Congratulations to Western Sydney filmmakers on another huge year of filmmaking. The 2021 Official Selection list is phenomenal!
This year, Made in the West received over 50 short films made by Western Sydney filmmakers, which is damn impressive considering the year we had, half-spent in lockdown with no end in sight!
Stay at home orders don’t exactly fuel our creative fires, so the fact that the Western Sydney Film community has well and truly delivered on their creative mission during such difficult times is simply amazing to us. Bravo, to the 2021 entrants!
Each and every year we are completely blown away by the quality of the productions being made here in the West and 2021 is certainly no different. Through rain, hail, shine (and even a pesky global pandemic), Western Sydney filmmakers are kicking ass! You are ALL rockstars.
Please put your hands together and give a HUGE round of applause to each and every one of this year’s festival entrants because they deserve your congratulations.
This year’s Official Selection is impressive. You won’t be able to look away from the screen as they will challenge and excite you, have you dancing in your seat, get you all riled up and then rip your bloody heart out - which is exactly what we have come to expect of Western Sydney filmmakers!
So without further ado, let us reveal to you the 2021 Official Selection!
We are very pleased to announce the following films will be showcased at the 10th annual Made in the West Film Festival (in alphabetical order):
A Girl's Best Friend - Submitted by Alex Dona
Apology: Jei Young & Líl Ním - Submitted by Mitchell Webb-Leifi
Cunts Fucked: Plants - Submitted by Shaye Fox
Good As Gold: Esky - Submitted by Ian Escandor
Intelligent Design - Submitted by Ben Mizzi
Jane - Submitted by Noel Vinson
Kind Enough to Wait: Bohifale - Submitted by Lawrence Ola
Midnight Stories: Morgan - Submitted by Ryan Cauchi
Operation Kung Flu - Submitted by Maria Tran
Refused Classification - Submitted by Chris Elena
Remember My Name: #Hashtags - Submitted by Justine Kacir
Stick It - Submitted by Dominic Colucci
The Detection: Vengeance - Submitted by Luca Pezzutti
Tossers - Submitted by Cat Sole
Towel Head - Submitted by Raeanne Chami
Toy Boy - Submitted by Nicole Delprado
Transition - Submitted by Cat Sole
Vanilla Skies: GET THA GAT - Submitted by Michael Restifo
We're Family: Rosita Vai and Lady Lyric - Submitted by Gabriel Faatau'uu-Satiu
What You See: Parvyn - Submitted by Bina Bhattacharya
YÉYÉ - Submitted by Laneikka Denne
Congratulations to the 2021 Official Selection!
We’re excited for you all and we’re looking forward to screening your amazing films at Made in the West Film Festival this year, in person at Event Cinemas on Saturday 4 December and online one week later.
Among this year’s submissions, we noticed a few trends: more student films being submitted, more from LGBT artists and more people under 18 years of age (a big shout out to them!).
Top genres submitted this year were thrillers and science fiction, and LOTS of comedies! So prepare yourself for some futuristic stories, plenty of laugh out loud moments, and more than a few hectic fight scenes.
We also received more music videos than ever before. We’ve known for ages that local musicians and filmmakers are a partnership made in heaven, so we’re excited to be awarding the inaugural Best Music Video award this year!
Stay tuned for tickets opening later this week! We’ve got hidden tickets for filmmakers only for the next few days, then we’ll open them to the public.
Tickets are FREE for general admission, with the option to reserve some of the best seats in the house for 20 bucks.
Speaking of great seats, if you’re keen to get reserved seating PLUS buy your way into the winners circle, then you can purchase one of our VIP Exclusive tickets! Here’s your chance to mingle with special guests at our exclusive Pre-Festival Party with champagne upon arrival, reserved seating during the screening and awards, plus a VIP lanyard that gets you popcorn and soft drinks all night.
The price is high at 100 smackeroonies, because exclusive access is not something we give away easily! But really though, this ticket is a donation to the festival and a way to show your support for Made in the West and what we do. All proceeds from ticket sales go towards event running costs.
Did you see our final countdown to the festival? Get the full run down on awards and announcements coming up this month!
Ultimately, we think ALL of the filmmakers that submitted a film this year deserve your congratulations. From concept to creation, we know exactly how much work goes into making a film (even if the result is only a few minutes long!) and so we salute you all for putting in the days, weeks, and months of effort that is needed to pull together a successful project.
We can’t say it enough -- Western Sydney filmmakers have got talent!
In the tradition of giving kudos where it’s due, we want to tell you about a few films that were right on the cusp of selection. Many of them are students and emerging filmmakers who are putting out such amazing work now in their early careers that we know for sure that we haven’t seen the last of them.
We think they deserve an honourable mention:
Dearest Madeline: Pika Ocho feat. Blocc, Keniye Moala and Vallé - submitted by Peter Tautua
Dementia - Submitted by Bella Merlino
Don't Interrupt Coffee Time - Submitted by Steven Saros-Glinatsis
For You Page - Submitted by Thuy Nguyen
Goodnight Andromeda - Submitted by Steven Saros-Glinatsis
Let’s Start Over - Submitted by Virat Nehru
Mega Heist - Submitted by Timothy Grubisic
Moonlit Nights - Submitted by Clarence Thein
Night Owls - Submitted by Ross Page
Obsidian - Submitted by Takashi Hara
The Cooper - Submitted by Darren Lim
The Red Envelope - Submitted by Ali Sayed
The Replica - Submitted by Adam Daniel
Tuck Shop Chronicles - Submitted by Nqabutho Ncube
We wish we could include you all in the festival, but of course we are always limited by the duration of our event. Over 8 hours of content came our way this year, but only 2.5 hours will make it to the big screen this December.
That said, we’re lucky enough to have a little more time up our sleeves this year than usual! Thanks to our amazing Venue Sponsors at EVENT Cinemas in Liverpool, we’re bringing you more films than ever before in an EPIC movie marathon screening to celebrate our double-digits anniversary!
Three segments of films, ten individual awards, two intermissions, three trophies and plenty of love for the Western Sydney Film community. We can't wait!
Our huge Vmax cinema seats 330 people very comfortably (hello luxe leather arm chairs!) and depending on the Covid-safe rules at the time, we are likely to be accepting 75% or 100% capacity. Please bear in mind that the NSW Health guidelines currently do not allow unvaccinated folks to attend the cinema.
Preparing to host a Covid Safe festival is challenging, but we’re following the guidelines and making it work.
For those of you who can’t join us at the cinema (or prefer to party at home these days), then we’re bringing the red carpet to you one week later!
No need to carpool or check-in, just make some popcorn and your favourite beverage then settle in for a 3-hour marathon event featuring all 21 finalist films plus highlights from the red carpet and interviews with Western Sydney filmmakers.
We’ll send you the link to view the festival online on Friday 10 December and you'll have 48hours to watch the show!
Tickets will go on sale next week and will set you back a very reasonable $9 for individual access or $15 for households, with three full hours of Made in the West MAGIC including 21 short films, filmmaker interviews, red carpet highlights and all the buzz of the festival experience.
All proceeds support Made in the West event costs and future festivals.
So no matter where you are, if you’re tuning in for Made in the West this year then you’re in for a treat! So gather your friends, get some popcorn and a drink, then sit back and enjoy the show.
Want to know more about what’s coming up this month? Read our Countdown to the Festival blog for a full run-through of the plan. Keep an eye out for free tickets opening up this Friday!
Stay up to date with all the announcements and event information before festival week here on this news blog, or follow us on Facebook or Instagram so we can keep you informed.
We’re looking forward to hosting you on the red carpet this year!
SSP