MIFF 2025: Accelerator Shorts 1
Melbourne International Film Festival 2025 is ongoing and I went to watch my tenth session (of 12!) , Accelerator Shorts 1
This post my short review of the six short films in the session!
For context: I am a photographer/youtuber that wants to up my cinematography and storytelling, that’s why I’m watching 12 sessions at the film festival PLUS reviewing them here on my blog!
These are films from up and coming filmmakers in Australia and New Zealand. But don’t let that fool you to thinking the quality would be lower, I like some of them better than other short films. Additionally, many of them were shot on analog film! Very cool. I’m surprised at how many of films in MIFF were shot on analog. To be honest, I should come in the cinema with a notebook to write down notes of what I think haha, it’s kinda to remember one after another.
Mưa Nửa Hạt
The colour grading here was my really in my taste, my current taste at least. Succinctly, soft colours with a bit of glow. I believe it was made using film, so that makes a lot of sense. There were a lot of “floaty” feeling scenes that made it feel zen, aligning with the setup of a temple and the main character being a monk. The narrative is being told in a poetic way. Unfortunately it wasn’t super memorable for me, probably needs another watch to appreciate it more!
This was the synopsis that grabbed me and made me decide to watch this session. The story is pretty unique: an actor that works as a corpse on a TV show struggles with what’s real and what’s not. The obvious comment is about method acting where as an actor you immerse yourself in being the character that you are playing. However, it can be extrapolated further. The idea that labels that are put on you can eventually be your identity and take over. This happens regardless if you believe it or not in the first place. Once you are convinced that you are that label, then it’s hard to break out of it — it was literally hard for the actor to break out of character that she was playing. The shots and composition are great too. One thing that I noticed was that they shot the repeated shower scene from only one angle. However, later on when the shower box was empty, they show it from a different angle — but in a way that the audience can still piece together that it’s the same shower box. Probably a basic film making thing haha, just something that I noticed as a noob.
I feel like the film maker wrote this with a dose of self-criticism and self-awareness. There were not much dialogue in the film, and the dialogue that did happen was around how “creatives” are not really necessary for society, or rather, they don’t contribute to society in an essential way. The film itself counteracts that point by having most of the film told in a sequence of scenes and dances. I feel like the main character just can’t help herself to be creative and that’s the way that she navigates her life and society. Well, maybe it doesn’t really contradicts the initial point directly. It does portray a real struggle that artists might feel. Art is certainly undervalued in parts of the world.
The music! Oh my, the music was so funky. They played upbeat electronic music that goes with the choreography. It even juxtaposes with the analog film visuals. A modern yet classic feeling, I guess that’s what “contemporary” is?
This was a clever parallel story of the same actor playing an aboriginal man in different scenarios. One interacting with a homeless man (I think). One interacting with someone in the arts that seemingly is portrayed to acknowledge aboriginal people but only “per formatively”. And lastly a blatant racist in a high-end restaurant. The individual stories are very well done. The actor did very well in all three! The title “Faceless” didn’t click with me until later on… even with the reference in the film itself. In the film, someone asked the main character “oh, were you at the conference today?” to which the MC replied “nah, must be another black brother” — and the title “Faceless” tie in the racist remark that people from one ethnic group look the same to people outside of it. I quite enjoyed the story and then way it was presented.
The theme here was similar to “Mango Seed” from Australian Shorts. However, it is more of the perspective of the parent rather than the child. A man from Cambodia that migrated to Australia in his 20s and now settled down with a family of his own. He performs plays with shadow puppets. The story revolves around his ties to the art form, his relationship with his family, and his relationship with the past. The cinematography was beautiful. There are multiple scenes by the round restaurant windows that just looked phenomenal. They never even show the whole inside of the restaurant — perhaps it was just a small set. Beautiful film.
Before writing this review, I read the synopsis again and now I feel like I understood the story more. It made me think about how these short films need every avenue to tell the story that they want, so the synopsis is actually an important part of that. The title even more so. This one specifically talks about how a Maori girl is caught in the middle of a custody battle between the birth mom and the adoptive family. The horse analogy is so interesting, with the white horses and the brown one. The everyday routine that they went through were told in a cool montage, I love a nice montage haha. I think the synopsis sums it up the best (well, duh):
[it] is a tough and tender exploration of family, cultural displacement and the ways in which systemic power continues to impose Western prejudices on First Nations peoples.