Screen It 2017 winners round up
Stories & Ideas

Sun 17 Sep 2017

Check out the student films, games and animations that took out the national prize in 2017

Judging Screen It entries in 2017 was a challenge. The entries were so good. Even with our own expert judges and representatives from Little Big Shots, Melbourne International Animation Festival, as well as our brightest young animators and actors, it was still hard.

We hope you enjoy the winners, and they make you excited about our new generation of moving image creators.

Junior Animation: Spending Time Wisely; Essex Heights Primary School; Mount Waverley, VIC

This adorable animation from year 4s at Essex Heights Primary School is a great example of the mad combination that the intricacies of animation mixed with the simplicity of a good story can bring. The beauty is in the detail.

Junior Live Action: Back in my Day … ; St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School; Noble Park, VIC

These guys took out the best Junior Live Action last year – very neat scripting, good range of different techniques, a tonne of charm with a just a dash of cheeky audience side-glance. This all adds up to a winning combination.

Junior Videogame: Busting for the Present; Gladesville Public School; Gladesville, VIC

Busting for the Present has you sucked into a "juicy piece of watermelon" time portal - what more could you want? This quirky quiz game, complete with the catchy student sung song “Pick an Avatar, Pick an Avatar” draws you in, challenges your memory and teaches you about ancient Rome.

Download and play the game

Busting for the Present - videogame - Screen It.png

Middle Animation: Anastasia emiT; Table Cape Primary School; Wynyard, TAS

From the moment you hear Anastasia ask if the mic is on prior to launching into her story, you know you are in the clever hands of Table Cape Primary’s year 5 and 6 students. Thrown into this is a unique take on the idea of time, specifically the fear of it. A simple story, told well.

Middle Live Action: Losing Time; Lily L, Narre Warren North, VIC

I don’t want to say too much about this one, as the reveal is quite devastating, but we were impressed with the way the tragedy of the story was underscored by the highly creative use of the medium – imaginative camera and editing techniques to provide perspective, to show symptoms, to compress time.

Middle Videogame: The Terrific Tale of Tortoise the Tiny Time Turning Turtle; Doreen Primary School; Doreen, VIC

Frankly, this entry has been a nightmare due to the entrants’ compulsive use of alliteration but it was a strong winner with students creating the designs, characters and even sound effects. As is typical with Doreen Primary School’s entries, it is a true group effort executed exceptionally well.

Download and play the game

Tortoise the Time Turning Turtle - screen it

Senior Animation: Dawn of the Cheese; The Essington School; Nightcliff, NT

Well done to the year 9s that created this work – a tongue-in-cheek look at how time can be used to correct a long-endured injustice on an epic scale. Don’t ever cross this little grey mouse!

Senior Live Action: Impermanence; North Sydney Girls’ High School; Crows Nest, NSW

A beautifully shot and considered exploratory work about the disintegration of time on creativity. Well selected images, combined with an expertly timed soundtrack, topped off with some deft editing. It is very hard to tell a story without dialogue or narration but these year 10s showed us it can be done, and well.

Senior Videogame: An Aspie Life; Bradley H, Mansfield State High School, QLD

An Aspie Life brings to life the hard and commonly misunderstood world of autism. Playing as an autistic person you have to adapt to the mayhem an autistic person sees which is what others see as ordinary everyday life. The game aims to help change the public perception, or at least help people realise, what autism is really like. Aspie was created because Hennessey – the game developer – wants to help educate people about what it really is like to live with Autism but he wanted people to enjoy playing it, too.

Download and play the game

An Aspie Life - Screen It

A special thank you to all our wonderful sponsors: Madman Entertainment, ABC TV, Crumpler, Zart Art, 6a Foundation and Microsoft Surface.

– Tania Lentini, Screen It project coordinator at ACMI