SESSION INTRODUCTION: Tuesday July 7, 8.45pm. Join the filmmakers live in-cinema for an introduction.

Opening Night Shorts:

DAD VS. BEES (20:29, David Quach) — A 79-year-old Asian man battles a bee infestation in his garden while navigating age, language barriers, intergenerational trauma, and refugee experiences in Australia.

RIPPLES (14:31, Brian Chiu) — Ted Tsang channels childhood abuse into competitive diving for Australia, only to face a career-ending injury.

FINDING MAMA (14:59, Zeta H-D) — Docu-fiction with comedic elements: A resurrected Harold Holt investigates why Melbourne's La Mama Theatre (and independent arts) is struggling.

GASOLINE DREAMS (07:05, Guy Wilkinson) — Thirty years later, a man rediscovers the motorcycle that defined his youth.

IN THE MAKING: HUMAN FLY MAGAZINE (08:29, Guy Wilkinson) — A young Melbourne creative finds identity through punk, print, and self-made zines during lockdown.

SHADOW OF HOPE (05:35, Mitchell Nielsen) — A young Burmese man in Australia stays connected to his people amid the military coup back home.

FARHANA (06:20, Claire Riverland, Monty Harper, Frank Morrison, Lachlan Covich) — Photojournalist Farhana Satu explores the love, mystery, and magic beneath Dhaka's hustle.

FEUERWERK (20:00, Timothy George Kelly) — Explosive, experimental look at Berlin's chaotic New Year's fireworks tradition across decades (award-winner at multiple festivals).

SURF SISTERS (07:02, Christian Buxton) — Lara finds community, courage, and reinvention through surfing after loss.

ICED OUT OF AMERICA (19:09, Michael Nigro) — Photojournalists document masked arrests of immigrants at U.S. asylum courts.

LILITH GOES GALACTIC (09:00) - A surrealist artist on La Palma grapples with the lure of time travel to salvage her family’s artistic legacy, lost during the devastating 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption. Blending femininity, abstraction, and quantum physics, the film follows Lilith’s imaginative journey through memory, loss, and intergalactic possibility, guided by her cat Minino.