Pride Foundation Australia has announced a new partnership with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) to develop a new short film initiative to platform queer Australian stories.
The initiative will give one Australian creative team a $40,000 grant to produce a short film up to 10 min that will have its World Premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2026.
The Adelaide Film Festival and Pride Foundation Australia are committed to increasing equity for LGBTQIA+ Australians to tell their stories.
Priority will be given to applicants who are First Nations, newly arrived migrants, forcibly displaced people including refugees, and people from CALD backgrounds and/or regional and rural communities to develop their screen storytelling craft and build their professional careers.
“Making a short film is such a critical stepping stone for emerging writers, directors and producers and, with this new initiative, we want to support the career development of LGBTQIA+ writers and directors and encourage them to form a creative team with an experienced producer, preferably South Australian,” said Mat Kesting, AFF CEO and Creative Director.
“The World Premiere of the selected short film at the Adelaide Film Festival will lead, we hope, to the creative team going on to make many more screen projects – which one day may also be Adelaide Film Festival World Premieres,” said Kesting.
“We are so excited to partner with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund in creating this opportunity to support under-represented filmmakers and less amplified voices from within the community,” said Ruth McNair, Chair of Pride Foundation Australia.
“This investment will not only benefit individual career development but will also benefit LGBTQIA+ people and allied communities in Australia through seeing themselves represented on screen. This is part of our greater mission to advocate for systemic change for the most marginalised LGBTQIA+.”
The initiative is now open for applications, and will close on Friday 12 September 2025. For more information and to apply, visit: www.adelaidefilmfestival.org for details.
Image: Film Festival Audience – photo courtesy of Adelaide Film Festival