Soumil Aggarwal
Beaconhills College, Berwick
Boon Wurrung Bunurong Country
LUCKLESS
Comedy, 8 min
LUCKLESS is a short comedy about a young man on his way to a date. His simple journey quickly unravels when everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. Set in suburban Melbourne, this film offers a wholesome yet humorous glimpse into misfortune and resilience, inviting audiences to laugh at the chaos of the young man’s adventure.
The purpose of this film to is entertain; it does this with humour and a feel-good ending. Its style is a clean, modern aesthetic, with select sequences that are overly dramatised.
Dylan Burrows
Prahran High School, Windsor
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Mr. Bop
Music video, 6 min
Mr. Bop is a comedic short film about legacy, identity and ageing, told through breakdancing and nostalgia. The film follows a former teenage breakdancer who, 40 years later, is dragged back into the spotlight by his old manager and lifelong friend, blending heartfelt character moments with stylised, retro visuals and a bold comedic tone.
Loosely adapted from a story the filmmaker’s dad insists is true, it draws on the energy of 1980s dance culture and the absurdity of old rivalries. Mr. Bop explores nostalgia, identity, and the struggle of holding onto the past through humour and heart.
Thomas Corboy
Sacred Heart College, Kyneton
Taungurung Daung Wurrung Country
A Disagreement
Comedy, Action, 9 min
Two brothers fight over who gets to eat the last cookie in the jar. What begins as a simple argument about who deserves the final bite escalates into a showdown that grows to absurd extremes. With many references to classic action films and popular culture, A Disagreement aims to highlight the futile nature of conflict through petty sibling rivalry.
The film parodies classic action films and YouTube fight sketches, featuring an exaggerated, over-the-top and escalating conflict between two brothers as they fight over the last cookie in the jar. It combines physical comedy with fast-paced action choreography, using absurdity to highlight the pettiness of sibling rivalry and the futility of all conflict.
Dari Justin
St Michael's Grammar School, St Kilda
Boon Wurrung Bunurong Country
Grow Up
Coming-of-age, 8 min
When 12-year-old Kai’s older brother Quinn loses interest in their imaginary fantasy games, Kai struggles to accept the growing distance between himself and his sibling. As he tries to imitate Quinn's 'grown up' teenage world – including his relationship with his girlfriend – Kai finds himself caught between childhood and adolescence. Ultimately, Grow Up is less about leaving childhood behind and more about reflecting on why we feel pressured to ‘mature’... and what gets lost in the process.
Grow Up explores the emotional rift between Kai and his older brother Quinn as Kai struggles with the imaginative nature of childhood and the pressure to meet the changing demands of adolescence. At its core, the film focuses on themes of childhood wonder, sibling disconnect, friendship, and the pressure to 'mature' at the cost of imaginative play and unrestrained youthful creativity.
Victoria Kammel
Nazareth College, Noble Park North
Boon Wurrung Bunurong Country
BlackBoxWarrior - OKULTRA
Music video, 6 min
In BlackBoxWarrior, a persistent and precarious protagonist finds themselves in the midst of a tantalising tale. Meticulously puppeteered by an unnamed figure, contorted and conformed, the protagonist is lost in their own dwindling mind as the stakes rise around them. BlackBoxWarrior tells a tale of individuality, confusion, and forced conformity in a society that insists on their citizens fitting the 'norm'.
The filmmaker’s intention was to create a music video for the song ‘BlackBoxWarrior – OKULTRA’ by Will Wood, which fits alongside his other works and music videos, utilising coloured lighting, animation and fast-paced editing to focus on themes of conformity and being ‘one with the machine’.
Joshua McMillan
Donvale Christian College, Donvale
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Willowshade
Horror, Drama, 8 min
Set in an interrogation room, Willowshade follows a detective and prisoner through a tense psychological battle to uncover the whereabouts of a missing child. Truth, control and power constantly shift and alter.
Willowshade explores how guilt can reshape identity and draws viewers into the characters’ increasingly unstable emotional states, encouraging them to question their own ideas of what lies beneath the surface.
Andrew Nguyen
Balwyn High School, Balwyn North
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Steady, As She Goes
Horror, 10 min
A teenage boy scours the internet to find answers to a mysterious phenomenon after he himself experiences disturbing and unsettling symptoms. As the symptoms worsen, the boy finds a digital trail left by another afflicted individual, which suggests that he is not alone.
Steady, As She Goes is heavily influenced both visually and thematically by the work of Jane Schoenbrun and explores themes of dysphoria, online existence and mental health, through the elements of mixed-media and the psychological horror genre.
Claudio Rienzo
Ashwood High School, Ashwood
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Final Cut
Horror, 6 min
A mundane evening of watching television has erupted into a supernatural jigsaw for lonely little Agnes, as she navigates through the masked strangers' film world. Emulating the metafictional elements of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and David Lynch's uncanny cinematography, Final Cut offers a metaphorical narrative of the filmmaking process, conveying the ethical horror of obsession and perfection in achieving the final cut.
Final Cut follows the common conventions of horror, with a greater degree of symbolism to construct a commentary on the genre, and as an allegory of the terror of the production process. With this concept in mind, the film exaggerates noticeable codes such as lighting and sound, embedding a visual style inspired by the Lynchian look, and storytelling through saturated, coloured lighting and tense sound scores – all with the intention of creating suspense.
Sophie Rosenthal
Trinity Grammar School, Kew
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Siren Song
Music video, 4 min
Set in the surreal landscape of a teenage girl’s mind, Siren Song navigates her distorted reality as shaped by Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Designed as a subjective, immersive experience, the piece ultimately gestures toward recognition, acceptance and seeking help.
Siren Song conveys what words cannot – a peek into the clouded, complicated, messy mind of a teenage girl with anxiety. It aims to visually communicate this overwhelming, sometimes frightening experience. The filmmaker’s goal was to communicate the ultimate message of the video – embrace the unwanted and seek help along the way.
Jake Symes
Padua College, Mornington
Boon Wurrung Bunurong Country
Embers of the past
Documentary, Poetic, 5 min
Filmed in 2025 across the landscapes of Lutruwita/Tasmania, Embers of the Past follows an individual moving through the remnants of a fading culture. Shaped by traces of memory and loss, the film adopts a reflective, speculative tone, offering only fragments rather than clear answers. Through sparse imagery and quiet observation, it invites viewers to consider what endures when time has stripped everything away, and how small sparks of remembrance continue to shape our collective understanding.
Embers of the past is a deeply personal and culturally respectful film that uses metaphor, voiceover and natural imagery to honour Palawa heritage. Created through immersive cinematography and ambient sound design, it reflects themes of identity, resilience, and ancestral connection.
Eleftherios Tsitsiras
Parkdale Secondary College, Mordialloc
Boon Wurrung Bunurong Country
Crossroads
Drama, Thriller, 6 min
Two teenage brothers from a struggling home take a risky job with the local mafia to earn money for their mother. The job quickly spirals into a dangerous test of loyalty, fear and survival, in a world of betrayal and shifting power.
Crossroads was inspired by the rise of youth crime in Australia, but goes beyond headlines and examines the human factors that are often overlooked, including poverty, broken homes, and the pressure to provide. Through the story of two teenage brothers drawn into small-time crime, Crossroads shows how survival and loyalty clash under harsh circumstances.
