Puppetry Shorts

The Melbourne Festival of Puppetry and ACMI present a night of short Puppetry Films.

Enjoy a night of innovative and delightful shorts from independent puppet film and theatre makers. Works will transport you to strange lands and introduce magical beings of all shapes and sizes while reflecting on our shared experiences of what is to human.

The Wickywock and the Jubjub Berry
Dir. Cat Johnson & Joseph Wallace, 2025, United Kingdom, 5 mins.
Directed by Cat Johnston & Joseph Wallace, this charming musical comedy draws you into an enchanted forest where the wails of the mythical Wickywock - a grumpy forest dweller in desperate need of a good night’s sleep – echo through the trees. Enter a tiny dancing Sprite with just the solution: a sack of magical, sleep-inducing JubJub berries. What could possibly go wrong?

No man one is an on the island 
Dir. Astrid Mendez, 2020, Australia, 2 mins.
Drawing inspiration from John Donne’s poem "No man is an island," this stop-motion animation reflects on the incoherence of the individualist ideology which COVID-19 outbreak has unveiled.

Created during lockdown, the film emerged from questions about human nature, empathy and greed. It reflects on how fear and gluttony can numb our capacity for connection and shape our decisions, often reinforcing systems of hyper-individualism, inequality and disconnection. Challenging dominant narratives of Western hegemony and capitalism, No man one is an on the island invites audiences to consider what becomes possible when we recognise that every loss, human or ecological, diminishes the whole.

Originally commissioned through MAV’s Shelter Commissions Program (2020), supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria.

Love Cut to Shape
Dir. Astrid Mendez, 2020, Australia, 1 min.
Inspired by Frida Kahlo's Girl with Death Mask, this paper cut-out stop-motion animation explores the absurd definitions of love that have been historically normalised by society. Through collage, humour and visual metaphor, it questions the stories we inherit about romance, devotion and belonging.

It's What's Inside that Counts
Dir. Tim Bartley and Josh Van Cuylenburg, 2021, Australia, 10 mins.
What begins as a disastrous first date for Vince and Carly quickly improves when they discover the one thing they have in common: a fear of being alone

Nanna, A Ghost Story
Dir. Theresa O'Connor, 2020, Australia, 5mins.
A uni share house. A final night out. An unforgettable encounter! Commissioned by Moonee Valley City’s The Clocktower Centre Nanna, A Ghost Story is a short shadow puppet film by award winning puppetry artist Theresa O’Connor.

The Ferryman
Dir. Lachlan Plain, 2011, Australia, 11 mins.
The ferryman and his wife step out of emptiness and into the projectionist’s small earthen room. The projectionist conjures their souls out of the darkness and projects them onto his wall. the ferryman grew out of director Lachlan Plain’s 2010 artistic residency at Montsalvat – Australia’s oldest artist colony established in Eltham, Victoria, in the 1930s.

20 Years Later
Dir. Taka Takiguchi & Youbi Lee, 2025, Australia, 6 mins.
20 Years Later is a digital shadow puppet short film by Youbi Lee and Taka Takiguchi, tracing their journeys and rites of passage as migrants in Australia. Each scene was developed through a reflective process rooted in the pivotal stages of migration: the lively streets of Brunswick, the sting of alienation, the ongoing search for identity, the citizenship ceremony, a deepening appreciation of First Nations' culture and history, and the everyday realities of a multicultural society. This culminates in the final scene, which finds them creating this very work in the studio, 20 years later. Through this piece, they wish to acknowledge all the migrants who paved the way before them and contributed to shaping so-called Australia into what it is today.

One Bad Day
Dir. Hector Hennesey, 2025, Australia, 9 mins.
A puppet tries to find solace as a working artist after a particularly taxing day. Overbearing directors, freaks on the train, myki inspectors, doomscrolling, it’s all there, all made of felt, and not without hope.

Browse the rest of the Melbourne Festival of Puppetry program here.