Filmmaking Competition

The AFF Youth Filmmaking Competition is a rewarding opportunity for South Australian school students and young people to create, produce and share their films on the big screen as part of the internationally acclaimed Adelaide Film Festival, held 23 October — 3 November 2024. It’s a chance to embrace your creativity, meet new people and make industry connections in the buzzing South Australian film industry.

The shortlisted films are judged by our AFF Youth Jury, made up of students from South Australia who nominate films from this list to be presented at the AFF Youth Gala. Young filmmakers will have the chance to walk the red carpet, get their photo snapped, and see their work on the big screen in front of a full cinema before the winners are presented.

2024 Nominated films

Primary School:

The Forgotten Suitcase (Neo Dama) *winner
LEGO Airport Grand Opening (Sachin Hiriyanna)

Middle School:

Coexistence (Gabriel Zurbrugg) *winner
Teardrop (Jake McCormack)
Melody (Harrison J Thomas) 
Being Strong (Edna Baker, Sameen Singer, Leshay Schaber, Helen Hook-Baker, Anastine Edwards, Wilynora Bannington, Desharni Schaber, Akila Brumby, Chelsea Tunkin, Tyrieka Singer)

Senior School:

Nothing (Jake Brian Richard Wilson)
A Suit in the Cycle (Georgia Walters)
The Torment (Dhruv Rao) *special mention
A Demon’s Got My Baby (Anouk Chapman, Liezel Heylen)
Donatello Detective (Matthew Page, Ethan Alaia, Josh Hynes) *winner
Percy (Percy McGuire, Ashleigh Penny)
Life of an Oyster Farmer Documentary (Bailey John Klingberg)

Best Director:

Winner – Percy McGuire, Ashleigh Penny (Percy)

See full shortlist below.

Jury

The AFF Youth Jury, made up of six film fanatics, will judge short films entered by students from across South Australia in the AFF Youth Filmmaking Competition under the guidance of Adelaide Film Festival’s programming staff.

AFF Youth Jury 2024

Dash Autio Parke

Harry Edwards

Violet Reichstein-Pitman

Gabrielle Seidel

Vivian Thrun

Ashley Williamson

2024 Shortlisted Films

Awards & Prizes

The competition prize categories are:

• Best South Australian Primary School Film — $500 Cash Prize

• Best South Australian Middle School Film — $500 Cash Prize presented by AFTRS

• Best South Australian Senior School Film — $500 Cash Prize presented by the University of South Australia

• Best Director — $500 Cash Prize presented by Flinders University

Rules & Terms

AFF Youth looks for bold and original storytelling encouraging young people to embrace a diverse and complex world where they can make a courageous contribution. Works must show a good grasp of storytelling and structure, and a developing technique.

All entrants must reside in South Australia. Entrants can be individual students, groups of students or a class of students. In the case of class projects, the work must be driven by the students, but the teacher can submit the entry on their behalf. Where the filmmakers are a group of mixed age students, the entrant should enter the film in the category of the majority of the makers (i.e. most are primary school students, etc.).

If you have any questions or queries, please email info@adelaidefilmfestival.org.

“It’s just been an amazing experience to get into the industry and see what it’s really like."
Alexandra Kambitsis

“It’s hugely important to have events like this, especially in Adelaide.”
Amelia Moseley

“I was impressed by the kind and straightforward emails received from the AFF youth organisers. It was very inspiring to see Amelia Moseley at the red carpet gala… I really appreciate that the film festival supports emerging filmmakers. Thank you AFF Youth for the experience."
Maren Garrett