Wild by Nature Short Film Festival

A film festival that celebrates everything we love about Victoria’s incredible outdoors. From your local park or creek, to your favourite wild place to escape the busy city, nature plays an important role in all of our lives.

Wild By Nature Short Film Festival was held online on Saturday the 7th of November.

Winners & Finalists

Pobblebonk Division – 12 years and under

Winner

Killara’s Biodiversity Wonderland

Killara Primary School Students

A primary school embraces their local environment and creates a wildlife haven by reducing their impact and improving habitat in and around the school grounds.

Finalist

Nature Never Sleeps

Phineas Wilton

A Melbourne filmmaker transports the viewer on a virtual exploration of his local patch of nature.

Finalist

Wildlife Recovery

Matisse Turner

Follow a Mallacoota resident’s journey to help her local wildlife recover from devastating bushfires.

Finalist

Heaven’s Pools

Remy Turner

A fishing adventure filmed above and below the water in one of Victoria’s bush-fire affected areas.

Finalist

How I care for nature

Ruby Howse

A young conservationist documents her work to help her local wildlife.

Swamp Skink Division – 13 to 18 years

Winner

LISTEN

Marlowe Wilton

Two teenagers escape the bustle and stress of city life with the aid of nature’s soundscape.

Finalist

Contaminated You

Renee Hang

A creative piece exploring consciousness, connection and purpose with a backdrop of urban habitat.

Finalist

Little Girl Lost

Abigail Gitsham

Be transported to the forest in this coming of age experimental film.

Finalist

Snorkelling with Spider Crabs

Heath Corry

An underwater adventure witnessing the mass congregation and moulting of spider crabs in Port Phillip.

Finalist

Be the Difference

Ruby Biggs

An impassioned plea from a concerned student, including tips on reducing your impact.

Black Swan Division – 18 years and over

Winner

Dog Fruit

Andrew Robb & Jessica Gerger

A comic look at the serious issue of dog waste in the environment.

Finalist

Blessings

Richard Lawless

A scenic tour of Victoria’s beauty from a bird’s eye view.

Finalist

Living Empty

Jahvis Loveday

A story of loss and loneliness from an explorer trapped in the suburbs.

Finalist

Living with Gliders and Tuans

Alastair Trail

An up-close and personal documentary of some of Australia’s lesser-known marsupials.

Finalist

Us, Naturally

Fatima Measham

A family enjoys connecting with nature at their local waterway.

Meet the judging team

Tahney Fosdike

Photo of Tahney Fosdike

My name is Tahney. I grew up along the Murray River in Pomberuk, the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people, and moved to Naarm (Melbourne) several years ago for my Masters and then a career in the arts. By day I work for Arts Project Australia, a gallery and studio advocating for artists with intellectual disabilities in the contemporary art sector, and by night I program for the Environmental Film Festival Australia. In between, I write cultural criticism for a variety of Australian-based arts publications. I believe art – film included- is a vital tool for wide-spread and effective advocacy-led change.  ⁣

Adrian Holmes

Photo of Adrian Holmes

Adrian is a graduate of The University of Melbourne’s VCA School of Film and Television, where his graduate film was awarded the school’s top honour and went on to screen at numerous local and international film festivals. Soon after he began directing television drama at the ABC and, over the next decade, directed more than a hundred episodes of television drama across all networks.⁣

He has spent time touring remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberly and Pilbara regions of WA running film-making workshops for the Film & Television Institute’s Making Movies Roadshow and has successfully funded and delivered similar filmmaking workshops in rural Victoria for indigenous filmmakers.  He has also directed music videos for Aria award-winning artists, an SBS Independent documentary, numerous television commercials and has continued to make award-winning short films.⁣

Adrian is currently a lecturer and supervising producer at the VCA, where he is the undergraduate coordinator of the BFA Film and Television stream. ⁣

Sarah Maclagan

Photo of Sarah Maclagan

Sarah works at the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority (PPWCMA) coordinating a collaborative urban nature program called Living Links. In 2016, Living Links received $1M funding from the Victorian Government to improve environmental values and community engagement along the Dandenong Creek corridor in Melbourne’s south-east. Sarah came up with the idea of running a short film festival as part of this project, to encourage people to creatively express why they love connecting with nature. She is passionate about promoting the health and wellbeing benefits of spending time in nature, and believes that art can be a powerful way to achieve this.  ⁣

Ellie Michaelides

Photo of Ellie Michaelides

Ellie is a science and environmental communicator, with a passion for connecting people with nature. She has worked across university, cultural, and local and state government sectors, and was previously the Communications and Engagement Manager at Remember The Wild where she helped to set up the Wild by Nature film festival. She now runs events at State Library Victoria, and spends her spare time gardening and exploring her local patch of the Yarra River.

Themes

Films must address at least one of the following themes:

Wild by Nature Short Film Festival is presented by

Festival Partners