Congratulations to this year’s major trophy and individual category award winners!
Before we share the names of the excellent films and uber-talented people behind them who took out some awards last night, let’s also take a moment to congratulate the entire Western Sydney film community that turned up to support the local filmmakers last night.
What a HUGE crowd we had in attendance – it was a fantastic sight to see!!
Props to the cast and crew, family and friends, neighbours, colleagues, casting agents, parents, partners, interstate buddies, old university pals and everyone else who came along to watch the 2022 festival screening in our awesome 330 seat V-max theatre at Event Cinemas Liverpool.
We love seeing a full cinema! Because Western Sydney films deserve to be seen on the big screen, by as many people as possible.
We loved seeing you all enjoying the show, chatting about your fave films during intermission and cheering for the winners at the end of the night. Thank you all for helping make the Western Sydney film scene one of the most vibrant and energising creative communities in the country.
Not only did we break our attendance record last night, but we also showcased a history-making line up of first-time finalists – 15 out of the 19 films in the Official Selection were brand new to our festival screen – we love this!
Big thanks to Event Cinemas for supporting Western Sydney film scene as our venue sponsors. Thanks also to our crew and volunteers, MC and hosts, TV crew, photographers, prize sponsors, and all the cinema staff that helped us bring together a wonderful night.
This year’s Official Selection included 19 short films that were gutsy, poignant, and so, so funny. We say it all the time and we mean it – Western Sydney filmmakers are cutting edge!
How lucky are we to be a part of a community that is so driven by creativity, so unapologetically bold in truth-telling, so fresh on screen? There’s nowhere else in the country doing what we’re doing right now and we should all be so proud!
If you missed the festival this year (or you’d like to relive the highlights!), we’ll be screening all 19 finalist films ONLINE and ON DEMAND this summer – from Thursday 1 December to the end of January!
You can find us on Vimeo for Made in the West Online Film Festival and rent the full movie marathon experience for just $5 USD, which includes filmmaker interviews and highlights from the red carpet.
This year’s line-up spans all genres, from thrillers to science fiction, comedy to drama, plus there were heaps of music videos, some animation and web series too – a mixed bag – just as we like it!
We also screened a trailer for a new project we’re launching next year - Made in the West Creative, a collaborative content production agency working with Western Sydney filmmakers, coming soon in 2023. We can't wait to launch our next local filmmaking venture!
Hats off to our panel of judges for selecting the 2022 winners – we certainly couldn't have done it! Their scores combined determine the winners of our top awards, plus cast & crew were nominated for individual category awards based on the judges’ recommendations – more than ever before!
Here’s the full list of 2022 award winners:
BEST DIRECTOR – Kamil Domaradzki and Ali Zoghi for Leopard
BEST SCREENPLAY - Kamil Domaradzki for Leopard
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER – Jack Saltmiras for Only One: Ashli
BEST EDITOR – Sharon Mani for Seen
BEST SOUND DESIGN – Jarad Avnell for Bogan Moths
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - Katrina Lay for Baby Dole
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - Emma Greenhill and Ali Zoghi for Leopard
BEST LEAD ACTOR – Will Bartolo for Yannis
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – Tyson Ibrahim for Leopard
All finalists were also in the running for prizes, thanks to our wonderful sponsors Still Searchin’ Productions, Western Sydney University, Event Cinemas Liverpool, Luke Walker Productions, Sydney Prop Studios, Creative Plus Business, Irierootsini Photography, Million Masters, AFTRS, Arts and Cultural Exchange, Australian Writers’ Guild and Australian Production Design Guild.
All 19 films were in the running for our major trophies for Best in the West (for indie filmmakers), Best Student Film, and Best Music Video.
Of course, the room erupted with cheers as the final winners were announced. We want to give a HUGE shout out to:
2022 Runner-up Best Music Video:
I Don’t Get You: Particles by Luke Walker
Nominated for Best Director, Cinematographer and Production Design
2022 Runner-up Best Student Film:
Arco’s World by Kasey Medeiros
Nominated for Best Director
2022 Runner-up Best in the West:
Yannis by James Elazzi
Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay, Cinematographer, Editor, Original Score, Lead Actor (WINNER) and Supporting Actor
These amazing films deserve a round of applause!
And of course, you must save your most rapturous standing ovation for our 2022 WINNERS!
The award goes to….
2022 Best Music Video WINNER:
Only One: Ashli by Ashley Dawes
Nominated for Best Director, Editor, Cinematographer (WINNER) and Production Design
2022 Best Student Film WINNER:
Baby Dole by Katrina Lay
Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay, Cinematographer, Production Design (WINNER), Sound Design, Lead Actor and Supporting Actor
2022 Best in the West WINNER:
Leopard by Kamil Domaradzki
Nominated across the board for Best Director (WINNER), Screenplay (WINNER), Cinematographer, Editor, Sound Design, Production Design, Original Score (WINNER), Lead Actor and Supporting Actor (WINNER)
Fun fact: Kamil’s film Leopard has now matched the record for most number of individual award categories won, set by Arka Das in 2020 for his film Khana Khazana.
We had so many attendees commenting on the quality of films in the line-up and tensions were high as the final votes were being counted for the highly coveted Audience Choice Award. But in the end, there could only be one…
Congratulations to:
2022 Audience Choice Award WINNER:
Hello My Name is Mother Nature by Pamela Manos
Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay and Lead Actor
*cue applause*
Fun fact: For the second year in a row, a student film has won the Audience Choice Award! Last year Towel Head by Sereen Omran and Raeanne Chami won the trophy, and were the first student film ever to do so.
Congratulations again to all cast & crew involved in the making of this year’s films and thank you to everyone who joined us last night – we had a blast and we hope you enjoyed your night too.
Our in-cinema event may have wrapped, but now we have one more screening to go!
Tell your friends and family to tune in this summer to Made in the West Online Film Festival and see all 19 films in the Official Selection screening online – they’ll even get to vote for their favourite (in true Made in the West style) as we’ll be conducting a live audience vote for the People’s Choice Award!
Check out the 2022 Online Festival program on our website for the list of films plus links to all the filmmakers on social media so you can follow their film work and find pics from the red carpet.
Speaking of which, we’ll be sharing all the photos from the red carpet later this week and our 2022 Red Carpet Highlights Reel next week, featuring interviews with some of this year’s finalists and their best film moments in-cinema and on the red carpet.
In the meantime, take a look at our Instagram stories for a look at the festival red carpet from the filmmakers perspective!
We love seeing Western Sydney filmmakers strut their stuff on the red carpet and we’re pleased our festival photographers and TV crew were there to capture the community in all its glory.
We’re excited to continue celebrating Western Sydney short films online all summer long too!
Thanks again for a great night, everyone – YOU ROCK!!