by FilmInk Staff
Entries are now open for filmmakers, television producers and even TikTokers around the world to submit their works for consideration in the SCINEMA International Science Film Festival.
Screening around Australia this coming National Science Week (August 9 to 17, 2025), SCINEMA International Science Film Festival in its 25th year explores and celebrates science ideas told on the screen.
“It’s a time of great upheaval, great uncertainty obviously, and we expect to be seeing filmmakers calling out the tsunami of misinformation and non-journalism that is so prolific at the moment,” says Festival Director Cris Kennedy.
“Our Jury will be looking for great storytelling just as much as proficient filmmaking,” Kennedy says, “and of course we’re looking for that next generation of science filmmakers whose fledgling or future careers might get a boost from the recognition a Festival brings.”
SCINEMA’s Call for Entries is open until 20 July with categories for Short Film, Feature-Length Productions, Television Production or Television Series, ‘Junior’ (which could be a student production), Documentary, Animation and ‘Vertical’ (which could be a TikTok or similar).
SCINEMA started in Canberra in 2000 and (nowadays) Canberra Times film critic Kennedy ran it for 14 years when working for CSIRO in science communications, and returns as Festival Director this year, working with Kylie Ahern at science magazine The Brilliant.
“SCINEMA just started as a fun thing to do,” Kennedy says, “and then slowly picked up momentum until it was in 5 cities, and then 400 towns across Oz, and one year even a theme on ABC iView.”
The Festival was run by the RiAus since 2017, and CSIRO in 2023 & 24, and is now a partnership with STEM Matters, The Brilliant, Cris Kennedy and Damian Harris, and with the support of CSIRO and Royal Australian Mint.
Filmmakers should enter their films in SCINEMA on their Film Freeway page at filmfreeway.com/SCINEMAInternationalScienceFilmFestival or visit the SCINEMA website SCINEMA.net
Photo: Filmmaker Georgia Arndell whose documentary on the coin-making process ‘The Royal Australian Mint’ will play in the 2025 SCINEMA International Science Film Festival
