UTS students at Melbourne International Animation Festival
An animated still where a red-headed woman stares down an anthropomorphic jumper

Students from the Bachelor of Animation Production and the Bachelor of Music and Sound Design will have their films on display at this year’s Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF).

“A week long celebratory feast”, MIAF has been running since 2001, with support from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), the Australian Film Commission (AFC) and the Melbourne City Council. 

MIAF boasts a huge line-up of over 400 animated films, including recent releases, historical and retrospective works, as well as forums. All of which make it Australia’s premier animation festival, and one of the largest animation auteur-dedicated festivals in the world.

What’s playing?

In the Australian Student Showcase on May 5, four films from UTS students will be shown. These films are collaborations between second-year Animation, third-year Music and Sound Design students, and poets from Red Room Poetry. They are all adapted from the works of Australian poets.

 

So Too The Sunset

Animated still of a bird overlooking a forest

‘Light just might be the most mysterious and magical of all the qualities in a forest.’

Directors/Animators: Lina Duong, Crystal Truong Nguyen, Nikita Sutedjo, Benjamin Meyer

Music and Sound Design: Manon Lee and David Ross

Poet: Jazz Money

 

Gladwrap is Death

Animated still of a young girl clasping at a pen

‘The world is too full of all the wrong noise – any writer will tell you that.’

Directors/Animators: Fransisca Lyn Wijaya, Maxwell Sharpe, Tony H. Chang

Music and Sound Design: Colin Broom, Orlando Sagar and Andy Wang 

Poet: Laurie May

 

Nothing Heavier Than a River

Animated still of hands holding a fluorescent puddle

‘All the power and energy you need is out in the cosmos somewhere, you just have to grab it as it flies by.’

Directors/Animators: Angela Cao, Eugene Chung, Linda Ye and Vivienne Yao

Music and Sound Design: Tanisorn Palanusitthepa and Thomas Speyer

Poet: Georgina Reid

 

Shinrin Yoku

Animated still of a strange creature in a forest holding its hands aloft

‘When nothing is the way you want it search out another path.’

Directors/Animators: Ruisi Duan, Stephanie Nadia Halim, Vivianna, Yixuan Dong, Zhuoxuan Li

Music and Sound Design : Kai Harris and Michael Shenfield

Poet: Lillian Rodrigues-Pang

 

Two UTS grads are screening works as part of the festival's Opening Night Australian Showcase. One of these films was completed as part of the final year of study.

 

Skyward

Animated still of a child staring out from the cockpit of a small plane

‘A young pilot spreads her wings and, with her late father’s advice ringing in her ears, faces a threatening thunderstorm.’

Directed by Sean Liao and Ren Davies, this short was completed in 2023 as part of the subject Animation Industry Project.

 

My Jumper, It Roars!

Animated still of a woman standing amongst a colourful series of drapes

‘Ella spends her life channelling her frustrations into the collar of her jumper, and one day it decides to fight back.’

Directed by UTS Animation graduate Isabella Spagnolo, who now works at Flying Bark as an Animation Director.

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UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.