by Dov Kornits
Bondi-raised filmmaker Yael Grunseit will enjoy a hometown premiere for her new film Daddy’s Little Meatball, which will screen at this month’s Flickerfest.
“This film is inspired by a trip to Hong Kong I took with my dad as a teenager,” says writer/director Yael Grunseit. “It was the first time I saw a fallible, trying father. That’s what I want to capture: the realisation that our parents are human just like us.”
In Yael Grunseit’s short film Daddy’s Little Meatball, sixteen-year-old Sasha (Madeline Sunshine) joins her period-underwear-salesman father Ed (Benjamin Howes) on a business trip to New York where he’s attending a global menstrual hygiene expo. As if their relationship wasn’t complicated and uncomfortable enough, Sasha sees Ed flirting with Rai, a fellow male colleague, which shifts their father-daughter bond even more.
Daddy’s Little Meatball is another impressive step forward for Yael Grunseit. An Australian filmmaker based between Sydney and New York, her short films A Big Hug and Everything There is to Know About Me have screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals including Palm Springs International ShortFest and Cinequest in 2025. She is the 2024 JIFF Short Film Fund Grant Recipient, a BendFilm Basecamp Fellow, was a finalist for the 2025 Sundance Ignite Fellowship, and will soon see her latest film premiere at Flickerfest…
“I grew up in Bondi, surrounded by storytellers,” says Grunseit. “My grandfather was a maths and science teacher, but his real love was theatre. He wrote plays his whole life and spent afternoons introducing me to Greek mythology and the idea that stories could shape how we see the world. From the age of about eight, I was writing my own plays in diaries. Writing came first. I loved creative writing in high school and went on to study it at university, where I wrote poetry and eventually published a chapbook. Screenwriting was the turning point. Reading screenplays and writing my own made me understand film as a form in a way I hadn’t before. From there, I fell in love with directing too.”
Did you study film?
“During COVID, I took an online short course at AFTRS, and that experience made things clear. Film was not just something I admired from a distance. It was what I wanted to do with my life. I finished my arts degree at USYD and applied for MFA programs in the US. Moving to New York had been a long-held dream of mine, shaped by the shows and films I grew up on, and in 2022 I began my MFA at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. I came to film through the page, but once I stepped onto set, there was no going back. Film became the place where everything I loved about writing, performance, and visual language came together. I cannot imagine my life without it now.”
How have you found the filmmaking community/gateways in the US compared to Australia?
“I’ve been really fortunate to experience filmmaking communities in both Australia and the US. I worked as an Art PA and screenwriter in Sydney. It’s where I got my first experience and the foundation of the craft I so love. Moving to New York opened things up in a different way. I feel very lucky to be part of such a passionate and generous filmmaking community there. The independent filmmaking scene in New York has helped me realise a DIY attitude and the immense power of collaboration.”
How do you feel about Daddy’s Little Meatball playing at Flickerfest?
“I’m especially excited about Flickerfest. It feels like a real homecoming. I grew up in Bondi. My family is here. It’s all I knew from a young age. I have never screened one of my films in Bondi and I can’t wait. I grew up going to Flickerfest and it’s a real dream come true knowing that someone just like me might be watching from the audience.”
Was it hard to find Australian collaborators in the US?
“The Australian collaborators I’ve met in New York have mostly come through friends of friends back home, which has made those connections feel easy and genuine. It’s nice how those networks carry across countries.”
How was the film financed?
“The film was made with a mix of support from my MFA program and private Australian funding.”
Which filmmakers’ work inspires you?
“This film was inspired by the Safdie Brothers’ Daddy Longlegs, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Somewhere, and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always. More generally, I’m often inspired by The Coen Brothers, especially their approach to casting, dialogue and humour, which I really admire.”
What are your hopes/dreams for your future in filmmaking? What are you working on?
“My hope is to keep making work consistently and to continue growing as a filmmaker. I’m currently developing several feature-length scripts and starting to think about how to bring those into the world, while also working on another short film that I’m hoping to direct this year.”
How do you view short filmmaking? Is it a proof-of-concept type thing, a standalone art?
“I think short filmmaking can be both. Short films are a really powerful form in their own right, and I don’t think they always need to point toward something else. At the same time, when a story stays with you it naturally wants to grow beyond the short form. I try not to overthink it and just follow what the story needs.”
Daddy’s Little Meatball will screen at The Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, which runs from January 23-February 1 in Bondi. For all information, head to the official website.
