SHORT FILM SESSION: OZPLOIT

SHORT FILM SESSION Featuring the year’s best independent shorts from right across Australia, Ozploit! presents an eclectic offering of works spanning multiple genres and a diversity of perspectives. This collection of films shares two things in common: they’re all homegrown and total homeruns!

AT THE EDGE OF NIGHT

Dir. Phillipe Sung, Brandon Fayette | 15 mins | Australia | Drama | Sydney Premiere | 2020 A bisexual death metal ghost story set in the Mojave Desert about two estranged childhood friends, Aaron and Ben, who - though neither of them are able to admit it - are soul mates. On the night of their reunion, it’s clear the man Ben loves has moved on - but before they can discuss the past, tragedy occurs. Their deep connection transcends time and space and, ultimately, Aaron has to either let Ben go, or join him.

BABY

Dir. Mikey Hamer | 6 mins | Australia | Sci-Fi | Sydney Premiere | 2019 Claude has been ostracised from society for his scientific thesis on shared consciousness. Under the pressure of his failing health, and knowing the importance of his findings, he creates a clone to continue his work. But these things can be tricky.

BAREFACE

Dir. The Lacey brothers | 8 mins | Australia | Crime | World Premiere | 2019 Sam is a misguided youth who accompanies a local gang on a home robbery. Their plan is thrown into disarray when after breaking in, they discover the owner is still home. The gang members flee, leaving Sam to fend for himself.

DARK WATER

Dir. Erin Coates and Anna Nazzari | 15 mins | Australia | Drama | Sydney Premiere | 2019 A deep-sea environment unexpectedly manifests in the walls of a grieving women’s suburban dwelling. It explores familial trauma and loss through the darkly surreal tale of a woman who discovers an ocean within her house.

FOURTEEN

Dir. Rowena Rasmussen | 7:15 mins | Australia | Thriller | AUS Premiere | 2018 A break-up dinner is slowly unveiled to be a much darker event. Zoe unexpectedly finds herself at a crossroads - redemption or revenge. This film explores the different hues of distorted love... that love can exist even in the darkest of places.

FUN TIMES

Dir. Matthew Victor Pastor | 8 mins | Australia | Drama | Sydney Premiere | 2020 Sammy is a teenager with disenfranchised violent men all around him. Kate watches Sammy from across the hall of their commission flats. This is the story of their inevitable demise.

GAMMON

Dir. Slavi Gaitt | 11 mins | Australia | Drama | Sydney Premiere | 2019 Darwin’s youngest escort driver, Dom can’t help but notice an imbalance in his social life. He naturally misses his previous life of smoking beugs, bogging and fishing. Hanging on by a thread to dying relationships, Dom is forced to choose between the ultimatum of work- or freedom.

KAPARA

Dir. Steve Hudson | 10 mins | Australia | Crime | Sydney Premiere | 2019 Aboriginal female cop has a date with the devil.

NINETEEN NINETY NINE

Dir. Grace Uther | 11 mins | Australia | Thriller | Sydney Premiere | 2019 At a party on New Years’ Eve 1999, a young woman senses something sinister. Amongst the hype of the new millennium and fear of the Y2K apocalypse, getting through the night is not going to be easy.

ON

Dir. Jelena Sinik | 2 mins | Australia | Animation | 2018 Take a curious and playful glimpse into both the connectedness and enduring loneliness of the modern condition, through this intimate and unexamined lens.

SIMON. YOU’RE DONE.

Dir. Drew Kendell | 12 mins | Australia | Comedy | Sydney Premiere | 2019 Simon questions whether his latest novel ‘The Endless Line’ is ready for the world to see. Plagued by self-doubt, Simon wakes in an alternate universe where best-selling author ‘Dane Crawford’ has

already written his novel.

STICK

Dir. Michael Gosden | 16 mins | Australia | Comedy/Horror | World Premiere | 2020 Will, an inexperienced bushwalker, leads his friends into a mysterious bush trail. They unknowingly awaken a dark curse. Now, they must escape mother nature and what hides beneath the thick bush.