AACTA unveils nominees for inaugural Best Student Film Award
Nominees include Lincoln, directed by Jake Whitford.
via IF Magazine
Oi wins awards at Made in the West Festival
BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE – James Mountain for Oi
2025 Best in the West WINNER: Oi – submitted by Laneikka Denne and nominated for Best Director (WINNER), Screenplay (WINNER), Cinematographer, Sound Design, Original Music Score (WINNER), Lead Actor (WINNER) and Production Design
Congratulations Screen Music Award nominees!
James Mountain is nominated twice.
Via IF Magazine
We’re thrilled to celebrate James Mountain and Hamish Francis on their nomination at the 2025 Screen Music Awards.
We’re thrilled to celebrate James Mountain and Hamish Francis on their nomination at the 2025 Screen Music Awards for their first film score collaboration, Oil & Water.
via Facebook
We’re thrilled to celebrate two of our own – James Mountain (Program Executive, Education) and Hamish Francis (Associate Producer, Education) – on their nomination at the 2025 Screen Music Awards for their first film score collaboration, Oil & Water.
Congratulations James and Hamish. We’re so proud to see your artistry and collaboration recognised on a national stage!
APRA Screen Music award winner James Mountain is back with another beautiful film soundtrack
APRA Screen Music award winner James Mountain is back with another beautiful film soundtrack, recently released to Spotify, Apple music and other streaming platforms.
via The Curb
PRESS RELEASE
APRA Screen Music award winner James Mountain is back with another beautiful film soundtrack, recently released to Spotify, Apple music and other streaming platforms.
Having garnered much success from award winning films Mud Crab (2022, screened at Raindance 2022 and MIFF 2022) and Oi (2024), Mountain finds himself now collaborating with new up and coming Melbourne based writer/director Jake James Whitford, on his dreamy short film Lincoln.
Lincoln, directed by Whitford, follows a young boy’s intense connection with men's adoration of women in noir films, which is tested and propelled after an encounter with his intimidatingly mesmerizing neighbour. Ben Keller (Nowhere Boys 2013, Seven Types of Ambiguity 2017) takes the lead role as Lincoln amongst a talented ensemble with Steffi Gil and Mia Barrett (Sunflower, 2023).
The film explores the exploration of beauty in both modern and golden age settings, allowing for the making of the music to truly be explored in multiple ways.
The soundtrack is an eclectic mix of dreamy synths, golden age strings and throbbing electronics, tied together by a sense of the protagonist’s desperation to be seen.
“We wanted the score to reflect both the darkness and isolation of the character but also his yearning to be part of the community. With such a variety of styles in the score it was a fun challenge to explore those themes in different ways and with different instrumentations.” (James Mountain)
The student graduate film also won the award for Highly Commended Major Project and has now entered its film festival circuit, earning itself a semi-finalist at Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival and a selection at the Down Under Film Festival 2025.
Screening in Berlin in October, Down Under Film Festival Directors Mala Ghedia and Angus McGruther had the following to say about Lincoln:
“Whitford’s short film Lincoln is beautifully crafted and superbly performed. Its depiction of a misfit teen’s sexual awakening is at once compelling and thought-provoking.” - Down Under Film Festival (Berlin and Copenhagen).
More about Lincoln can be found on ‘thecreekco’ production company Instagram account, and the soundtrack can be found on all streaming platforms:
Best Australian Films of 2024
Short film Oi named Best Australian Film of 2024 by theCurb.com.au. Written by Andrew F Peirce.
Short film Oi named Best Australian Film of 2024 by theCurb.com.au. Written by Andrew F Peirce.
2024 Screen Music Awards nominees revealed
James Mountain nominated for Emerging Composer of the Year.
Via APRA AMCOS
In recognition of screen music composers on the rise, the brand-new Emerging Screen Composer of the Year category features four outstanding nominees - Alex Olijnyk, who most recently co-composed the original score for Fake and is also nominated for The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie and Celeste in the Short Film category; Ayda Akbal, an accomplished composer, songwriter and producer who explores emotion and culture in her work and has recently released Where Do I Belong? Here, about what it means to grow up first-generation Turkish-Australian; James Mountain, who in 2023 received a Screen Music Award for Best Music for a Short Film for his score for Mud Crab; and Luna Pan, an award-winning screen, advertising and game composer who has created soundtracks for feature films and TV programs including The Block, Bondi Rescue and Bluey.
Screen Music Awards announces 2024 nominees
Young composers Alex Olijnyk, Ayda Akbal, James Mountain and Luna Pan are the first ever nominees in the Emerging Composer of the Year category.
“Young composers Alex Olijnyk, Ayda Akbal, James Mountain and Luna Pan are the first ever nominees in the Emerging Composer of the Year category.”
Luna and the Brain Tuna selected for Adelaide Film Festival
Screening with Australian Shorts.
Screening with Australian Shorts.
AFTRS Students and Alumni Celebrate the World Premiere of Oi at MIFF 2024
The short film Oi, produced by a crew of AFTRS students, recent graduates, and alumni, has been selected to screen at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere.
The short film Oi, produced by a crew of AFTRS students, recent graduates, and alumni, has been selected to screen at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere.
Winners announced for 2023 St Kilda Film Festival
Taking home the most awards was Mud Crab. David Robinson-Smith took home Best Director for this film, which was also awarded Best Original Score by James Mountain; Best Achievement in Cinematography by Jacyln Paterson; and Best Actor for Joshua Mehmet.
Mud Crab nominated for 7 awards at St Kilda Film Festival
Including a nomination for Best Short Film, and Best Original Score for James Mountain’s music.
AFTRS Student Films Claim Major Prizes at FlickerFest
Mud Crab received the Avid Award for Best Original Music in an Australian Short Film, in recognition of the work of composer James Mountain.
via AFTRS
Composer James Mountain & Director David Robinson-Smith | Mud Crab
AFTRS Master of Arts Screen graduates have started 2023 off strong, receiving three major prizes for student films at the 32nd edition of Flickerfest. This follows a bumper year that saw multiple AFTRS films appear in major international festivals such as Cannes and Palm Springs.
David Robinson-Smith’s 2021 MA graduate film Mud Crab has also returned from abroad to receive the Avid Award for Best Original Music in an Australian Short Film, in recognition of the work of composer James Mountain’s (Master of Arts Screen: Music, 2020). The film recently earned first place in the Asia-Pacific in the 2022 CILECT CAPA Best Film Competition, placing fourth worldwide. Mud Crab saw its worldwide premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2022 and has since screened at Raindance International Film Festival (UK), Aesthetica International Film Festival (UK), Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Freshwave Film Festival (HK). Mud Crab’s next stop is Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Australian audiences can catch the film streaming on MUBI.
The 32nd annual Flickerfest International and Australian awards were announced in a ceremony on 29 January, following the highly successful 10-day festival at Bondi Pavilion. Flickerfest will now hit the road on a 48-venue national tour to all states and territories across Australia. See the full program here.
Source: https://www.aftrs.edu.au/news/2023/aftrs-student-films-claim-major-prizes-at-flickerfest/
Film Review: Short and Confronting
Mud Crab is a film on the edge with a visceral power and is showing as part of this year’s Flickerfest. Review by Martin Fabinyi
‘Mud Crab’ playing at 2023 FlickerFest
Mud Crab will screen as part of the Best of Australian Shorts 3 program.
Tickets: https://flickerfest.com.au/programme/best-of-australian-shorts-3-2023/
‘Sunset Country’ now streaming on ABC iview
On a scorching hot weekend in rural Victoria - love, loss and grief culminate leaving an aging father and his daughter to contemplate his impending mortality.
Film Review: Short film ‘Sunnies’ teaches a lesson while delving into heavy subjects
4-star review of Sunnies by Rhiannon Clarke
AFTRS Films Win Major International Film School Prizes
The winners of the CILECT Awards are chosen by the community of CILECT schools, which includes 180 institutions from 65 countries.
via AFTRS
Two AFTRS student films have taken top honours at this year’s CILECT CAPA Awards. CAPA is the Asia-Pacific Association of CILECT, the International Association of Film and Television Schools.
Mud Crab, a 2020 capstone project of AFTRS’s Master of Arts Screen, won the Best Film – Fiction prize in the CAPA regional section and was placed fourth worldwide. Acts for the Invisible, also from the 2020 Master of Arts Screen, won the CAPA Best Film – Documentary prize.
The winners of the CILECT Awards are chosen by the community of CILECT schools, which includes 180 institutions from 65 countries. Voting panels include students, professors and staff, amounting to hundreds of members on each panel.
Mud Crab, written and directed by David Robinson-Smith, will have its international premiere in October, with details to be announced in the coming weeks, following the film’s recent world premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival. The film centres on a woman reflecting on her culpability, as she recounts the traumatising assault she witnessed of a young man in a small Australian coastal town. David’s Master of Arts Screen collaborators include producers Adam Daniel and Adam Finney, production designers Sharna Graham and Calum Wilson Austin, editor James Taylor, composer James Mountain and sound designer Nathan Turnbull. Cinematographer Jaclyn Paterson is a 2017 graduate of AFTRS.
“The CILECT Awards are highly competitive and recognise the very best in student filmmaking from film schools around the world. For AFTRS and its students to be awarded first prize in both the fiction and documentary categories two years running is a significant achievement. Our congratulations to the brilliant filmmaking teams and to the AFTRS teaching staff who have guided their film studies,” said AFTRS Director of Teaching and Learning, David Balfour.
Source: https://www.aftrs.edu.au/news/2022/aftrs-films-win-major-international-film-school-prizes/