This year’s Student Film Festival brought together a wide range of ideas, styles and voices. Each category showcases how students are learning to tell stories through film in their own way.
Middle Years students are beginning to make more deliberate choices about pacing, camera work and editing. Their films offer a mix of humour, insight and creative problem-solving.
Selected films were shortlisted from more than 100 entries overall. Final judging was undertaken by education staff at ACMI.
Here we present all the winners and finalists in the Middle Years (7-10) category:
‘This is such a beautifully crafted film. The visuals, sound, and storytelling all work together really powerfully. We liked how you explored a personal theme and felt the emotional beats all landed. The editing choices, especially the demolition cuts and use of silence, were super effective, and the cinematography was really professional.’
Winner: Grandpa's Camera
Lang Qin, Trinity Grammar School, Kew
‘This is a really creative and charming music video. We loved how you told the story and used the cactus as a metaphor, while also capturing the energy of the song. The mix of animation styles was super effective and ambitious, and it all came together in a really heartfelt and fun way.’
Highly commended: Let me be Noise
Nicky Chen, Yarra Valley Grammar
Finalist: Shear Determination
Felix Hobson, Haileybury
Finalist: The Quackening
Liam Wilkie, Yarra Valley Grammar
