Media Student Festival Success

from Sarah Menegon

My short documentary film RUBY has been selected for entry to the 4th Annual MULTICULTURAL FILM FESTIVAL which will take place online this year. I’m thrilled with the response to it so far.  My film was created as a part of the fantastic studio REAL TO REEL about my friend Ruby. Ruby moved to Melbourne to start a new adventure, but her family back home had other plans. Marriage in her culture is a family affair where everyone is involved. Ruby’s family have been on the hunt for someone to “take care of her” for years now but Ruby was in no rush to settle. 

Additionally, RUBY will be a part of Swinburne research project ‘Zooming In’ which is an online portal used to explore contemporary multicultural life through the lens and will join their travelling roadshow ‘Zooming Out’ which tours multicultural films to regional Victorian towns’ screening to diverse audiences. 

NEWS JUST IN: 16 September 2021

RUBY has just been accepted to screen on Femflix the first BcommMedia work to be part of a paid streaming service!

NEWS JUST IN: 16 September 2021

The multicultural film festival Ruby will be on SBS on demand and shown on the big screen at Fed Square.

Bcomm Media graduate success – Screen Australia announces $2.3 million for 10 documentaries

Media graduates Fergus Grady (writer, director, producer) and Kim Ingles (executive producer) have secured funding for their film Gloriavale through the Producer Program.

Screen Australia has announced $2.3 million of documentary production funding for eight projects through the Producer Program and two projects through the Commissioned Program.

Gloriavale: A feature documentary about the infamous Gloriavale Christian Community and the institutional failures that have allowed one of the world’s biggest and longest running cults to continue. Told through the personal journey of a man fighting to save his family, the film follows a group of unlikely heroes as they interrogate accusations of abuse and modern day slavery within this isolated community. Gloriavale is written, directed and produced by Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady who previously collaborated on Camino Skies. The executive producers are Kim Ingles (Impact Producer on The Australian Dream) and Richard Fletcher (This Could Go Anywhere).

See here

 
 

Partnership with ACMI

A news story:
 

The Bcomm (Media) studio program worked with our partner ACMI to get students to produce a series of short explainer videos communicating concepts across film, TV, videogames and digital art.

 

The project was run by studio leader Cat Lew with Brian Morris and Paul Ritchard as coords. Working with ACMI they provided guidance and critiques to the students throughout the concept development and production of these pieces.

 
 
An

Studios 2020 :: Semester Two COVID Online semester

2020 :: Semester Two Online COVID semester

 

 

Students and studio leaders alike rose to the occasion and in many ways surpassed this year’s difficult situation. Multiple times a week we heard about new ways of making films, recording podcasts, developing social media and building careers out of adversity. Ingenious methods of teaching, research and collaboration were developed by staff and students that will stay with us well beyond the pandemic.

Please enjoy engaging with the studio’s exhibition sites from semester 2 and below that from semester 1 

Winners – RUSU Student Short Film Festival 2019 MEDIA CLEAN SWEEP

Bcomm Media
Every prize!
Congratulations to all and the studio leaders involved
RUSU:
Thank you for participating in the first-ever RUSU Student Short Film Festival! Honestly, the judging panel loved all the films that were submitted. The level of talent and craft that each film was made with really impressed us, and if we could have, we would have awarded you all!
But there were some films that really stood out for the judging panel. The winners are listed below. Congratulations!
  • Eamon Willis: Now Departing Platform One
    • REAL TO REAL studio
  • Mairin Angel, Leah Oliveria and Morgan Reinwald: One Of The Good Ones
    • WITNESS studio
  • Caitlin Devos: The Gaze
    • SCREENING FASHION studio
  • Eleanore Mitchell, Ella Connoley, Mercedes Kane: Slutwalk
    • WITNESS studio
  • Belinda Tan: What Would I Have Missed Out On If It Happened?
  • Soyoung Oh: We Live Inside Each Other (Viewer’s Choice Award)
    • SCREENING FASHION studio

West End Film Festival 2019!

We’re back for our 10th year! We’ve currently got six days left on our early bird discount for film submissions, so share far and wide and get ready to mingle with some of Australia’s hottest emerging filmmakers.

We’ve upped our best film prize to $3000. Click the link below and submit your film. Don’t have a film? Forward this email onto your film making friends and we’ll update you shortly on West End Film Festival 2019!

Don’t worry if you have not finished your film, submissions close April 1st.
Submit your short film

 

Calling all documentary makers

Calling all RMIT documentary makers.

In collaboration with Doqumenta film festival in Queretaro, Mexico; Aquí y Allá brings together the best of the student category of Doqumenta’s 2018 festival program, with a selection of documentary shorts by RMIT students, to be exhibited at First Site Gallery RMIT. We are currently calling for submissions by RMIT students to curate into the show.

Details for submissions:

-Five selected videos will be screened at First Site Gallery from May 21st to 31st, 2019

-Films should be no more than 15 minutes long

-We are seeking works that explore unique local narratives through people, places or customs

-Short films must have been created in 2018 or 2019

The selected works will also be added to Doqumenta’s 2019 program and screened in Mexico, August 2019

To apply please email your submissions as a link to video or download by March 15th to Claudia ats3711265@student.rmit.edu.au

VICE, AIDC & Screen Australia Announce $50,000 Documentary Pitching Competition

 

Hello from AIDC,

In partnership with VICE and Screen Australia, we’ve just announced the second year of Pitch Australiana, a $50,000 short form documentary pitching competition to be held during AIDC 2019.

VICE & SCREEN AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCE SECOND YEAR OF DOCUMENTARY FUNDING, ALONGSIDE AIDC 2019 PITCH COMPETITION

 Today VICE, Screen Australia, and the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), announced the second Pitch Australiana pitching competition, offering local filmmakers the chance to win a $50,000 commission for a short form documentary to be released on VICE.com.

The Pitch Australiana competition is open to early career Australian filmmakers that have at least one documentary production credit to their name.

Filmmakers will be pitching for the chance to secure funding for a production to be released through VICE’s lauded tent-pole digital documentary series, Australiana. The short form documentary will be released through VICE’s global digital network, and will join previous Australiana films also broadcast on local TV channel SBS VICELAND.

Four pitches will be selected to compete for the prize in a public pitching forum, given to a panel of VICE and wider documentary community representatives on Monday 4 March during AIDC 2019 in Melbourne. Entrance to watch the pitch will be free for student card holders.

Australiana is a series committed to presenting stories from the perspectives of Australian communities, individuals and subcultures that are overlooked or ignored. At its heart, it’s a way to offer a voice to those on the fringe.

 Shooting Cats was the winner of the pitching competition at AIDC 2018, with the project due for release in November. Directed by Inday Ford and produced by Dylan Blowen, Shooting Cats is an observational documentary that explores the catastrophic impact feral cats have on Australian wildlife and the complexities environmentalists face in their attempt to find solutions to this epidemic. Watch a teaser for the documentary here.

Previous Australiana episodes also feature teenage burnout stars in regional Victoria, the Indigenous queer experience in the Tiwi Islands, Australia’s medicinal marijuana black market, and a search for love in the outback.

Sally Caplan, Head of Content at Screen Australia says, “Our first edition of Pitch Australiana unearthed director Inday Ford who had only recently graduated from AFTRS and presented a wildly different perspective on a controversial subject. This year we’re looking for the next distinctive Australian story that has the potential to shine a light on a topic in a unique way, with access to great characters.”

Katy Roberts, (MEDIA GRAD!)  Head of Video at VICE Australia, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to return for another year with Pitch Australiana. The series is intended to be an ongoing, diverse portrait of modern Australia, so expanding the filmmakers and storytellers we are able to work with is essential to that mission. We’re very thankful to Screen Australia and AIDC for their ongoing support.

Alice Burgin, Conference Director of AIDC says “Pitch Australiana is literally where dreams are made! The generous contribution of Screen Australia and VICE make this a unique opportunity for a new generation of talent to come to AIDC and really be seen, heard and celebrated. We cannot wait to welcome them and their projects next March.” 

Call for pitch submissions is now open. The deadline for applications is 10 December, 2018.

An information session will be held at ACMI on Tuesday 13 November, 2018 and will be streamed live across the country.

For more information, full eligibility requirements, and to submit a pitch idea, please visit: www.vice.com/australianapitchcompetition

Finalists will be contacted in January 2019.

For more information on the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) visit: www.aidc.com.auEarly Bird Passes for AIDC 2019 on sale 18 October 2018.

For more information on Screen Australia visit: www.screenaustralia.gov.au

VICE media contact: Josh Gardiner, Head of Communications josh.gardiner@vice.com

AIDC media contact: Communications & Marketing Manager chris@aidc.com.au