Bold narratives own the screen at 45th Annual Film & TV Graduate Screenings

The Victorian College of the Arts screening season is the first chance for audiences to see films from Australia’s best emerging filmmakers before their release to the international film festival circuit.

This year’s screening season at ACMI will showcase the directing and producing talent of the VCA School of Film and Television’s Masters and Undergraduate Programs. This season will focus on produced films in the fiction, animation and documentary genres.

Nicolette Freeman, Head of the School of Film and Television at the VCA, says the themes of the works on offer at this year’s screenings are as varied as they are intriguing.

“There are relationships starting, faltering, dissolving. There are inspiring characters (real and fictional) beating the odds to survive. There are foreign wars. There are cross-cultural conflicts and synergies. There are stories of the complexity of sexuality, of seduction, of beekeeping, of violence, of friendship and loyalty. There’s music, frivolity and dreaming too.”

Each year the School of Film and Television end-of-year screenings display the creativity and powerful storytelling of a diverse student cohort.

The films showcased are also testament to the unique educational experience for students at the School of Film and Television, where the focus is, above all, on developing the student’s unique creative voice.

“For our screenwriting students, the development of that voice, and the writing skills to transform it into successful, creative and engaging screenplays is paramount,” she says.

Film and Television students offer a unique storytelling perspective and often reflect a culturally diverse student cohort keen to contribute to the discussion of cultural and political issues in society.

“The stories our students tell are as varied as their backgrounds and interests. We find that students are telling stories from their immigrant parents’ culture, or from their own first generation experience, and of course international students often tell stories from their home culture,” Ms Freeman says.

The annual screenings at ACMI act as a launching pad for these storytellers as the ACMI season is the first truly public screening for many of the emerging filmmakers, introducing them to the audience in a celebratory, but also real and possibly daunting way.

“The directors and the producers sit, sometimes for the first time, in a cinema, with their audience – and feel every gasp, cry and laugh. It helps them relate to their material in a new and unique way,” Ms Freeman says. 

The high standard of films created by VCA students is demonstrated through continued success at national and international film festivals including Melbourne, St Kilda, Cannes, Sundance, Palm Springs and more and the diverse careers graduates go into.

Ms Freeman believes employment opportunities for screen production and writing graduates are much more diverse and international than they were a decade ago, due in part to the growth and immediate nature of interactive and online media.

“The internet is hungry for screen content and has also become a viable means for emerging screen producers to reach audiences directly. But amid all the opportunity, one has to stand out, which is why a strong and distinctive creative voice matters more than ever – and why that remains core to our teaching philosophy,” she says.

All of this, Ms Freeman says, could not be achieved without the generous professional support students attract for their graduating films.

“We are very appreciative of our relationship with ACMI, and the opportunity to screen at this national hub for screen culture. The location is fabulous, being central to everything, and part of the southern arts precinct,” she says.

The rotating screening schedule ensures that each film can be viewed three times over the screening season – a full schedule will be available on the ACMI website closer to the time.

VCA Film and Television’s 45th Annual Graduate Screenings will take place
13 – 15 December 2013.

www.acmi.net.au 

vca.unimelb.edu.au/ftv