Scinema

Australian science film festival

The SCINEMA International Science Film Festival is an Australian film festival celebrating international science-related drama and documentary films. The festival was founded with the aim of forging links between the sciences and the arts. SCINEMA accepts entries from all over the world. It is a program of Australia's Science Channel, operated by the Royal Institution of Australia.

## History

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The festival was founded in 2000 by Rebecca Scott and Damian Harris, with the aim of forging links between the sciences and the arts.. The inaugural edition took place at the Center Cinema in Canberra in 2001, hosted by CSIRO.[1]

In 2005, the director of the festival was Chris Kennedy, of the CSIRO. In that year, films covered diverse topics, including the history of asbestos, the use of lithium for psychiatric conditions, the evolution of beer, and, from Melbourne filmmaker Klaus Toft, a film about the relationship between orcas and humans in Killers in Eden.[2]

After a hiatus from 2014 to 2015, the Royal Institution of Australia took over hosting the festival.[1] The 2016 festival received over 1,300 submissions from over 80 countries,[3] with 240 screenings around Australia and one on the Davis Station in Antarctica.[1]

In 2017, the festival hosted 317 events around Australia, involving more than 37,000 people participants.[1]

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia from 2020, live screenings were limited, but streaming screenings attracted over 100,000 viewers.[1]

## Description

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The festival also hosts a community screening program as part of National Science Week, where community groups and schools can register to run their own screening program.[1]

## Reception

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One reviewer said of the 14th edition of the festival in 2017: "The most noticeable thing about the films is that, collectively and individually, they are less explicitly about science and more about us. These are very human stories about how we engage with the world — with the things in it, and with each other."[4]

## Award-winners

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Film Title  | Filmmaker  | Year  | Category Won

|
|
|

OWSIA (Darkened Water)  | Alireza Dehghan  | 2017  | Best Film
Fix and Release  | Simon Dobson (Canada)  | 2017  | Best Documentary
Einstein-Rosen  | Olga Osorio (Spain)  | 2017  | Best Short Film
The Purple Plain  | Kim Albright | 2017  | Best Director
Think Like a Scientist: Natural Selection in an Outbreak  | Nathan Dappen and Neil Losin (US)  | 2017  | Best Experimental/Animation
Nex  | Philipp Buschauer, Michael Loithaler and Marlene Raml (Austria)  | 2017  | Award for Technical Merit
Pangolins in Peril: A Story of Rare Scales  | Muhammad Ali Ijaz (Pakistan)  | 2017  | Award for Scientific Merit
Test Tube Babes  | Alice Wade  | 2017  | Special Jury Award
MARATUS  | Simon Cunich (Australia)  | 2016  | Best Film
Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children  | Donald Mitchell (US)  | 2016  | Best Documentary
The Amazing Life Cycle of the European Eel  | Sofia Castello y Tickell (UK)  | 2016  | Best Short Film
Metamorphosis of Plants  | Urszula Zajączkowska (Poland)  | 2016  | Best Experimental/Animation
Corpus  | Marc Héricher (France)  | 2016  | Award for Technical Merit
Wonders of Life – Size Matters  | Paul Olding (UK)  | 2016  | Award for Scientific Merit
Stem Cell Revolutions  |  | 2013  | Best Film
Clouded Leopard Kill  |  | 2013  | Best animation
Night of the Crysal Mutants  | Animator and sound by Dr Claire Pannell  | 2013  | Best Experimental
Critical Thinking Series  | James Hutson  | 2013  | Best short film
The Measure of Things  | Series directed by Mike Cunliffe  | 2013  | Award for Technical Merit
Into The Gyre (USA)  | Director: Scott Elliot

Producer: Scott Elliot

| 2012  | Best Film
Out of Our Minds (USA)  | Director: Director Kate Webbink  | 2012  | Best Director
Centrefold (UK)  | Director: Ellie Land

Producer: Siobhan Fenton

| 2012  | Best Animation
Coffee Ring Effect (USA)  | Director & Producer: Kurtis Sensenig  | 2012  | Best Experimental Film
Reflector (USA)  | Director: Dave Hill  | 2012  | Best Short Film
Robot Quadrators Perform the James Bond Theme

(USA)

| Director: Kurtis Sensenig  | 2012  | Award for Technical Merit
The Polar Explorer (Canada)  | Director: Mark Terry  | 2012  | Award for Scientific Merit
Australia: A Time-Travellers Guide

(Australia)

| Director: Richard Smith

Executive Producer: Chris Hilton for Essential Media and Entertainment

| 2012  | Best Television Series
The Lightbulb Conspiracy  | Director: Cosima Dannoritzer

Producers: Alexandre Piel and Joan Ubeda

| 2011  | Best Film
The City Dark  | Director: Ian Cheney  | 2011  | Best Director and Award for Technical Merit
Wonders of the Solar System  | Producer: Paul Olding  | 2011  | Award for Scientific Merit
Where the wild things were  | Director: Amber Cherry Eames  | 2011  | Award for Cinematography
Do you know what time it is?  | Director Paul Olding  | 2010  | Award for Scientific Merit
Honeybee Blues  | Stefan Moore  | 2010  | Festival Director's Award
Whatever! The Science of Teens  | D. L. Faber, D. Ortega, A Delaney. | 2010  | Best Television Series
[null Breu]  | D. Jeronimo Rocha. | 2010  | Award for Technical Merit.
An Eyeful of Sound  | Canada, Netherlands, UK. D. Samantha Moore. | 2010  | Best Animated Film
Nano You  | Spain, UK. D. Tom Mustill.  | 2010  | Best Short Film
How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer  | D. Annamaria Talas.  | 2010  | Best Film
Sheep thing + Ladder = One  | Nicholas Kallincos  | 2001  | Best Student Film
Archmede (Mad Cow)  | Ex Nihilo  | 2001  | Award for Excellence in Science
Atom Bond - The Atom with the Golden Electron  | Classroom Video  | 2001  | Award for Most Innovative Film
Silent Sentinels  | ABC-TV Science Unit  | 2001  | Best Environmental Film
Australia: Eye of the Storm  | ABC TV - Natural History Unit  | 2001  | Best Film

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f "About". SCINEMA International Science Film Festival. 31 July 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
2. ^ "Scinema's journey". The Age. 8 August 2005. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
3. ^ "Film festival showcases the best of scientific filmmaking". Cosmos Magazine. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
4. ^ Ellerton, Peter (13 June 2017). "Film festival reveals the passion, emotion and disappointment that can come with science". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 November 2017.

## External links

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* Official website