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NEXT FRAME Animation Festival 2025

Backlot Studios, South Melbourne

The first NEXT FRAME Animation Festival was held in November of 2025. We gathered to chat with fellow creatives, hear talks from guest speakers, and celebrate some awesome films from the community. Check out a recap of the program below!

Talks

NFAF 2025 featured talks from Studio Psycho and Dom Aldis (Princess Bento).


NFAF 2025 Selections

Best Super-Short

  • Babytiger's Big Day Out - Evie TC

    An adventurous young tiger cub goes on a journey that tests the limits of her camouflage.

  • Bleaching - Nguyen Thao Nguyen

    This project addresses the coral bleaching crisis by directly linking the tragedy to the consequences of consumerism, reframing it through the cynical lens of advertising. A direct parallel is drawn between the aesthetics of a whitening cosmetic commercial and the bleaching of a reef, questioning the popular cultural narratives of “purity” and “cleansing”.

  • Chaga - Chaga

    What goes inside an animators head? Honestly no idea. Dive into Chaga's mind and explore her world inside - filled with stars, x0.5 shots and cat memes.

  • Home - George Bullen

    An eccentric person finds home somewhere else.

  • Perfectly Normal Bedroom... - Jayden Bong

    To free a child from insomnia, a Demon Slaying Rat must kill the Sleep Paralysis Demon!

  • Favorite Things (Cat Ver.) - Gabriella Lee

    A secret jazz club where the cats get together and jam keeps getting disrupted by a mysterious figure in the darkness...

  • R - Tas Smith

    A man tries his disappearing act when a magician visits—absurdist slapstick inspired by Georges Méliès and The Pink Panther Show.

  • TÓRAÍOCHT - Wynn Kelly-Buttfield

    Once upon a time there was a little girl called Aoife, and one day she found herself very far from home...

  • Garden - Rachel Huang

    A girl plants a fruit tree with the help of her little worm friend.

  • What a Catch! - Chloe Lau

    Never ever turn your back on a cunning bird at the zoo – especially if you have a big day planned.

Best Design

  • Catastrophe - Chloe Bernard

    A girl (and her cat) wakes up late for work. The two traverse a chaotic, unpredictable city in a race against the clock.

  • The Husk - Nguyen Khanh Bui

    A stranded astronaut fights for survival on a hostile planet that warps his body and mind, tormented by a hidden entity that feeds on his suffering and loneliness in a twisted act of love.

  • IL CATTIVO BAMBINO - Team Bambini

    IL CATTIVO BAMBINO is about modern life as cartoon. And also a naughty Italian baby who crash lands into a gay man’s world.

  • Undercroft - Mikaela Ramsay & Ell Donegan

    Though her baby boy sits stiff and frigid, his tomb is sweltering, electrified; its web of cables pulsating in rhythm with the blinding lights outside. Through the flesh, the mechanical and the divine, her little lamb will wake once more.

  • ROXIE - Mehul Suneja

    An anxious teen finds himself getting chased by a weirdly hot, anthropomorphic bunny slasher.

  • The Runaway Horses - Daien Ngeiw

    Life, as told through the lens of a stray dog who has a particular fascination for train travel. His everyday observations come to unfold a story surrounding the cosmic relationship of fate and time.

  • Back to Mama! - Craig Weng

    A scientist returns an alien egg back to its mama.

  • Wade - Alex Kee

    What awaits beyond a man’s horizons remains hidden so long as the hole he digs keeps him looking down.

Best Narrative

  • Heartwarming - Libby Goodhue

    Harold the zombie and maud the ghost both start a new office job, but they feel neither seen nor heard. Their struggles result in their work hiring a dead end, but maybe together they can bring it back to life.

  • You Forgot Your Homework - Craig Jones

    You forgot your homework at school and now you must retrieve it in the dead of night before tomorrow morning.

  • Stardrop - Ali Mai

    A Capybara named Sticky Rice gets lost in the dark forest until being found by Stardrop, a pup that resembles Sticky Rice's inner child. In order to be able to go home, Sticky Rice must embark on a journey of healing.

  • Cymebelle - Linn Hyut Oo

    Cymebelle is a haunting psychological mystery that unfolds in a remote village, where grief, denial, and secrets entwine. At the heart of the story is a widow who, after suffering a devastating miscarriage, clings to her child. She would carry the lifeless baby through the village as if it were alive, as a troubled Doctor is drawn into the widow’s unraveling world.

  • Alien Invasion - chiyarasan

    A young girl is determined to prove that aliens exist.

  • Fay-Drink - Xiaoxin Chen

    A young office worker lost the hope for her life - Fay-drink, and the companionship of its mascot, Fay-fay, as the beverage company reported having food safety issues.

  • Fishboy - Poh Christa

    A boy feels the pressure of his overly-enthusiastic dad’s wish for him to continue his swimming legacy.


NFAF 2025 Winners

Best Design

Roxie - Mehul Suneja

Best Narrative

HeartWarming - Libby Goodhue

Best Super-Short

Babytiger's Big Day Out - Evie TC

Best Film

Fishboy - Poh Christa


NFAF 2025 is proudly sponsored by Greenhills Media Group