Best Australian Short Film: All the prize winners from the nation’s richest short film competition

An animated film about a seagull’s romance with a drone, and an homage to the humble verge collection are the big winners of the first Best Australian Short Film Competition.

The winners of the nation’s richest short film competition were announced at Rooftop Movies in Northbridge on Thursday night at a special event live-streamed nationally on PerthNow, the major sponsor of the awards, along with SAE University College.

Judges, including actors Mark Coles Smith and Kirsty Marillier, director Nel Minchin, Perth Festival’s Tom Vincent and The West’s film critic Ben O’Shea, praised the calibre of the entrants, saying the future of Australian film was in safe hands.

“The quality of entries on the whole for this year’s competition made the selection process particularly difficult,” Coles Smith said.

Home and Away star Marillier said she was floored by the entrants.

“So much stood out. If I could dwindle it down I’d say the cinematography, the larger-than-life concepts, and the level of innovation involved in the edit,” she said.

“Thank you for the work you do and for inviting me into your world. You are all individual visionaries and I feel humbled to have been a part of this process. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.”

Judges awarded the $30,000 Best Australian Short Film Competition Main Prize to Perth director and animator Radheya Jegatheva for his animation, Bird Drone.

The 24-year-old Perth filmmaker, an industry rising star, spearheaded the heartwarming project about a seagull who falls in love with a drone.

Developing the idea with writer Clare Toonen and producer Hannah Ngo, Jegatheva said he had been fascinated with the idea of the lovelorn bird.

“Unrequited love is so universal and I just really thought it would be a great thing to explore in an animated format especially because so often human emotions can be told through non-human characters … it’s able to reach so many different people,” he told The West Australian last month.

“I guess part of the challenge as well was to try and make audiences sympathise with a seagull.

“With animation, you’re able to do that and you can make it more appealing and cute, but while still staying true to the nature of seagulls and have them, you know, stealing chips and that kind of thing.

“I really wanted to put all that love, care and detail into an animation that I noticed in the films that I grew up watching — it feels like a love letter to Pixar and Studio Ghibli, the kind of studios that really saved me growing up.”

Taking out both the $10,000 West Australian Short Film Prize and the $5000 People’s Choice Award was Perth project Verge Collection — a tribute to the annual ritual of tossing out unwanted goods.

Developed by Fremantle university friends Taylor Finch, Nicholas Verryn, Nadine Barry and Kyle Thistlethwaite, the film was described by judges as the best local film, and was the clear winner from the thousands of votes cast by PerthNow readers.

For Perth director Verryn, the piles of rubbish didn’t represent waste — rather objects with stories and memories.

“Growing up, I was a fan of verge collections. I like to get my hands dirty and see what items there might be,” Verryn said.

“I remember in particular, there was one time I might have been around 12 when I picked up a book on the verge and it was a copy of the Kama Sutra.

“I didn’t really know what it was at first. But I opened it up and I got the idea pretty quickly and I wondered how this got here.”

The $5000 Best Animation prize was split between Australian Mongrel — a creative exploration of migration in Australia — and Mahdi Poursamad’s Self-Portrait.