AFIN 2023 Programme

Directed by Tristan Barr

Best Produced ScreenplayBest Costume DesignBest SoundBest CinematographyBest Film EditingBest Live Action Short FilmBest Australian FilmBest Australian Actor (Matthew Caffoe)Best Actor (Matthew Caffoe)Best Director

Based on outback folklore, a bushranger who mourns the death of his daughter searches for a missing girl who has been taken by the corruptions the Australian settlers call "Banshees".

Directed by James Stewart

Best Production DesignBest Costume Design

Season 2 of the hugely successful award-winning series (3 million views). Edwardian newlyweds Hattie and Vivian navigate their lives on the other side of happily ever after and learn that life as heirs to the grand Chateau Laurier hotel comes with slings, arrows, enemies, opportunities and strife. When the grand hotel was opened in Ottawa in 1912 it represented all that was extravagant and privileged at the dawn of a new century. The surrounding town was little more than a frontier. This is Canada in the moment it blooms onto the world stage, growing pains and all. Chateau Laurier follows the struggle to control power of the hotel (and beyond) between Briar Hays (Tymika Tafari), the new owner of the hotel, her estranged brother Vivian (Luke Humphrey), his wide-eyed new wife Hattie (Kate Ross Leckie), her acerbic Aunt Esme (Fiona Reid)…and Gabriel Sabot, the Cajun-creole boss of Lowertown (Emmanuel Kabongo). The show has a core cast of recurring characters vying for power in the family-run hotel in 1912 Ottawa. Uniquely Canadian, Chateau Laurier is told with a flair for the dramatic, with diverse, distinct, entertaining characters and a dose of humour. New Season 2 cast include Tymika Tafari (Apple TV+ The Marijuana Conspiracy), Emmanuel Kobongo (21 Thunder), Joel Oulette (Trickster), Brittany Raymond (The Next Step), Katie Uhlmann (Nurses) and Jason Gray (Reign). Retuning cast include series leads Kate Ross Leckie (Alias Grace), Luke Humphrey (Tiny Pretty Things), Fiona Reid (Harry Potter on Broadway), Kent Staines (Anne with an E) and Fraser Elsdon (Y: The Last Man).

Directed by Robert Sherwood

Best Documentary Short

Witness country come alive as Mark Cora, proud Minjungbal man and cultural educator unveils the contexts that shape his latest artwork, The Wind Dancer.

Directed by Darryl Cook

Best Music VideoBest Student Film

Lost in the moment is a story-based music video of a FIFO worker who is away missing his home after a tragedy unfolds no phone signal and can’t get in contact with Home

Directed by Dilyana Daneva

Best Emerging Female Director

Alex is a bus driver for provincial psychiatry. He has to transfer a group of mentally ill patients to the clinic where he works at. It is a routine task, but the stakes are high. The patients should be dropped off at the clinic by noon. If he does not comply with this condition, Alex will lose not only his job, but also the chance to pay for his daughter's treatment. Everything is going well until he stops for a short break at a roadside bar. When he comes back, he finds the bus trashed and empty. The patients have disappeared. Deadlocked and helpless, Alex realizes he will lose everything, until a group of strangers stand on his way. They need help, just like him. Overwhelmed by emotions and determined to save his child, he makes a fateful decision that will change his life and the strangers’ lives.

Directed by Udesh Chetty

Best Visual EffectsBest SoundBest Animated FilmBest Director

Alone on the dying red planet, among the ruins of human civilization, one last android desperately guards the last essences of life. In her pursuit for meaning, she finds her own soul hanging in the balance. Red Gaia is a tone-poem meditation on life, death and rebirth, destruction and creation and the cycles of existence, drawing inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita, Dante's Purgatorio, the Kabballah, the Tibetan Bardol Thodol as well as the legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

Directed by Roman Buchatsky

Best Visual EffectsBest Music Video

Directed by Jack Nielson

Best Student Film

Four men, all from different parts of the globe, enjoy a poker night in the summer of 1959, until a secret is unveiled that flips their night upside down.

Directed by Simon Vautier

Best Live Action Short Film

A widowed and bankrupt farmer is being harassed by crooked creditors. Cornered, he steals a large sum of money from them to offer his daughter a future he cannot guarantee anymore. Knowing all too well the mob will not let this pass, the farmer finds refuge in his beliefs and summons the Ankou - Death's henchman in Brittany - to offer his life in exchange for his daughter's protection.

Directed by Jean-Baptiste Canac

Best Australian Actress (Jacy Lewis)

A daughter worries about her mother's abusive boyfriend and decides to do something about it.

Directed by Mike Roberts

Best Produced ScreenplayBest Film EditingBest Student FilmBest Australian FilmBest Australian Actress (Lauren Campbell)Best Director

When her naivety takes over, Dove runs away from home and is challenged by the people she meets on her journey to self discovery.

Directed by Duncan Peake

Best Australian Film

A young bookstore owner accidentally unleashes a demonic creature who takes the form of a famous children's book character. ©2025 by AFIN International Film Festival bottom of page

Directed by Arthur de la Rambelje

Best Music Video

A young woman pays tribute to her late husband by hanging photos on a wall and reminiscing old memories.

Directed by Verónica Rose Wood

Best Documentary Short

When Antonio receives improper care from his doctor and loses his sight, his sister puts her life on hold and moves to Texas to take care of him full time. A story of the generational history of caretaking in an immigrant Mexican family - and the weight, love and breaking points of familial sacrifice. This is a documentary film I made of my mother, uncle, and grandparents.

Directed by Ryan Maddox

Best Visual EffectsBest Australian Film

An unsettling horror parable, Fungus is a snapshot of terror for a son and his father, whose past crimes must be paid for in blood.

Directed by Michael Gabriele

Best Produced ScreenplayBest Live Action Short FilmBest Actress (Lisa Jaqueline Starrett)Best Actor (Adrian Quinonez)Best Director

A group of friends spending the weekend at a remote vacation rental in the desert, play a mysterious VHS tape, and realize that there are too many strange and terrifying coincidences.

Directed by D. Mitry

Best Live Action Short FilmBest Actress (Emma Pearson)

As the war starts in Ukraine, six years old Nina is sent to her grandma’s remote village. In the shack outside, Nina discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier.

Directed by Aida Gevorgyan

Best Student FilmBest Emerging Female Director

When a dancer wins an audition to an elite conservatory, she must balance caring for her dying mother and her own growing pill addiction in order to change her life.

Directed by Neil Marshall

Best Feature Film

When Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair is shot down over Afghanistan, she finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological weapons - half human, half alien - are awakened.

Directed by Dean Ganter

Best Produced ScreenplayBest Costume DesignBest Australian Actor (David Field)Best Actor (David Field)

Being the tale of a young man who came in for a shave, and whom quickly became the focus of the Barber's murderous rage.

Directed by Ken Kimura

Best Actress - Virginia Gray

An elderly woman wrestles with her deteriorating memory and her disdain for her support worker until a recollection evokes a change of heart.

Directed by Tómas Nói Emilsson

Best Music Video

Broken by a tragic loss, a young man turns to a fight club to battle his inner devil through physical violence, but he risks losing himself in the process.

Directed by Alexey Belkin, Vsevolod Alekhin

Best Costume DesignBest Music Video

6 men woke up early in the cold and dark winter morning in the hunting box. 2 ladies serve them breakfast. After that men go for hunting. They overcome deep snow-covered fields, an endless frozen lake. Then have breakfast in nature, where they meet court hunter. One of the hunters falls behind. 5 men continue thier trip and descend from a huge snowy mountain, while 6th member hitch hiked sleigh driver. Meanwhile 2 ladies are worried that men are so late and they goes to search for them in dark winter forest. Finlay they found the boys with the Christmas star on the glade. In the end boys and girl sing a carol at the gas station and then continue

Directed by Elliott Sauvage

Best Documentary Short

Natalya Diehm takes us on the journey to recovery after her 5th ACL rupture riding BMX at the Tokyo Olympics.

Directed by Matthew Holmes

Best Australian Actor (Damon Hunter)Best Australian Actor (Jordan Fraser-Trumble)Best Feature Film

Intent on dispensing their own brutal form of justice, two ordinary men abduct a felon who committed a horrific crime many years before.

Directed by Ash Cottrell

Best SoundBest Original ScoreBest CinematographyBest Film EditingBest Documentary Short

At the conclusion of fulfilling working lives, two very different men, Graeme and Michael, convinced of their loss of identity and disconnection to the world around them, decide that suicide is their only option. Only one man survives the attempt on his life.

Content Warning: While this film is very hopeful in its advocacy position, it does discuss suicide with candour. Viewer discretion is advised.

Directed by James Michael LaMonte

Best SoundBest Original ScoreBest CinematographyBest Film EditingBest Documentary Feature

Follow the journey of discovery and healing of a brave K9 who develops PTSD while serving and the story of his healing.

Directed by Nipan Chawcharernpon

Best Visual EffectsBest Live Action Short Film

Father and son has to run away from the city before it get destroy.

Directed by Michael Raso

Best Produced ScreenplayBest Australian Actress (Catherine Ross)

A young boy is admitted to hospital for lifesaving treatment. He befriend's a young Indian girl who hopes a cure is found to save him before it's too late.

Directed by Galia Osmo

Best Visual EffectsBest Animated Film

The Fisherman and the Fish folk tale comes to life, in a bitter-sweet animation. A lonely fisherman has a magical goldfish, who granted him three wishes. He already used two wishes to help others in need. Now he is facing a grave decision; after accidentally killing a stranger, he has to choose whether to keep his last wish and stay a murderer. Or to use it to save a stranger's life, but in doing so he will lose the only thing that truly matters, his friend.

Directed by Penn Pauletich

Best Production DesignBest Director

A prisoner finds a new and dangerous way to spark joy in his otherwise mundane life.

Directed by Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe

Best Student FilmBest Australian Actress (Hannah Monson)Best Australian Actor (Kamran Haidar)Best Emerging Female Director

Corporal Kath Davison is suffering high-risk PTSD. She spends her days shooting roo's and drinking in the caravan behind her parents Melbourne suburban home. She spends her nights with random strangers. One day, a young Afghan man turns up on her doorstep: Ali Haidar. She doesn't remember him, but he remembers her. Eight years after deployment, she must face the guilt and grief of war, and her buried memories from Afghanistan.

Directed by Natalia Cricri

Best Australian FilmBest Australian Actress (Violeta Machado)Best Emerging Female Director

When Olivia moves to a new country, not only does she have to learn to adapt and overcome the barriers of a new culture, but also the sly tactics of a school bully. In the process, Olivia rises to the challenge and learns what it takes to become her own hero.

Directed by Bill Wisneski

Best Documentary Feature

Almost Home is a feature-length documentary that examines the many challenges individuals face when they get released from prison and the positive impact they can have if given the opportunity to succeed. In the United States, more than 600,000 people return home from incarceration each year, often with little support or stability. For people who live in the shadows of their criminal records, overcoming the extensive legal restrictions and social stigmas is a daunting task. Once released from the prison gates, individuals face staggering rates of unemployment, discrimination, and homelessness. Without the support needed to overcome these devastating barriers, people often return to illegal activities just to survive. This unique film follows formerly incarcerated students enrolled in an innovative program at a community college in Southern California. Their inspiring stories illustrate how education and support can transform lives, open doors to new careers, heal trauma, and uplift entire families and communities.

Directed by Anastasia Vasileva

Best Emerging Female Director

A lovelace and a famous instagram coach, Peter, comes over to his parents' house with his two sisters for the celebration of their 40th wedding day. The relationship among siblings is remarkably uneasy.

Directed by Maggie Jones, Brad Jones

Best Documentary Feature

The newest hope for cancer is actually one of the oldest. Buried for a century, the metabolic theory of cancer is overturning entrenched dogma and reshaping the future of cancer treatment. Episode 1 of this 5-part docuseries addresses the history of the metabolic theory of cancer through the story of Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, a gay, Jewish scientist under aegis of the Nazis.

Directed by Maru Collective

Best Animated Film

Two playful angels, seven sinful pigs, and one poor righteous passerby

Directed by Elliott Sauvage, Matt Kirby

Best Documentary Short

This project explores the mindset of 4 athletes whose battles with mental health have inspired them to create opportunity for change in others.

Directed by Ashley Sabin, David Redmon

Best Documentary Feature

Playing with the forms and tropes of various cinema genres, the filmmaker sets off on a quest to find a legendary lost video collection of 55,000 movies in Sicily. Synopsis: For two decades, New York City cinephiles had access to a treasure trove of rare and esoteric films through Kim's Video. Originally run by the enigmatic Yongman Kim out of his dry-cleaning business, his franchise eventually amassed 55,000 rental titles. In 2008, facing a changing industry, Mr. Kim offered to give away his collection provided that it stay intact and be available to Kim's Video members. In a bid to revitalize tourism, the small Italian village of Salemi, Sicily became home to the archive. But after the initial publicity faded, so too did any sign of the collection. Enter filmmaker David Redmon, who credits Kim's Video for his film education. With the ghosts of cinema past leading his way, Redmon embarks on a seemingly quixotic quest to track down what happened to the legendary collection and to free it from purgatory. David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's playful documentary embraces various filmic forms, from cine-essay and investigative nonfiction to experimental cinema and even heist movies, to fashion an ode to the love of cinema and the enduring power its stories hold.

Directed by Cristóbal Krusen

Best Production DesignBest Costume DesignBest Original ScoreBest Actor (Cristóbal Krusen)

Informed that his son, Benny, has recovered from schizophrenia, Ben Whitmore Sr. travels to Middlemouth Security Hospital to bring Benny home, only to discover he’s nowhere to be found. This is the storyline of Let Me Have My Son, a semi-autobiographical, emotion-laden tale of a father coming to grips with his son’s devastating mental illness.

Directed by Nipan Chawcharernpon

Best Cinematography

When face with obstacle to find a direction and meaning of life after his mother suffered a catastrophic accident. Tommy, a teenage boy attempts to rekindle the bond with strange faces and traverse through a unfamiliar third world environment in Chiang Mai Thailand to find closure and peace in his heart before he no longer can.

Directed by Rionne McAvoy

Best SoundBest Film EditingBest Documentary Feature

This documentary depicts the theme of "hidden poverty" that has occurred in-spite of Japan's rapid economic growth in such a short period of time immediately following World War II. The film covers the suffering and hardships of single mothers, which has never been depicted before, from various angles, and unravels the causes of the unequal social background that people are unaware of. What is the cause of more than 50% of single-parent families in Japan being in poverty? Why does Japan have some of the highest levels of child poverty among developed nations? And why are the Japanese people themselves are unaware of this? The film will appeal to people's hearts and minds to rethink the state of a nation that is not functioning properly, and how social support should be provided by communicating better the current situation that the world finds itself in.

Directed by Darius Stevens Wilhere

Best Production DesignBest Original ScoreBest Feature FilmBest Actress (Renata Monterola)

The Way Home follows the journey of Ricardo, a successful business executive living in New York who left Puebla and never returned. The sudden death of the grandfather who raised him requires him to return right in the middle of trying to solve where to locate his company’s new international manufacturing and distribution center. Turning over the project to his team, Ricardo returns to Puebla to honor his grandfather’s dying wish to scatter his ashes in many of the places they visited in his childhood. On his journey Ricardo reconnects with his childhood friends but discovers he must earn the trust of his first love before she will allow him in her life again. As he works through all of this he reconnects with the culture he abandoned when he left for the US and learns the importance of balancing all parts of life to achieve a successful life that is fulfilling.

Directed by Steven John Mihaljevich

Best Feature Film

A series of strange child disappearances have left the rural town of Miles in a state of disbelief. Shadows of grief reverberate through the streets and into a silenced home, where a sick Mother Sonya, fears unspeakable evil will soon snatch her 11 year old daughter Violett, from her sight. Disconnected from her husband, Sonya's paranoia forms the dregs of a once troubled childhood which threatens her sanity and the things she loves most. As bizarre visions and disturbing characters from the neighborhood emerge, Sonya is about to discover more than just one grisly truth. Director Biography - Steven John Mihaljev

Directed by Antonio Tibaldi

Best Production DesignBest Original ScoreBest CinematographyBest Actress (Xingchen Lyu)Best Actor (Jorge Antonio Guerrero)Best Feature Film

Mysterious Solomon lives and works in a recycling center in NYC. He has made his own radio telescope from spare parts to search for extraterrestrial communications from outer space. He believes that his mother, who went missing years ago when crossing the border from Mexico into the Arizona desert, was abducted by a UFO. By chance he meets Chuyao, a manicurist who unwillingly moonlights as an escort in a karaoke club. A violent confrontation with Chuyao’s criminal boyfriend leaves these two illegal aliens heading West on the run from the law and hunting down Solomon's past UFO experience.