congratulations to our ESFSA 2023 award winners!
Winners for Excelsia & Sydney Film School Award 2023
Winning films
The Atar Experience
by Jon Copson
Baggage
by Ashley Dhanu
Finalist films
The Sogs Sisters and the Legend of the Clab
by Janie Kennington
Avoid
by Imogen Adeney
Killer Bait
by Blake Ikonomou
The Excelsia and Sydney Film School Award is a prestigious film festival run by Excelsia College and Sydney Film School to give emerging talent an opportunity to develop and share their voice. The festival seeks deep and meaningful short films from senior high school students expressing thematic content around the nature of morality, existence, spirituality, philosophy, reality and truth. Whilst this thematic content often leads itself primarily to dramas all genre (comedy, action, documentary, thriller etc.) is accepted and encouraged.
2023 AWARDS
Partial scholarships are available for full-time first year of study in the Bachelor of Screen Production. These limited scholarships will be offered to the film festival winners through set criteria and a judging process. Please note ongoing course fees will be payable for the following two years of study (FEE-Help available).
About Sydney Film School
Sydney Film School was founded to teach the essential filmmaking ‘tools’ necessary for a successful career in the global film industry. It is an intense training experience where our students learn how to be filmmakers. Through producing and crewing a significant number of films, students gain both the skills to be employed by the industry and create their own productions. Since Sydney Film School’s inception, alumni have gone onto successful careers across the planet and create a network for new students to build relationships with.
About Excelsia College
Excelsia College, Australia’s leading Christian Higher Education provider, has an innovative and creative community of people, who are passionate about excelling and growing academically, professionally, personally and spiritually. Established in 1983 as a creative and performing arts college, our students and alumni embark on a journey of lifelong learning and leadership.
Previous winners
Winner for Excelsia & Sydney Film School Award 2022
2022 Winner Film
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Directed by Harrison Brown
Winner for Excelsia & Sydney Film School Award 2021
2021 Winner Film
Author: Luke O’Donnell
Until the End
Career Opportunity
Excelsia is committed to developing imaginative storytellers with strong individual voices who will lead and influence the global screen industries through craft expertise and innovative narrative approaches. Our lecturers not only teach the technical skills of filmmaking but also put students at the forefront of the technologies, thus preparing students for a successful career in the film or television industry.
Submission & Rights
- All entries must be submitted online by due date.
- The applicant and producer of a submitted film grants Excelsia College and Sydney Film School the rights to:
Exhibit the film online for the duration of the Festival, in a programmed session available ‘on-demand’ from the ESFSA Film Festival website. Include a section of the production for promotional purposes. This may be as part of a compilation and displayed on theatrical screening, websites, social media channels, EDM, communications.
- Entries cannot be withdrawn after submission. By submitting your film to the Festival for consideration, you acknowledge this condition of entry and waive your right to withdraw your film from the Festival after this date.
- If your film is selected as a finalist for the Festival, you will be sent an email confirmation by Wednesday 1 February 2023.
Further details on the ESFSA FilmFreeway submission page.
Terms and Conditions
Entry
- Entry is free and open to all Australia and New Zealand citizens in high school.
- Scholarship only awarded to an Australia or New Zealand citizen in years 11 or 12.
- All fiction and non-fiction film genres are accepted. However, films outside of the described nature of the competition (refer to point 4 below) may not be recognised with an award or prize.
- No film is to contain nudity, graphic violence, excessive coarse language, or any material higher than M15 rating. It is at the discretion of Excelsia College and Sydney Film School to determine whether content is outside the described nature of the film festival.
- All short films must be made within two years of entry.
Format
- Each film must be no longer than 6 minutes excluding credits which should be limited to 10 seconds in total.
- Films may be in any language or have no dialogue at all. Non-English audio must have English subtitles.
- Ensure that all content in your film (including footage, music, images, props, etc.) is your own. If you include any copyrighted or trademarked content, you must be able to provide written permission from the owner for its use. Entries containing any unauthorised content will be disqualified.
- All selected films must be available to screen on H.264 or ProRes file.
Submission & Rights
- All entries must be submitted online by midday AEST, Friday 27 January 2023.
- The applicant and producer of a submitted film grants Excelsia College and Sydney Film School the rights to:
- Exhibit the film online for the duration of the Festival, in a programmed session available ‘on-demand’ from the Axiom Film Festival website. Include a section of the production for promotional purposes. This may be as part of a compilation and displayed on theatrical screening, websites, social media channels, EDM and communications.
- Entries cannot be withdrawn after submission. By submitting your film to the Festival for consideration, you acknowledge this condition of entry and waive your right to withdraw your film from the Festival after this date.
- If your film is selected as a finalist for the Festival, you will be sent an email confirmation by 31 January 2023.
Submitting a film in the Festival signifies acceptance of these terms and conditions.
