Celebrating 33 years, Flickerfest is Australia’s only Academy® Qualifying and BAFTA-Recognised Short Film Festival. Flickerfest is also the country’s largest Australian & International short film competition, screening the best of shorts from Australia and around the world, hand-picked from 3,400 entries.

Flickerfest screens for 10 days under the summer stars at Bondi Beach in January each year, with selected highlights touring Australia on a 50+ venue national tour from Feb - Oct.

Flickerfest remains a platform for celebrating the most entertaining and innovative short filmmaking from Australia and around the world.

  Limone Dinner Package Available

Best of Australian Shorts

This programme is a specially curated selection of highlights from Flickerfest’s Australian Academy® Qualifying competition programmes in Bondi 2024.

 

 

Darwin Story

Lee returns to Darwin from London when her mum is taken ill. After a chance encounter, there’s an opportunity to reflect on the past, but is she ready to think differently about the beautiful place she calls home?

Director: Natasha Tonkin
Writer: Natasha Tonkin
Producer: Yeshen Venema, Eero Heinonen
Runtime: 9min

 

Cordelia, Daughter Of The Sea

A father delivers a wedding speech to his one and only offspring on her wedding day.

Director: Maddie Grammatopoulos
Writer: Maddie Grammatopoulos
Producer: Madison Siegertsz
Runtime: 9min

 

Cold Water

Inspired by true events. Set in St Kilda, Australia, an elderly woman’s peaceful retirement is interrupted when her husband takes up a bizarre new hobby.

Director: Jay Perry, Shaun Perry
Writer: Jay Perry, Shaun Perry
Producer: Brayden Alden
Runtime: 20min

 

Cactus

When twentysomething year old Grace meets her elderly Portuguese neighbour Mr Rodrigues, it’s instant friction; but mutual dislike soon grows into a bond of respect and understanding after an unexpected encounter forces them to connect.

Director: Milena Bennett
Writer: Milena Bennett, Harry Greenwood
Producer: Harriet Dixon-Smith, Harry Greenwood
Runtime: 18min

 

Favourites

Two parents face an impossible choice when their family camping trip turns deadly.

Director: Nick Russell
Writer: Nick Russell, Nick Musgrove
Producer: Nick Russell
Runtime: 5min

 

Yeah The Boys

Yeah the Boys follows six young Aussie men as they sink beers over an afternoon and well into the night. Emoting only through movement; lewd gestures, chokeholds, crowd surfs, and chugging shoeys, they somehow say everything without uttering a single word. Equal parts larrikin, brutal, and tender, this choreographic short film scored by The Avalanches is an observation of Australian masculine identity and our nation’s relationship with drinking culture.

Director: Stefan Hunt
Writer: Vanessa Marian Varghese
Producer: Alex Taussig
Runtime: 8min

 

Fences

When his son sends an AI version of himself to mend the fences on the family property, an ageing farmer must adapt to the change, or else lose his relationship with his son entirely. Starring Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and Scottish-Australian actor Colin Friels.

Director: Duncan Ragg
Writer:Producer: Dianna La Grassa
Runtime: 11min

 

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

When 6 year old Wilfrid finds out that his 96 year old best friend Nancy has lost her memory, he sets out to see if he can get it back. A live-action adaptation of the classic children’s book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Julie Vivas, ‘Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge’ is a heartwarming story about memory loss and intergenerational connection, featuring celebrated actors Benita Collings (Play School) and Bruce Spence (Mad Max, Star Wars).

Director: Hattie Archibald
Writer: Jacob Melamed
Producer: Caleb Irwin
Runtime: 15min

 

Ashes

Bereft after the loss of her beloved Dad James, Frances misses the appointment to pick up his ashes. Through a bizarre posthumous prank, can James rectify his daughter’s habitual lateness, even after he’s gone? A darkly comedic story about grief, tough love, and the unexpected ways those who have passed continue to influence us.

Director: Georgina Haig
Writer: Georgina Haig
Producer: Georgina Haig, Dean Francis, Daisy Betts-Miller, Charmaine Kuhn
Runtime: 13min