ACMI X presents
Asian Cinema Collective + Screen Presence Crew Night
When
Thu 18 Sept 2025
6-7.30pm
Join us for this special ACMI Crew Night presented with Screen Presence and The Asian Cinema Collective!
ACMI Crew Night is a FREE monthly gathering for filmmakers and film and TV crew to connect, grab a drink and find future collaborators.
This very special Crew Night, co-hosted by Screen Presence, will include an exhibition of shorts made by Asian Australian filmmakers, curated by the Asian Cinema Collective.
Join us to watch some exceptional short films, enjoy a complimentary drink and meet some of the talented visionaries who brought them to life!
Crew Night will be followed by New Voices in Australian Cinema: SLANTED in Cinema 2. Tickets for that screening are available here.
Exhibited Films
A Daydream with Fini
Directed by Grace Tan, 2024
On a sweltering summer's day in Izamal, Fini and her friend discuss a dream. Together they dream of travelling to the pyramids, the jungle and cenotes as they await the construction of the Tren Maya.
It Is What It Is
Directed by Hannah Lin, 2024
Through the entanglement of two waring hands, this abstract animated short expresses the internal struggle of perfectionists and the anxiety they face when confronted with imperfections.
Nothing in the world is perfect, and only when we embrace our imperfections can we truly find the beautiful landscapes in life.
Asian Male Lead
Directed by Jeremy Teh, 2025
On the fringe of the Australian film industry, an undiscovered actor will do anything to become the next "Asian leading man"...other than face his demons.
As Luna Sees
Directed by Zi Yin, 2025
A cat swims through a night sky, desperately chasing its best friend only to have to say goodbye to her forever.
Tackling themes themes of death, legacy and the afterlife this experimental animated short is as adorable as it is heartbreaking.
Halfway Seen Halfway Home
Created by Ming Liew, 2025
How do we go home if home itself is both familiar and foreign, ever-present yet always just beyond reach?
Suspended between a former homeland and a present place of belonging, this experimental short (part of an ongoing autoethnographic project) speaks to the liminality and incompleteness of the first-generation immigrant experience.
Forest Euphoria 丛林亢奮
Created by Jack Lee, 2024-25
Engaging with themes of marginality, resilience, and survival, this work draws connections between the experiences of more-than-human species, migrant diasporas, and queer identities.
Fungal species can encompass thousands of sexes. Slugs and snails are hermaphrodites capable of self-fertilisation. Complete flowers possess both male and female reproductive parts. Reptiles eggs shift sex in response to climate.
By foregrounding these ecological narratives, the work proposes a queering of biology - one that resists binary thinking and embraces multiplicity, hybridity, and transformation.