Debut Short Tag Archive

Live Action, Premiere

Lianpeng Zhao Draws on Chinese Myth for a Soul’s Last Journey in ‘Museum of Death’

Classical poetry, weathered belongings and Cantonese opera carry what can't be spoken in Lianpeng Zhao's tender portrait of a soul's long farewell.

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Live Action

Two Men, One Doorstep and a Whole Lot of Unbearable Tension Collide in Elliott Power’s Short Film ‘K-9INE!’

Shot on 35mm in a single house, writer/director Elliott Power straddles menace and humour in a psychological standoff short disguised as suburban mundanity.

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Documentary, Premiere

Grace Anna Cardona’s ‘Born To Hustle’ Refuses to Slow Down, Explain Itself or Wait for Audiences to Catch Up

Grace Anna Cardona's portrait of artist Emma Addams, Heart of Bone's macabre jeweller and accommodator of no one, gives the rest of us permission to let rip.

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Live Action, Premiere

Elias Suhail Follows a Young Mother to the Excruciating Edge of an Impossible Decision in ‘Beneath a Mother’s Feet’

Through near-wordless accumulation and visions of djinn and dread, Elias Suhail honours the gravity of a departure his film refuses to make easy.

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Live Action

Ross O’Donnellan’s Tender Directorial Debut ‘Bedcrumbs’ Sits Inside the Quiet Erosion of a Failing Relationship

Shot on 16mm in sweaty, dreamlike hues, Ross O'Donnellan's queer chamber piece watches non-monogamy fail as a bandage stretched over a broken bone.

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Live Action, Premiere

Maya Winkler Explores Boobs, Existential Dread & the Absurdity of Women’s Healthcare in Off-Kilter Comedy ‘Lumps’

A breast lump scare spirals into deadpan chaos as two mid-20s women navigate the absurdities of the medical system with twisted humour and defiant joy.

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Live Action, Premiere

To Immortalize Their Love a Couple Turn to a Struggling Artist With Dark Intentions in Femke Huurdeman’s ‘Carve’

Inspired by a cute keepsake for couples, director Femke Huurdemen's writing debut is the twisted tale of an artist taking her work a little too seriously.

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Live Action

How a Recurring Daymare of Isolation and Gentrification Led to Lucas Murphy’s ‘You Can’t Talk to the Dude’

Lucas Murphy explains how his own anxieties of gentrification and living alone became a mysterious horror comedy that begs the question - what would 'you' do?

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Live Action

An Intimate, Evocative Dive Into Fertility, Fear, and Women’s Agency Through Magical Realism in Rita Heer’s ‘Abja and Her

Rita Heer breaks down the practical effects process behind using floating resin and edible jelly to physically manifest a woman's egg freezing trepidation.

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Awards, Live Action

An Unlikely Friendship Blossoms in Lee Knight’s Touching Oscar-Nominated Short Film ‘A Friend of Dorothy’

Clearing the set to calm a nervous icon, Lee Knight reflects on creating a deeply safe and supportive environment for an absolute acting legend to shine.

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Awards, Documentary

Alison McAlpine Finds the Universe in the Unhurried Gaze of Donkeys in Oscar-Nominated Doc ‘perfectly a strangeness’

In the vastness of the desert, Alison McAlpine follows three donkeys into an abandoned observatory and discovers a new language for what a story can be.

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Awards, Live Action

Meyer Levinson-Blount’s Oscar-Nominated Short ‘Butcher’s Stain’ Asks Who Gets Blamed When Tragedy Strikes

With close-quarters craft, student director Meyer Levinson-Blount transforms collective trauma into an intimate portrait of one man's quiet fight for dignity.

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