Australian Shorts

EARTH AND THE EXOPLANETS

Ceridwen Dovey, Matt Grech | Australia | 2026 | 20 min 

To name a planet is an act of the imagination. A philosophical exploration of the symbolic names given by Earthlings to planets around other suns – names that hold within them a deep respect for the otherness of exoplanets, and also a real love for Earth.

 

 

DARLINGHURST EATS ITS YOUNG

Madeleine Preston | Australia | 2026 | 16 min 

“…the future is known, it’s the past that’s always changing…” Based on a box of photographs left to Madeleine after her best friend Maggie died by suicide, Darlinghurst Eats Its Young is a moving account of a group of friends, artists and musicians living in Darlinghurst in the early 80s.

 

 

IN THE DEPTHS OF HER MEMORY

Chloe de Brito | Australia | 2026 | 9  min 

An aging Mayan woman revisits a long-buried childhood trauma. As the storm brews, reality loosens its hold, and images drift between memory and myth, where ancestral presences refuse to rest.

 

 

TOP DOG

Karly Marks | Australia | 2026 | 7 min 

Dogs and owners gather at the local park for peace and connection in their busy lives. When drama arises and the community becomes divided, they must put their differences aside and cross the invisible line.

 

 

I’M NOT YOUR HEROINE 

Emmalene Vidot, Savannah James | Australia | 2026 | 8 min

I’m Not Your Heroine examines pain, loss, addiction, and the space in which they intertwine. It is the story of a mother who is helpless to alleviate the pain of her son, who turns to drugs after his father-figure commits suicide.

 

 

MAHIKA KAI
Kieran Mpetyane Satour | Australia | 2025 | 10 min

Mahika Kai follows a Kāi Tahu family of cultural conservators and knowledge-holders on their mission to regenerate the landscape of Wānaka through traditional food gathering practices.

 

 

FIRST CONTACT
Maya Carmen | Australia | 2026 | 8 min 

When a surfer steps into a contact improvisation dance workshop, his ideas about touch and intimacy are upended, reshaping how he connects with others and himself.

 

 

LACHLAN

Joey George | Australia |  2026 | 4 min 

A queer visual artist confronts his own suffering and imminent mortality, reflecting on his lived experience of the HIV Aids epidemic in 1980s Australia. He searches for answers in his grim and visceral artistic practice, using fire to both destroy and create.

 

 

ACTS OF PROTEST

Zebedee Parkes | Australia | 2026 | 7 min

An experimental documentary that captures the collective spirit of activism through striking visuals, archival imagery, and an original jazz score. It offers a sensory exploration of protest and the contested right to dissent in today’s turbulent world.

 

 

DAY TO NIGHT
Charlotte Mungomery | Australia | 2026 | 5 min

Plein-air painter Phillipa Atkinson negotiates with a fading winter sun, learning to access her intuition on command in narrow windows of light. As the darkness extends, the possibility of imagined realms takes hold.