Film & VR Festival USA, Westpac OpenAir Cinema, Adelaide Film Festival, Perth Revelation Film Festival, CinefestOZ, and Newport Beach Film Festival. Set Menu won Best Comedy at Canberra Short Film Festival and was also selected as a finalist in the CILECT global film schools competition, where, out of 108 schools, it placed fourth out of 118 films.
Darren Chau, AFTRS Director, Production & Facilities, said the AACTA award was an outstanding achievement for Neisha, Lindsay and the Set Menu team, which capped off a successful international festival run and ABC iView premiere as part of the AFTRS Showcase.
“With themes of solitude, exclusion and intense primal needs and desires cleverly explored whilst balancing humour, intrigue and tension, Set Menu is wonderfully crafted and realised with a high attention to detail and strong collaborative creativity. AFTRS offers our heartfelt congratulations to the whole team,” he said.
AFTRS alumni winners in the AACTA film categories were Peter Duncan (Bachelor of Arts: Film & Television, Scriptwriting 1993), who won the AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Film: The Correspondent; and Cameron Grant (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media Sound Design 2007) and Lachlan Harris (Graduate Diploma in Sound 2012) who were both part of the sound team who won the AACTA Award for Best Sound in Film for Bring Her Back.
Cameron Grant was also a member of the sound team who won the AACTA Award for Best Sound in a Documentary for Yurlu | Country.
In the television categories, AFTRS alumni Mick Boraso (Graduate Diploma in Sound 2011) was part of the sound team who won the AACTA Award for Best Sound in Television for The Narrow Road to the Deep North; while Michael Lucas (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media Screenwriting 2005) won the AACTA Award for Best Drama Series (with Joanne Werner) and the AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television, both for the series The Newsreader. Ismail Khan (Master of Arts Screen 2020) and Rebecca O’Brien (Bachelor of Arts Film & Television, Design 1995) also directed episodes of Bump, which won the award for Best Narrative Comedy Series. Annette Davey (Bachelor of Arts, Film & Television, Editing 1990) was the supervising editor on the series Apple Cider Vinegar, which won the award for Best Miniseries and Danielle Vos (Graduate Diploma Film, Television and Digital Media Television Producing 2007) was series producer on Portrait Artist of the Year, which won the award for Best Entertainment Program presented by Gravity Media. Peter Crombie (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media in Editing 2006) was one of the editors on the series The People versus Robodebt which won the AACTA Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program.
In addition to Cameron Grant’s award for Yurlu | Country, in the documentary categories Paul Bell (Cinematography Documentary Certificate 2000) won the AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary for The Kimberley; Peter Crombie (Master of Arts: Film, Television and Digital Media in Editing 2006) won the AACTA Award for Best Editing in a Documentary for Unbreakable – The Jelena Dokic Story; and Rachel Clements (Master of Arts: Film & Television, Producing, 2000) won AACTA Award for Best Documentary: Journey Home, David Gulpilil with fellow producers Jida Gulpilil and Lloyd Garrawurra.
