This year marks the 13th year Made in the West Film Festival has hosted our annual gala awards night honouring filmmakers from Western Sydney. And don’t worry, because 2024 has been a charm so far and we’re sure it will prove lucky for you too!
Here at Festival HQ, we’re getting ready for our biggest ever festival season.
First, we’ll host our Opening Night Party on Saturday 30 November at Event Cinemas in Liverpool, featuring Western Sydney VIPs and filmmakers on the red carpet from 6pm, followed by the 2024 Official Selection Screening & Awards Night kicking off at 7.30pm and finishing with the judges’ selections for our top trophy awards.
We’re following this up with an extra special summer featuring an extra-long list of Western Sydney films in our MEGA Movie Marathon, available online and on demand from 10 December to 31 January 2025. They’ll be competing for awards voted by YOU and our first ever cash prize for the People’s Choice!
And just when you thought we couldn’t top that, we’re finishing it all off with screenings in the park – Sydney Olympic Park that is! We’ve got a plan in the works to get this year’s festival films up in lights alongside Accor Stadium and right in the heart of Sydney’s biggest cultural events precinct.
What better place to announce this year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award and celebrate the end of Made in the West season with a Closing night event!
We love seeing local filmmakers featured on screen and this year’s festival films embody the passion, heartbreak and insight that is characteristic of filmmakers from the West.
Included in the lineup for 2024 we have some familiar returning stars, a few rookies joining the ranks, and some awesome new music artists to add to your playlists.
We can’t wait to show you what Western Sydney filmmakers have been working on!
This year we had 50 short films submitted, all made by filmmakers from Western Sydney. How awesome is that?
And as always, local filmmakers have really lifted the bar this year. We would love to have all 50 films in the festival line-up, but let’s face it, we’d be there all night!
We received more than ten hours of content submitted this year, but only two hours can be shown at the cinema. That’s why we’ve added an EXTRA HOUR of films to our MEGA Movie Marathon!
Let’s hear a round of applause for all 50 filmmakers - they all deserve your congratulations! Making a film is hard work (and a team effort!) so we take our hat off to everyone who made a film this year and submitted to the festival.
In 2024, filmmakers from Western Sydney have delivered yet again and we have a fantastic selection of short films featuring at the festival.
This year’s line-up showcases the full range of stories being told in Western Sydney, across genres like drama, web series, fantasy, thriller, comedy, coming of age and romance, along with a few mandatory surprises and in-your-face adventure.
From laugh-out-loud moments to heart-pounding scenes and tear-jerkers, Western Sydney filmmakers are bringing the magic yet again.
The following 14 films in the Official Selection will screen on Saturday 30 November at Event Cinemas Liverpool and are in the running for the judges’ awards:
Angel Signs: Isaac Puerile – Submitted by Fernando de Miguel Fuertes
Bad Vibrations – Submitted by Prue Borg
Bottleneck – Submitted by Benjamin Menday
Dusty – Submitted by Travis Jeffery
Gallery of Echoes – Submitted by Ella Southwell
Greystanes – Submitted by Ryan Cauchi
MisUnderstood – Submitted by Kasey Medeiros
Neuromance – Submitted by Kyle Goldfinch
Places, Please! – Submitted by Paul Rye
Poison – Submitted by Wayne Tunks
Riley – Submitted by Ryan Cauchi
Rostrum – Submitted by Daniel Kuberek
Velvet Skin: Dylan Atlantis – Submitted by Simrat Kaur
When Foreigners Speak English in American Movies – Submitted by Martin Yeung
Congratulations to the 2024 Official Selection!
We’re excited for you all and can't wait to see your amazing films on the big screen at Event Cinemas. What an incredible line-up!
The Opening Night event on Saturday 30 November will feature the Official Selection Screening & Awards, comprising two segments of films, nine individual award announcements, four film trophies, a HUGE prize pool, plus networking opportunities before and after the film screening.
It’s one you won’t want to miss!
We’re totally blown away by this year’s prize haul and we can’t thank our wonderful prize sponsors enough. BIG THANKS to these heroes for showing their support for the local community!
And by the way – there’s some EXTRA exciting news at the bottom of that prize list too! Did you see?? We’ve got new prizes announced for the MEGA Movie Marathon winners too!
Even more exciting is that this line-up is not only in the running for some great Sony equipment and a $2000 CASH PRIZE for the overall winner (as voted by YOU at home!), but they’re also on the list for pop-up screening events around town this Summer, including a select festival screening at Sydney Olympic Park!
It’s great to see so many people getting behind the Western Sydney film community. From our wonderful Screen Sponsors who help us put on a great show each year, to our amazing prize sponsors who love connecting with local filmmakers, to our awesome panel of industry judges.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead as we’ve got more announcements to come - next week we'll announce the individual nominees for our individual category awards!
Will you join us at the Opening Night Party?*
If you haven’t nabbed your tickets for the year’s hottest film festival – you'd better be quick! Tickets are likely to book out soon. Here’s the link to reserve your seat!
And if your mates have already booked their tickets, just use the ‘Find a Friend’ feature when you're reserving your seats to search and select seats near them.
General admission tickets are FREE, and you can reserve some of the best seats in the house for just $20. Your ticket helps keep the festival running, and every dollar goes right back into creating an incredible experience for all.
Can’t make it to the cinema? No problem! From 10 December to the end of January, you can catch all the action from Western Sydney the comfort of home.
For the fifth year in a row, we’re hosting Made in the West’s MEGA Movie Marathon online all summer long, featuring an extra special line-up of 24 short films that will be in the running for our online awards.
So grab some popcorn, settle into your seat, and enjoy some of Australia’s finest short films. We can’t wait to see you enjoying the 13th edition of Made in the West Film Festival – in person or online – wherever you are!
Cheers to an incredible year of #WesternSydneyFilm.