Australian Shorts

Jim Muntisov | 14 mins | English | Australia

Questioning their gender identity, a young person shares a transformative night out with a stranger in this radical experiment with form and perspective.

Drawing stylistic inspiration from the French New Wave, emerging talent Jim Muntisov’s short follows twentysomething Morgan, whose chance encounter with a queer hipster transforms their feeling of isolation. A shapeshifting, touchingly personal experiment with form that matches its subject’s exploration of identity.

David Robinson-Smith | 12 mins | English | Australia

Reflecting on her own culpability, a woman recounts the traumatising assault she witnessed of a young man in a small Australian coastal town.

In a feral, close-knit coastal town that might have sprung from a Justin Kurzel film, a young man endures a traumatic assault that prompts an astonishing physical transformation. David Robinson-Smith’s accomplished drama confronts the fallout from this devastating incident, using an evocative voiceover from a guilt-ridden young woman to explore a complex tapestry of small-town culpability.

Viewer Advice: Contains suicide themes.

Rhys Day | 15 mins | English | Australia

Cleverman’s Hunter Djali Yumunu Page-Lochard stars in this gorgeously shot First Nations mystery that tells of the ancient spirits inhabiting the land and the people they choose to protect it.

Blending sci-fi and lore, this enigmatic tale centres on the spirits that dwell in a far-flung part of the Australian wilderness, where they protect the land from those who wish to steal from it for personal gain. Director Rhys Day, who grew up in a rainforest town in Far North Queensland, brings a fresh perspective to an ancient tale, aided by stunning landscape cinematography and an eerie, provocative soundtrack.

Viewer Advice: First Nations viewers are warned that the following film may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Grace Tan | 15 mins | Cantonese, English with English subtitles | Australia

A visually imaginative, deeply personal story about the tensions that develop between an immigrant mother and a young woman as she prepares to head abroad.

On the isolated outskirts of suburbia, 20-year-old Lu navigates a domestic life caring for her mentally unwell mother, Mei. When Lu announces she’s moving to France to take up a career opportunity, their fractious relationship grows more tense. With impressive visual detail and dramatic precision, Grace Tan’s tender, personal story explores the sacrifices made by first-generation immigrant parents.

George-Alex Nagle | 33 mins | English | Australia

The first Australian film to win the International Grand Prix at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Mate is a relentless encounter with self-destruction.

In George-Alex Nagle’s acclaimed drama, set over a weekend in an insular working-class outpost of Western Sydney, a local no-hoper must reconnect with a reserved schoolboy after a long time apart. But the attempt to re-establish the relationship is threatened by the man’s self-sabotaging nature. Working from a simple premise, Nagle’s complex coming-of-age short tackles masculinity, maturity and the challenges of growth head-on.

Viewer Advice: Contains suicide themes.

Domini Marshall | 15 mins | English | Australia

MIFF Accelerator Lab alumna Domini Marshall (Slap, MIFF 2021) delivers an affecting exploration of victim-survivor trauma.

In the early hours of a drunken New Year's morning, Grace escapes her apartment to buy cigarettes and wander the streets, where she’ll be forced to fend off unwanted sexual advances. A moving, slow-burn look at the aftermath of assault – and a timely reminder that a woman’s body is a political battleground.

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