Freshly Squeezed Shorts

Book Tickets

Sunday 26th February, 4pm
Cinema 2, ACMI

This session is Unclassified 18+.

The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is proud to showcase the work of women and gender diverse filmmakers and storytellers. This means that we sometimes include films or panel topics that may explore difficult subjects and be confronting for some audiences. Our aim is to ensure our audience has a safe and enjoyable experience when coming along to our festival and so we have included content warnings, classification and cultural information throughout the program.

Please take the time to read the film synopses below to determine whether the session is suitable for you.

  • A drag queen dressed in pink and young woman with Down Syndrome wearing a purple wig are holding microphones and singing kareoke.

    Sparkles

    A 30-something-year-old Down syndrome woman leaves her past behind, and runs away from a small country town, heading towards the city. Along her journey, she makes an unlikely friendship with an Outback Drag Queen, teaching us all not to be afraid to celebrate who we are.

    2020, 13 minutes
    Director: Jacqueline Pelczar
    Writer, Star & Co-Producer: Tina Fielding
    Producer: Cody Greenwood

  • A man in his 20s is sitting a booth at a dimly lit café alone looking down at some fat food on the table.

    Hash Browns

    After bumping into each other at a late-night diner, on the same night as their one-night stand, Chris and Susie decide to eat together.

    2022, 6 minutes
    Directors: Cal McLean, Alexandra Nell
    Writer: Cal McLean
    Producer: Alzbeta Rekosh

  • A mirror reflecting a young woman in her 20s with a pair of scissors, holding her hair and about to cut it.

    Violet Daze

    CW: Extreme blood and gore

    Violet and Daisy have been best friends since they were five. Total besties. BFFs. Joined at the hip. How close can two best friends get? What would they do if anyone tried to separate them?

    2021, 15 minutes
    Directors: Marisa Martin, Clare Langsford
    Writers: Clare Langsford, Marisa Martin
    Producers: Marisa Martin, Clare Langsford

  • A teenage girl dressed as a cleaner and holding a mop stands on a theatre stage in a spotlight.

    Look the Part

    Sam is a cleaner working in a large theatre who has a passion to be a dancer, but is too shy to realise her dreams. When Peaches (her magical inner-diva-cum-drag queen) materialises one night, Sam’s dreams transform into reality. She rips up a daring dance-number, to the rhythm of The Cat Empire’s beats. “Look The Part” shows us that talent comes in all shapes and sizes, and can often defy expectations.

    2022, 7 minutes
    Director: Claire Fletcher
    Writers: Charlotte Ryan, Audrey O'Connor, Christine Blanch, Daniel McGrath, Liam Peake, Rae Pastuszak, Oliver Williams, Ashley Kuhle, Ellen Maher
    Producers: Kristen Hodges, Tracey Corbin Matchett

  • A young man in a white singlet and head bandana stands on a large cement staircase surrounded by a cement building.

    Everything Gone

    Filmed across the state of Victoria in between Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns, ‘Everything Gone’ is an exploration of different forms of longing, and how we fill the void of what we yearn for.

    Traversing the intersection of isolated intimacy and trauma, the film was created as part of ‘Deep End’, an ongoing visual series and collaboration between filmmaker and composer Emily Dynes and choreographer Sian Kelly, utilising movement and original music. Each of the twelve vignettes highlights a unique response and coping mechanism to our collective feeling of loss during this time; whether we’re glued to the news, pouring our energies into caring for another, drinking heavily, overexercising, relying on routine or numbing ourselves of anything at all.

    2020, 6 minutes
    Director: Emily Dynes
    Writer: Emily Dynes
    Producer: Annabel Claytong
    Choreographer: Sian Kelly
    Cinematographer: Hannah Sinagra

  • A man and woman are sitting at a restaurant table. The man wearing a white shirt has his back towards the viewer and the woman, wearing a black top, is sitting across from him looking very bored.

    dating JEN

    Online dating can be fun and flirty... It can also be a dark and cruel world. For Jen, dating in your 30's is a necessary evil and something she is not willing to give up on.. just yet.

    "Inspired by real people and real stories."

    Web series, 2022, 10 minutes
    Director: Katie Dahlenburg
    Writers: Katie Dahlenburg, Anthony Conti
    Producer: Jenai Tomlinson

  • A younf white woman is sitting on the ground, leaning against a fence. She is wearing a white singlet and blue shorts. Another younger girl in pink bathers is standing in the background.

    Pools

    CW: Themes relating to abortion

    A young woman takes a road trip to Brisbane to terminate her pregnancy, alongside her reluctant mother.

    2020, 16 minutes
    Director: Luisa Martiri
    Writer: Alexandra Philp
    Producer: Luisa Martiri

  • A young white woman with Down Syndrome is looking off frame and smiling.

    Hopeful Romantic

    Daisy waits in a bar for her online date – they’re late. A man asks her for a drink and she mistakes him for the date who has stood her up. After accepting his offer, she tries to impress him by imitating the ‘cool’ girl in the bar which fails miserably. After encountering the ‘cool’ girl in the bathroom, Daisy learns things aren’t always as perfect as they seem and decides the only way to find love – is to be herself.

    2022, 11 minutes
    Director: Kate Vinen
    Writers: Kate Vinen, Lianne Mackessy
    Producers: Tracey Corbin Matchett, Kristen Hodges

  • A young Indigenous girl and an older Indigenous woman are looking off to the side of the frame into the forest of trees that surround them.

    Tooly

    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this film may contain images, voices and videos of deceased persons.

    A young Indigenous girl struggling to engage with her culture learns of Tooly, the sign of an impending death in the family.

    2021, 11 minutes
    Director: Karla Hart
    Writer: Karla Hart
    Producer: Cody Greenwood

  • The Meek

    As a virus threatens to destroy humanity, the future may rest with Izzy, a young girl, now living isolated with her rural uncle, the animals and an extra chromosome.

    2020, 19 minutes
    Director: Gillian Ashurst
    Writer: Gillian Ashurst
    Producers: Catherine Fitzgerald, Nadia Maxwell