Best Documentary and Best Short Film Nominees Announced

This morning on the Gold Coast the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) launched its exciting AACTA Festival program which returns to HOTA, Home of the Arts, from February 5 - 9 2025. Underpinned by the prestigious AACTA Award ceremonies —which brings the entire Australian screen industry together with a star-studded red carpet and celebration of film, TV, online content and documentary, AACTA Festival also features a dynamic line-up of premieres, exclusive screenings, industry networking events, music, and informative and collaborative experiences for fans, emerging filmmakers and seasoned industry professionals alike.

With over 100 events—including a rare In-Conversation event with the Working Dog team (The Castle, Utopia, Have You Been Paying Attention), outdoor screenings, masterclasses with Oscar® winners, best-selling authors in conversation, workshops, music performances, comedy, karaoke and the AACTA Screen Careers Expo, AACTA Festival offers unparalleled insights and exclusive access into the industry, providing invaluable opportunities for budding creatives, professionals, movie-lovers and everyone in between. Recognising the growing significance of music in shaping unforgettable screen experiences, AACTA Festival is also diving deeper into the world of soundtracks and songs with an expanded music program. It’s never been a better time to be a creator.

Today the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) also announced the nominees for the 2025 AACTA Award for Best Short Film and Best Documentary.

With over 100 productions entered for consideration, the nominees for the AACTA Award for Best Short Film are:

And The Ocean Agreed – Tanya Modini, Luisa Martiri, Stephanie Dower – Screaming Birds
Before We Sleep – Josh Lacy, Michelle Walker, Mason Jay Lewis, Joshua Walsh – Top Tier Entertainment and Eastmount studios
Die Bully Die – Nathan Lacey, Nick Lacey, Matthew Backer, Drew Weston – Based Film
Favourites – Nick Russell, Nick Musgrove – Tandem Media
Gorgo – Katie Amos, Veniamin Gialouris, Danielle Stamoulos – Australian Film, Television and Radio School
Why We Fight – Danielle Cormack, Nicole da Silva – Four One One Productions

The nominees for the AACTA Award for Best Documentary are:

A Horse Named Winx – Janine Hosking (Dir.) – iKandy Films
Every Little Thing – Sally Aitken (Dir.), Bettina Dalton – WildBear Entertainment and Dogwoof & HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line – Paul Clarke (Dir.), Carolina Sorensen, Mikael Borglund, Martin Fabinyi – Beyond Entertainment Pty Limited and Blink TV Production Pty Limited
Otto by Otto – Gracie Otto (Dir.), Cody Greenwood, Nicole O’Donohue, – Rush Films & Wildflower Films
Porcelain War – Brendan Bellomo (Dir.), Slava Leontyev (Dir.), Camilla Mazzaferro, Aniela Sidorska, Paula Du Pré Pesmen, Olivia Ahnemann – Finch No Worries and Imaginary Lane
The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process – Scott Hicks (Dir.), Kerry Heysen, Jett Heysen-Hicks, David Chiem – Beyond May30 Entertainment Pty Ltd

For production synopses see below. For publicity stills and further information, click here.

The nominees were determined by AACTA Members, Australia’s largest community of screen professionals and fans. The winner of the 2025 AACTA Awards for Best Short Film and Best Documentary will be announced on Wednesday 5 February at the AACTA Awards Industry Gala.

The remaining 2025 AACTA Award nominees will be announced in December. Round 2 voting will begin December 7 and will determine the 2025 AACTA Award winners.

AACTA have teamed up with a number of local businesses to help you plan your trip to Queensland. Take advantage of discount accommodation offers and deals on exciting Gold Coast experiences available via aacta.org.

Upcoming Key Dates:

Location: Home of the Arts (HOTA), Gold Coast

2025 AACTA Awards Industry Gala & After Party: Wednesday 5 February

2025 AACTA Awards Ceremony & Official After Party: Friday 7 February

AACTA Festival: Wednesday 5 February – Sunday 9 February

For information on the AACTA Festival, AACTA Awards and ticket sales, click here.

For media assets, production stills and available video footage, click here.

The nominees for the 2025 AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel Group will be announced in early December. Further Festival programs will be announced in December.

Stay tuned for further updates and announcements including the full event program and ticketing details. For more information, visit the AACTA website at aacta.org.

PRODUCTION SYNOPSES - DOCUMENTARY

A Horse Named Winx

”A Horse Named Winx” goes behind the sports headlines and victories to reveal the unforgettable spirit of a champion who away from the racetrack faced her biggest battle and once again refused to be beaten.

Every Little Thing

For many Americans, hummingbirds are a fleeting presence in their backyards, enchanting them with their vibrant colours and rapid movements. Retired UCLA professor Terry Masear believes they belong there, but urban life can be perilous for these tiny birds. This film follows Terry and her hummingbird patients in a unique, intimate story of healing and releasing these fragile creatures back into the wild amidst one of the most urbanised cities in the world.Every spring, hummingbirds, like winged messengers from Aztec gods, descend on Los Angeles in a breeding frenzy. Despite the city’s chaos, they migrate for the fine weather, nesting close to homes, in parking lots, on balconies, and more. Danger is omnipresent: they can be hit by cars, entangled in spider webs, mauled by house cats, or their young blown from nests by storms. Weighing just 0.1 ounces, their world is precarious.

In this city, known more for its brashness than sensitivity, a hummingbird in trouble evokes deep compassion. People call Terry for help, and her mobile hotline rings constantly. She guides callers through their concerns, reassuring them that saving a tiny hummingbird is neither futile nor silly. Through these moments of compassion, Terry helps people develop an empathic consciousness that extends to all living things, including themselves and others. For birds that can’t be saved on location, Terry brings them into rehab. During peak hummingbird season, she’s up at 5:30 am syringe-feeding motherless babies, transitioning fledged birds from incubator to flight cage, and tending to malnourished juveniles. It’s a demanding job, but Terry is the birds’ only hope of survival and eventual reintroduction to the wild. The film follows the journeys of individual birds in Terry’s care, encouraging viewers to see them through her eyes. She names each one after their finders, highlighting their significance and unique personalities. In the rehab aviary, the birds stay for weeks, in various stages of life and health, until they are ready for release. Despite the joy of successes, some birds inevitably die, leading to emotional devastation and even funerals. The volume of work and compassion fatigue can be overwhelming, but Terry perseveres. As the story unfolds, we learn more about Terry herself—a complex character shaped by a childhood fraught with danger and the recent loss of her husband to COVID-19. Her love for rescuing vulnerable creatures takes on new meaning as her motivations are revealed.

There is also humour in the film, from the enthusiastic finders to Terry’s deadpan asides to the camera. Additionally, Terry’s six cats, natural enemies of birds, watch her every move, adding an ironic twist to her story. The emotional rollercoaster peaks with ”Release Day,” when up to 20 healed hummingbirds leave their communal cage and soar into the LA sky. For the young birds, it’s their first taste of freedom, a visible and spectacular delight. Terry’s hard work culminates in this moment of overwhelming joy, embodying a story of hope during uncertainty and the enrichment that comes from caring for the world around us.

Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

Across their 45-year career, ‘The Oils’ helped shape modern Australia with anthems like US Forces, Beds Are Burning, Blue Sky Mine and Redneck Wonderland. Featuring unheard interviews with every band member, unseen live and studio footage, alongside signature moments like the outback tour with Warumpi Band, their Exxon protest gig in New York and those famous “Sorry” suits at the Sydney Olympics, this film traces the singular journey of Australia’s quintessential rock band. The Hardest Line tells Midnight Oil’s trailblazing story for the first time ever on film.

Otto by Otto

Inspired to make an original, intimate family portrait, Gracie Otto directs a feature length documentary on her father, Barry Otto, whose career in Australian theatre, film and television has spanned more than 50 years. Baz as he is affectionately known is one of a kind – a truly creative, endearing and extremely eccentric personality who embraces the serious and the silly.

This story is about Gracie’s relationship with her father, in the twilight of his career and his life, as she tries to capture his memories, before his memory disappears. This is not a traditional biopic, but a deeply personal, artistic and cinematic reflection. Sometimes poignant in its exploration of deteriorating health, the film looks at the world through Baz’s eyes, an ode to living a passionate life, that both honours him and preserves his memory.

Porcelain War

Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.

The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process

A glimpse into the private worlds and elite musical processes of four superstar musicians, brought together through their connection with the blockbuster movie Shine and its director Scott Hicks.

We meet international rock star Daniel Johns, one of Australia’s greatest musical talents. Accessing his subconscious, he escapes the chaos of existence in his musical discoveries.

American rock maestro Ben Folds finds inspiration in everyday fragments, weaving complex arrangements with a symphony orchestra, while classical pianist Simon Tedeschi surprises us with the athletic physicality that a nine-foot Steinway concert grand demands.

Threaded throughout is David Helfgott whose story inspired Shine, his love of water reflecting the fluidity of his playing that he shares with the next generation of emerging musicians.

These four enormous talents are interwoven by portraits, created on camera, by renowned artist Loribelle Spirovski. A celebration of the individuality of the creative brain, The Musical Mind explores the remarkable ability of four extraordinary musicians to channel their unique instincts and individual neurodiversity into sublime musical creations, unlocking profound emotion through the borderless language of music.

PRODUCTION SYNOPSES - SHORT FILM

And The Ocean Agreed

Vina is fading away, lost to dementia, but on a rare outing to the ocean, she finds herself and a chance for freedom.

Before We Sleep

Australia, 1949. Brothers Jake and River have been living in a makeshift shelter for 10 years. History is not as we know it. War has left the world in tatters and the once beautiful Australian landscape has now become nothing more than ashes and fire. River (10) is sick and dying, becoming increasingly unwell and experiencing hallucinations. Jake (18) has run out of options. With the threat of war quickly moving in around them, Jake leaves on a dangerous final quest to find answers, anything. Whilst Jake is gone, River begins having uncontrollable hallucinations and dreams. He is visited by three guardians, conjured from his imagination, tasked with guiding him from this world to the next, and bestowing upon him important lessons needed to make the journey.

Die Bully Die

DIE BULLY DIE is a comedy horror following Max, who catches up with his high-school bully, Adam, 17 years later, in a fancy restaurant where Max’s grudge against Adam begins to manifest in horrific ways.

Favourites

When their family camping trip turns deadly, two parents face an impossible choice.

Gorgo

Inspired by Ovid’s Medusa myth, Gorgo is a dramatic short film that tells the story of a Greek bride’s cross-continental journey to marry a man she has never met. Matchmade by her best friend Athina, with promises of a new future in a distant land, Medousa finds herself arriving in Australia to a strange home and a cold welcome. Thrust into her new marriage, she soon discovers a monstrous secret that threatens to tear apart the best friends’ vow of sisterhood.

Why We Fight

An aspiring teen boxer, haunted by his father’s death in the boxing ring, tries to save his mother from throwing in the towel on the anniversary of his passing — but with the help of his friend Roe, Andreas will discover that his greatest fight will be learning how to save himself.