Top Screen: Premiere Screening

When Soundine breaks her shoes, she and Jitwub go on a quest to find a new pair. They resort to stealing which, unfortunately for them, doesn't go the way they planned. Along the way they meet a naive Salamander with an unpredictable family.

VCE Media 2024, Echuca College, Echuca, Yorta Yorta Country

In the 1980s, a boy cycles around an old creek, stumbling across a mysterious box of records. After playing one of the records at home, he has a strange encounter in his dreams. Off the Record aims to capture nostalgic feelings connected to childhood exploration while twisting the experience to evoke phycological unease.

VCE Media 2024, Westbourne Grammar School, Truganina, Bunurong Country

This biographical, expository documentary depicts the film-maker’s grandfather’s career as a priest in the St Constantine and Helen Church, his impact on the lives of others, and his recent dementia diagnosis. It aims to raise awareness about dementia, emphasising that those who are impacted are not defined by the condition.

VCE Media 2024, Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak, Wurundjeri Country

A robot existing in a world of technology is introduced to something previously unseen – a leaf. Curiosity leads it on a journey where it discovers sensations and a life it was never programmed to experience. Faced with its own existence and the dying planet, Circuit must make a choice: protect itself, or save nature?

VCE Media 2024, Aquinas College, Ringwood, Wurundjeri Country

An ex-fighter is haunted by the trauma and invisible wounds of his past. This film explores the emotional and psychological toll taken by first responders on the frontline. It sheds light on the broader issue of mental health among emergency service workers, where one in three first responders develop PTSD.

VCE Media 2024, Ballarat Grammar, Wendouree, Wadawurrung Country

Staged in real-time, a teenage boy swims a single lap of an indoor swimming pool, confronting his deepest fears through a series of haunting flashbacks. Emulating the dreamlike cinematography of Christopher Doyle, the lingering effects of grief and survivor's guilt are explored, urging the audience to reflect on the unconscious fragility of their own relationships.

VCE Media 2024, St Kevin’s College, Toorak, Wurundjeri Country

This animation explores the theme of ‘Home is wherever you feel comfortable and loved’. Mango and their four adopted siblings discuss their origins and offer possible, nonsensical scenarios – the wild west, outer space, middle of nowhere – until their mother sends them to bed.

VCE Media 2024, Mount Lilydale Mercy College, Lilydale, Wurundjeri Country

In this music video for Yuto’s house song of the same name (Wait), a non-linear narrative follows the point of view of Katya, who is running away from the person suspected to have caused her best-friend’s disappearance.

VCE Media 2024, Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak, Wurundjeri Country

When Nina and Dexter, the two best saxophonists at school, are given the chance to play a solo at a life-changing concert, their friendship shifts from mutual tolerance to sabotage and envy. Exploring the darker sides of human nature, THE SOLO reveals the complex emotions experienced by these two competing characters.

VCE Media 2024, Highvale Secondary College, Glen Waverley, Wurundjeri Country

This mockumentary chronicles Melbourne’s most notorious crime family when thrust into hiding following a chaotic garden party. Inspired by the works of Martin Scorsese and mockumentary conventions, A Family Affair satirically explores the complexities of family and the absurdity of the criminal underworld.

VCE Media 2024, Templestowe College, Templestowe, Wurundjeri Country

As his father's dementia worsens, Oliver struggles to hold their bond together, battling the emotional toll of caregiving while his own strength begins to wane. Through slow pacing and a raw, documentary-like style, Bloom seeks to authentically portray the struggles of relationships impacted by illness.

VCE Media 2024, Swinburne Senior Secondary College, Hawthorn, Wurundjeri Country

Set in a dystopian future, The Culling follows a teenager who wakes in the middle of nowhere and finds himself in a fight to the death with a masked stranger. It serves as a reflection of societal morals and issues, pushing them to an extreme to provoke awareness and inspire thought.

VCE Media 2024, Wantirna College, Wantirna, Wurundjeri Country

In 1976, following Indonesia’s invasion of Portuguese Timor, 14-year-old Zé’s family seeks refuge in Australia. Abu Abu (The Mist) uses magic realism to depict Timorese animist beliefs and Ze’s trauma. Like Taviani’s Night of the Shooting Stars, this film offers audiences a way to understand the trauma of war, to find peace and to heal.

VCE Media 2024, Melbourne Girls’ College, Richmond, Wurundjeri Country