All short films
138 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year prev 1 2 3 next
1900s
La Poule aux Oeufs d’Or 1905
A fable of wealth and greed leads to disaster for a farmer and his wife. The Corrick family entertainers incorporated this early French film into their touring show.
The Hand of the Artist 1906
The artist’s hand gives a young man and woman a number of options for romance. This English short film was used by the Corrick family entertainers in their performances.
1920s
Snippy is an Artful Dodger c1925
This charming example of an early Australian cartoon superimposes cell animation over freeze-frames of live action to create Snooks’s dream world.
1930s
Magical Powers 1936
The idea behind Magical Powers was to show the audience some of the illusions and simple tricks that can be created with a moving image camera.
1950s
The Felt Hat 1951
Arguably the first real attempt at film drama made in South Australia, The Felt Hat draws on 1940s crime fiction and Hollywood film noir to good effect.
The Workman’s Nightmare 1951
In the first short film from amateur filmmakers the Straford Brothers, a young man falls asleep on his work break and dreams that his ladder attacks him.
The New Car 1953
An ambitious amateur production, most of which is set in the early 1900s, the film was shot on location at an historic homestead in Morphettville, South Australia.
A World to Conquer 1956
In this amateur science-fiction short, an alien surveillance camera lands in a man’s backyard, but his wife does not believe him.
1960s
The Piano Tuner 1960
Amateur filmmakers the Straford Brothers started making this comedy short to test their newly purchased 16mm Bolex camera.
1970s
Peter Nicholson Animations – Fraser’s Leadership Challenge 1974
An animated political cartoon by Peter Nicholson featuring Billy Snedden and Malcolm Fraser.
Peter Nicholson Animations – Gough’s World Tour 1974
An animated political cartoon by Peter Nicholson featuring Gough Whitlam, Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Bob Hawke.
We Aim to Please 1976
We Aim to Please incorporated experimental and feminist ideas and was a bold break away from the narrative films and factual documentaries of the time.
Hot to Trot 1977
A cartoon adventure featuring Captain Goodvibes, the pig of steel, and his sidekick Astro.
Letters From Poland 1978
While the plight of migrant women was a pillar issue for 1970s and 1980s Australian feminism, this film’s approach to the issue is very much focused on the individual.
1980s
An Exercise in Discipline: Peel 1982
In Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or winning student short, a bickering red-headed family on a weekend road trip reach a standoff by the side of a country road.
This Woman is Not a Car 1982
An imaginative examination of sexual violence, This Woman is Not a Car turns the suburban dream of marriage and conformity into a nightmare.
A Girl’s Own Story 1983
In this short film by Jane Campion about changes afoot in 1960s society, teenage girls get in trouble for acting out Beatles concerts in the playground.
Ned Wethered 1983
Lee Whitmore’s first animated film is a memoir of a frequent visitor to her home when she was growing up in the 1950s.
Passionless Moments 1983
Jane Campion’s student short film delivers funny, fragmentary tales with an unsentimental whimsy.
Pianoforte 1984
A young woman who yearns to become a concert pianist is rescued from a sleazy cabaret by a mysterious cat burglar with whom she falls in love.
Babakiueria 1986
A mockumentary surveying the culture and customs of the white native people of the land of ‘Babakiueria’, from the perspective of the country’s black colonisers.
Camera Natura 1986
This montage film is about the spirit of the land: charting the contours of myth, geography and landscape.
Crust 1987
Surreal antics over dinner are the subject of this animated short film by John 'Hobart’ Hughes.
Nice Coloured Girls 1987
The tongue-in-cheek title of Tracey Moffatt’s first film positions Aboriginal women as naïve and 'nice’ but these are merely roles played by the women.
Pleasure Domes 1987
The first Australian animation to compete at Cannes, Pleasure Domes is a reflection on the inevitability of attaching associations to perceptions of landscape.
The Maitland and Morpeth String Quartet 1989
A whimsical, animated tale of music and romance, narrated by Ruth Cracknell and set amidst the Great Maitland Flood of 1955.
Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy 1989
Tracey Moffatt continues to challenge the social construction of Aboriginality and how it is viewed nationally and internationally. Night Cries is a possible sequel to Jedda.
Shadow Panic 1989
An experiment in structure, Shadow Panic reflects the influence at the time of French screen theorists on Australian feminist filmmaking.
1990s
From Sand to Celluloid – Round Up 1995
Round Up is a lighthearted short drama that deals with the cultural clash between a white stockman and an Indigenous stockman.
Hayride to Hell 1995
This short film featuring Kylie Minogue is part rock’n'roll moment, part homage to the mysteries and mood of film noir.
Redback 1995
In this playful animated short, a redback spider wreaks the ultimate humiliation on his male tormentor.
Small Treasures 1995
In this animated short, a pregnant woman imagines the worst domestic disasters befalling her unborn child.
Swinger 1995
A story of changing luck told through messages on an answering machine and a messy apartment.
From Sand to Celluloid – Black Man Down 1996
This short experimental drama offers a spiritual alternative to fighting the system. To overcome injustice, return to your spiritual roots for healing to take place.
From Sand to Celluloid – No Way to Forget 1996
Writer-director Richard J Frankland drew on his experience as a field officer for the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody to compose this story.
From Sand to Celluloid – Payback 1996
Payback, a black-and-white short about the Western and Indigenous legal systems, is one of Warwick Thornton’s earliest dramatic works.
From Sand to Celluloid – Two Bob Mermaid 1996
In this visually stunning short film set in the 1950s, a fair-skinned Aboriginal girl gains access to the local swimming pool where Aboriginal people are legally denied access.
Desert Tracks 1997
Desert Tracks – a business established without government funding – is a community’s attempt to sustain itself culturally and an important initiative for self-determination.
The Picture Woman 1997
Over a series of seemingly unrelated images, a woman speaks in voice-over of taking a photo of herself every other day.
Shifting Sands – Promise 1997
This is essentially a love story told in the absence of the love interest – grandfather – that resonates as one of those moments that are a cherished memory.
Shifting Sands – Tears 1997
Tears introduces the two main characters from Ivan Sen’s feature film Beneath Clouds, and also presents the elements that shape his later feature.
Cheap Blonde 1998
A humorous experimental word game which examines gender representation and authorship in the cinema.
Fetch 1998
This short film is a comic escalation of mishaps with a double-barrelled payoff. It was selected to compete at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
