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.
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