It's time to meet the 2025 Award Nominees!
- Made in the West Film Festival
- Nov 13
- 6 min read
Strap yourselves in, folks! Western Sydney’s finest are about to blow your minds, and we’re absolutely here for it.
Why? Because today’s the day! The moment we finally throw the spotlight on the incredible filmmakers, cast, and crew behind the 2025 Official Selection films.
Western Sydney filmmakers, take a bow — you’ve done it again! We’ve been buzzing with excitement as we get ready to announce this year’s individual award nominees.
But before we dive right in… let’s take a quick moment to review.
Whether you’re a seasoned Made in the West pro, or brand new to the festival, we've announced a new festival format this year so here’s a quick rundown of what's in store:
36 films in total are featured in the festival this year; 14 of those Official Selection films will screen as part of our Opening Night Gala celebrations on Saturday 22 November at Event Cinemas Liverpool while an additional 22 films will screen in our Marathon Summer season at screenings in-person around town and across Western Sydney.
As always, our annual MEGA Movie Marathon will also be available online and on demand, with a massive 3-hour line-up curated especially for our national and international audiences. The full show includes three one hour segments with intermissions, filmmaker interviews and all the action from the red carpet at Opening Night.
Our new format and additional screening opportunities have been made possible and are proudly supported by Liverpool City Council.
All films are in the running for three major trophies: Best in the West (for indie filmmakers only) Best Student Film, and the Best Music Video Award.
Now, here’s where it gets fun: the Audience Choice Award requires you to win over our filmmaker audience on Opening Night.
Yep that’s right, if you are at Opening Night then you get to cast your vote LIVE at the cinema to decide the final trophy winner of the night. No pressure!
Bring your family, bring your friends, bring your cast & crew, but we make no promises that their vote won’t be swayed by another epic film in the line-up!
Throughout the Marathon Season, this year's filmmakers are up for more awards and prizes, to be announced at our Closing Night Party at the end of February.
All filmmakers are in the running for our new Next Generation awards (with some amazing prizes!), our annual Genre Awards, and the always hotly-contested People’s Choice Award – as voted by the global audience streaming the MEGA Movie Marathon and those in attendance at our Marathon Summer screenings across Western Sydney.
You can check out the entire 2025 festival program here to start planning your Summer-of-Western-Sydney-Film experience.
Oh, and let’s just remind you too that the filmmaker prize pool we have this year is out of this world! We have over $32,000 worth of prizes donated by our wonderful sponsors and partners from across the city, all keen to support #WesternSydneyFilm.
And that’s not all… Our jurors are also deciding the winners of the individual discipline awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer, Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editor, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design and Best Original Music Score.
To be honest, we’re glad we’re not the ones deciding here at Made in the West HQ because this year’s films are something else – it would be impossible for us to choose nominees (let alone winners!) with this amount AND level of talent in the room.
We extend our biggest gratitude to the 2025 judges for taking that pressure off our hands; thank you to Craig Morgan, Bryan Brown, Courtney Gibson, Pearl Tan, Neil Sharma, Michael Budd, Iqbal Barkat, Holly Kaye-Smith, Dave Byrne, Peter Millynn and Nadine Torney.
Okay. Deep breath. The wait is over.
Made in the West Creative is proud to announce the nominees for this year’s individual discipline awards:
BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES
A Blacktown Ballad – Herbert Leota
Always: Sonic Mantra – Matthew C. Vella
Ghost Town Cricket – Matt Sterne
I Spy Myself – Tim Grubisic
No Right Turn – Kamil Domaradzki
Oi – Sophie Siersier
River Town People – Michelle Kaldy
The Colour of Black – Melika Azimi
The Impossible Decision – Rebecca Kirwan
Wolf – Alex Kamura
BEST SCREENPLAY NOMINEES
A Blacktown Ballad – Herbert Leota
Agoge – Veniamin Gialouris and Marcus Khoudair
Azadi – Clinton Gill
Contagious – Andre Valenzuela Marin
Destination Sophie – Santhosh Murugesan
No Right Turn – Kamil Domaradzki
Oi – Laneikka Denne
The Colour of Black – Melika Azimi
The Impossible Decision – Rebecca Kirwan (collab with Bus Stop Films participants)
Waves – Addy Fong
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER NOMINEES
De-Comm – Koji Chan Takahashi
Hold - Jei Strolin
No Right Turn – Kamil Domaradzki
Oi – Julius Koivistoinen
Riverberi – Jamie Gray
The Colour of Black – Ella Stone Richards
Wander – Rhys Cropper
Waves – Andrew Lin
Wolf – Martin Reyes
Yandel’mawa - The Story of the Seven Peacekeepers – Brendan Blacklock (Ngarabal / Biribi)
BEST EDITOR NOMINEES
De-Comm – Matthew John Pearson
Egg Law – Dominic Colucci
I Don’t Wanna: Sarah Jane & The Noise – Luke Agius
No Right Turn – Kamil Domaradzki
River Town People – Chimene Khoo
Stone Lions, Liquid Lions – Georgia Plantzos
The Teapot Troopers – Laurence Shaw
Tiger Cop: Project A – Rack Hansen
Waves – Cristobal Olguin and Addy Fong
Yandel’mawa - The Story of the Seven Peacekeepers – Nathan Lacey
BEST SOUND DESIGN NOMINEES
Animus – Eli Jackson
De-Comm – Rumble Studios
Fasten Your Belts: Deo – Amadeo Putro
Fun & Games – Jeffrey Gordon
Oi – Dexter Cave
Olan, Earthbound – Adrian Bilinsky
Silent Currents – Jeanise Tanuddin and Troy Virgona
Tiger Cop: Project A – Adrian Castro
Wolf – Alex Kamura
Wombo – Anthony Marsh
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN NOMINEES
De-Comm – Salvatore Samperi and Matthew John Pearson
Hold - Mark Tvrdeic
No Right Turn – Diva Abrahamin
Odd One Out – Marlena Horan
Oi – Annika Kumar
Olan, Earthbound – Tessa Leal
Passion Pop – Wenmiao Xin
Rage Bait – Tara Sriharan
Riverberi – Maddie Johnston
Waves – Kat Katchalova and Sandra May
BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE NOMINEES
A Blacktown Ballad – Nitin Menon
De-Comm – Markus Ojala
No Right Turn – Ali Zoghi
Oi – James Mountain
Passion Pop – Fiona Hill
River Town People – Christina Bowden
The Colour of Black – Ben Tinker
Waves – Melvin Tu
Wolf – Kwong Wing Chan and Peter Kam Pui Tat
Wombo – Liam Sinclair
BEST LEAD ACTOR NOMINEES
A Blacktown Ballad – Soroush Fardin
Destination Sophie – Claudine Nyantakyi
Hold - Paula Duncan
No Right Turn – Tyson Ibrahim
Oi – Laneikka Denne
Rage Bait – Priscilla Cui
Tamah – Tommy Ropati
The Colour of Black – Atefeh Saniee
Waves – Nandika Nellicka
Wombo – Yarno Rohling
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES
A Blacktown Ballad – Adrian Dieguez
Duplicity – Andrew Singh
Fun & Games – Maggie Maple
Hold - Kathy Luu
No Right Turn – Huseyin Ulger
Passion Pop – Chantelle Jamieson
Rage Bait – Jack Voegt
The Colour of Black – Mary Soudi
The Impossible Decision – Odile Le Clezio
Tiger Cop: Project A – David Hong
Congratulations to the incredible cast and crew behind this year’s Official Selection films!
And best of luck to all the nominees vying for individual prize category awards – we’ll be cheering for each and every one of you!
Have you snagged yourself a ticket yet? Remember, Opening Night is always FREE but bookings are a must! Tickets are flying out the door, so don’t miss your chance – reserve yours now before they’re gone.
Can’t attend Opening Night this year because of your work EOY party clash? No worries! You can still catch all 36 short films screening this summer in your home town!
Our Marathon Summer series kicks off in December with screenings in Liverpool at EVENT Cinemas, then we pick up after the Christmas holidays with more screenings in Parramatta, Bankstown, Campbelltown, and we return to our favourite home cinema in Liverpool.
We've curated 8 unique short film marathon sessions (90 minutes each) which will screen at pop-up events across the city, from 1 December through to the end of February. Pair those mini movie marathons with 30 minutes of meet-the-filmmaker networking, then add in cheap $10-15 tickets all summer long, and you've got yourself a Made in the West Marathon Summer experience!
Bring your friends, drag along your siblings, rope in your neighbours – literally tell EVERYONE you know to come out and support local films this festival season – it's going to be the summer of Western Sydney Film!
Which means that Opening Night Gala Event coming up on 22 November is JUST. THE. START of a truly Marathon Summer of Western Sydney Film.
ALL of audiences attending ANY Marathon sessions this summer will get to vote for the People’s Choice Award. This year we’ve got a very fancy $3,500 camera equipment rental package to give to the winner, courtesy of Panavision!
Save time now with early bird tickets to the Online MEGA Movie Marathon – book a ticket via our Opening Night ticketing site and we’ll send you the link to watch when the marathon kicks off in December.
Western Sydney, we’re looking forward to hosting you on the red carpet soon.
Congratulations again to this year’s award nominees!