Sydney Stories

An anthology of award winning short films, this feature show cases an international cast and crew, shooting all over New South Wales, telling all kinds of stories.

Amongst the Ashes

Two brothers seek to repair their strained relationship while visiting the gravesite of their parents.

Nightwalk

It is night in Warsaw. Two very different homes. In one, a father watches sports lying on the sofa, expecting the son to do the same. In another apartment, a wealthy-looking mother sits at the table to dine with her daughter, completely different from her. At the same time, the boy and the girl embark on a nocturnal adventure of transformation, during which they strip off the various stratifications of gender that they have inherited. The streets of the city are transformed into a liberating walkway. When by chance they meet – face to face, body to body – they mirror each other in silence, offering comfort, safety.

Taste of Cherry

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Al Desnudo

Deserted

A man walks through a desert carrying a full water bottle. He fights desperately the temptation to drink the water. The question arises how the man got himself into this predicament. And what will happen if he does drink the water?

Adam

Adam is a factory worker. He falls in love with Chris, a slightly older man. Instead of strengthening his own identity, Adam is unable to cope with his sexuality and suffers a nervous breakdown. One of the first representations of gay men in Australian cinema and an iconic piece of LGBTIQA+ film history.

A Nice View

A painter struggles with inspiration.

Before Sunrise

An unexpected meeting on a train leads two travelers to spend an evening wandering through Vienna. As the night unfolds, they share stories and conversations about life and love, exploring new ideas while a quiet intimacy grows between them, knowing it may be their only night together.

Before Sunset

Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me

The German soldier Clemens Forel - determined to be reunited with his beloved family - makes a dramatic escape through bitter cold winters, desolate landscapes, and life threatening ventures from a Siberian labor camp after World War II. 8000 miles and three endless years of uncertainty later, he is finally about to reach his destination... An edge of your seat drama that celebrates the power of the human spirit and the force of will, while inspired and impowered by love.

THE STOP

On a cold bus stop bench a young woman evening takes a terrifying turn when she faces relentless and disgusting harassment from a group of young men. But when a stranger she once regarded as threatening and dangerous steps in to defend her, she is compelled to re-evaluate her preconceived judgements of people.

Bondi Boy

Radhesh, a high school student in Sydney’s affluent Bondi, betrays close relationships and his own self worth in order to claw his way up the social ladder.

Conversations with Other Women

Reunited at a wedding after many years, former lovers again feel the pull of a mutual attraction neither is willing to admit. Escaping the reception for the privacy of a hotel room, the unnamed pair explore the choices of the past that led them to the present.

Late Night Conversations

The hands of fate, or just a chance at fresh air and quiet, bring two very different people together as they learn and grow through each other.

Who Are You Really?

"A socially anxious college student reluctantly heads to a party attempting to make new friends. Nande Walters directs “Who Are You Really?”, an experimental portrait of insecurity characterized by a raw, youthful energy. Anya walks into the room and immediately feels like everyone is judging her. Eventually she strikes up a conversation with a young man, but neither really knows what to say and it doesn’t go anywhere. After struggling through the awkward night, she’s surprised to learn that an extroverted friend didn’t fare much better. Walters is only 19 years old, one of the youngest we’ve ever featured on NoBudge, and her film is the work of an artist still learning her craft but she clearly knows the feeling she’s after and captures it with pops of style and a touching closing monologue." -Kentucker Audley

Lost Way

Collective experimental film by Team 8mm TENGOKU.

The Estrogen Gospel

A young transgender woman takes a hike through the English countryside in an attempt to resolve her spiritual crisis - but an ancient evil strives to ensure that she never completes her journey.

Another Great Night

Another Great Night follows Lia as she walks home alone after a night out, a journey fraught with risk and harassment. This film shows a condensed version of the many hazards that can befall women as they navigate often unfriendly and dangerous terrain, simply wishing to make their way home. Another great night? Well, that depends on your perspective.

Where

The ninth opus of his Walker Films series, which was shot at Centre Pompidou.

Hands of Stone

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

The Book of Love

After tragedy strikes Henry and Penny, he befriends a tenacious young girl and discovers she is constructing a raft to sail across the Atlantic to find her lost father. Together, along with some unlikely friends, they set forth to construct the vessel and subsequently rebuild their lives.

Fast Girls

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

Under Capricorn

A British ex-convict in colonial Australia and his fragile wife, haunted by the past crime that binds them, struggle to rebuild their lives when a young newcomer stirs long-buried passions and secrets.

Last Ride

A young boy travels across Australia with his father, who's wanted by the law.

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius

The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.

Mindwalk

On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.

The Brutalist

When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and their lives are forever changed by a demanding, wealthy patron.

Holy Lands

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

Breath

A pair of teenagers in Western Australia looking to escape the monotony of life in a small town take up surfing lessons from a guy named Sando.

Cardboard Boxer

Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

The Trials of Cate McCall

In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.

The Young One

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

Jungleland

Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.

Gigi & Nate

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Here

An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.

The Last Bus

Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.

Mammal

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Max

In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolf Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics

Strange Weather

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.