Best Australian Shorts: Session One

SPEAKING UP 

Gabriel Morrison | Australia | 2024 | 5 min
A group of kungas (women) discuss the shame – and what it takes to speak up as young Indigenous women in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands of Central Australia.

STONE LIONS, LIQUID LIONS 

Georgia Plantzos | Australia | 2024 | 9 min
An aspiring filmmaker interrogates her father, a seasoned director lost in a 13-year quest to complete his film about two stolen lion statues. The result is a tender and humorous portrait of their clashing visions, shared frustrations, and the stories they’ve both left untold.

THE COP FROM WAGGA 

Lina Talib | Australia | 2024 | 15 min 

Decorated police officer Terry O’Connell OAM reflects on his extraordinary legacy: introducing restorative justice from rural Australia to the world and saving countless people from a life of crime.

BREAKING PLATES 

Karen Pearlman | Australia | 2024 | 25 min 

A raucous documentary about the not so silent women of the silent film era, Breaking Plates defiantly asserts the principle that if we want to tell different stories, we have to tell stories differently.

MAKING REVISIONS 

Patrick Waterhouse | Australia | 2024 | 9 min 

This documentary captures a collaboration between Warlpiri artists of Central Australia and British artist Patrick Waterhouse, reinterpreting colonial-era documents through traditional Aboriginal dot painting, challenging Australia’s colonial narratives with Indigenous histories and stories.