Summer is here! When you’re not out enjoying the sun, and rain knowing Melbourne, or even when you are depending on how well backlit or waterproof your digital devices may be, why not celebrate the holidays with some sixty student short films? From this December 5th until the 18th, exactly that many by the Victorian College of the Arts graduating class of 2022 will be available to watch for free on MIFF Play.
Adding up to 12 hours and 46 minutes of runtime total, there’s a lot to check out if you’re a completionist. Though, as is the great thing with shorts, each film also makes for a quick bite on its own, the longest clocking in at 24 minutes short and the shortest at just 2 minutes long. Chances are there will be something to your taste amongst the diverse mix of live-action and animation, fiction and documentary as well, with stories of comedy and drama, coming of age and crime, romance and queerness, fantasy and sci-fi, horror and suspense, and more.
As MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar put it in a press release: “The VCA continues to usher in some of the most fascinating and singular voices in Australian cinema – it’s a setting from which we are always excited to see the emergence of new talent, those who newly compel us as viewers every year. This year is no different. Profiling a huge line-up of 60 films and their emerging filmmakers to audiences and the screen industry here in Melbourne and right around the country, it’s unmissable cinema for those looking for who’s next in the world of local filmmaking.”
Or as Head of VCA Film and Television Andrew O’Keefe put it: “The films represent a wild mix of ideas and story spaces, and are testament to the exceptional bunch of artists that are graduating from the VCA this year. These are filmmakers who’ve approached learning their craft with tenacity and passion through years of deeply taxing circumstances for learning and making – and what have emerged are strong, provocative, insightful, wondrous, witty stories that contribute richly to Australian film.”
You can find all of said shorts right here, profiles on the filmmakers behind them here, as well as a couple of trailers for the season below.
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY FILM INQUIRER 