We're excited to finally show you the latest episode of Made in the West TV!
Made in the West TV is a talk show featuring award-winning Western Sydney filmmakers Sereen Omran, Noel Vinson and Alex Dona. Together, they discuss their 2021 Made in the West finalist films, their experiences on the red carpet and what it’s like to be a filmmaker in Western Sydney.
Our new host Dr Rachel Morley welcomed them all with open arms on stage to discuss all things filmmaking and short films. She did a wonderful job and definitely got some great conversation going with our special guests.
Sereen Omran took home some major glassware last year at the festival with her inspiring film Towel Head collecting the Best Student Film Award and Best Lead Actor from the judges, as well as the highly coveted Audience Choice Award, voted for by the audience on the night of the festival - the first time in festival history that a student film took out the double honours! The film is a touching story about creative life, self love and resilience.
Sereen is also an amazing recording artist, with stunning tracks under her belt as well as a content creator with South West Sydney label Elefant Traks.
Noel Vinson won the 2021 Best in the West award for his short film Jane, as well as Best Cinematographer and Best Sound Design. The winning film, as decided by our esteemed panel of judges, is an amazing two-hander with some shocking moments of subterfuge. Mr. Gordon, an elderly man living with dementia, struggles to make sense of the woman who routinely intrudes in on his daily life, a live-in caregiver named Jane.
We’re also inspired by Noel’s dedication to his horror anthology series AxmoDeus with collaborator Abel Robinson. Together, they’ve been producing and releasing monthly one-minute films. Pretty cool, right?
Alex Dona's film A Girl’s Best Friend took home the People’s Choice Award, voted by our online festival audience. He also took home the awards for Best Screenplay, Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actor - not bad at all! The film’s synopsis simply reads ‘A couple, deep in love, make quite unusual requests of one another’... but you’d be sorely mistaken thinking this was such a simple or straight-forward film!
We were delighted to see Alex’s name amongst the finalists last year, having last celebrated his work as a finalist in 2017 for Where is Damien Stafford? and Windscreens: The Australian Dream.
Check out the show! We hope you enjoy it!
We’re really stoked to be able to produce a TV show with local filmmakers and we have to say a HUGE THANKS to the School of Humanities & Communication Arts at Western Sydney University for sharing their state-of-the-art TV studio in Parramatta with us. As a Gold+ Screen Sponsor, their contribution to the festival means we are able to produce Made in the West TV and offer training to their students.
As WSU alumni, Ross, Misty & Jay were pretty chuffed to be able to work with our WSU student crew. This year we had Sam McIntyre on the switching desk, Lisa Plummer, Meg Bowyer, Alana Dowling on cameras, Nataly Thompson on the teleprompter and Abraham Box on the sound desk. SSP’s favourite AD Casey was awesome as floor manager of course, and we were very happy to have Associate Producer Luke Hodge working with us this year as part of an internship program. WSU guru Addy was there to help out too and the wonderful Cassandra Featherstone on Hair & Makeup. Everyone did such a great job!
The first episode of Made in the West TV aired in 2018, featuring the winners Andrew Lee, David Hoey and Matthew C. Vella. In 2019, we featured winners Matias Bolla, Emily Bui and Vonne Patiag. Producing a television show is a great way for us to bring the big screen to the small screen each year, so we can promote local filmmakers to a wider audience!
We can’t wait to see who wins the 2022 awards!!
Could it be you?? If you are a filmmaker from Western Sydney, or you’ve made a film featuring cast, crew or locations from Western Sydney, then SUBMIT YOUR FILM to the festival!
Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy MADE IN THE WEST TV!
If you're keen to see more, check out the behind the scenes from the day below!