It's been true for 42 years now, and it's true again in 2026: you'll find big things in small packages at the St Kilda Film Festival. Australia's oldest short film festival has now spent more than four decades celebrating bite-sized filmmaking. Shorts couldn't be more crucial to the cinematic cycle of life — they're where directors, writers, actors and more cut their teeth; they make excellent calling cards and stepping stones; and telling a tale in a concise way is a pivotal skill that isn't always put into action in full-length features — which this Melbourne event champions annually. Showcasing all of the above is again on the marquee this year, lighting up the silver screen from Thursday, June 4, to Sunday, June 14. Talents with their work on the lineup today could be tomorrow's huge names; this is an event that's played shorts by Adam Elliot (Memoir of a Snail), Matthew Saville (Noise), Kriv Stenders (The Correspondent), Cate Shortland (Black Widow) and Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) in the past. On the bill for 2026: 11 days of screenings heroing over 190 short flicks of all genres, plus a range of talks, panels, special events and live performances. It all kicks off with a spectacular opening night at the Palais Theatre, then also hits up The Astor Theatre, JMC Academy's Park Street campus, Victorian Pride Centre and St Kilda Town Hall. As always, the backbone of the festival is Australia's top short films, complete with filmmakers from every corner of the country competing for prizes. Also on the bill at ticketed screenings: programs dedicated to queer, First Nations, documentary, family-friendly animation, Aussie comedy, international, mystery, drama, experimental, female-directed and Victorian-made shorts. What sorts of stories can you expect? Highlights include Faceless, a story of three parallel lives for an Indigenous man living in Naarm, divided into the margins, the arts and the corporate world; Hugo Weaving as an estranged father crashing a special day for his daughter in Baby Shower; a CEO using his newfound power to prove himself to the girl that got away in The CEO (which is also the live-action debut of Smiling Friends director Michael Cusack) and The Dysphoria, which sees a trans woman haunted by a demon after a failed ritual that was meant to grant her a vagina. Festival Director Richard Sowada said "In spending so much time with this great selection, I have a feeling that 2026 marks a turning point for the short film format in Australia to my eye. We know that some filmmakers who have featured inthe last couple of years of St Kilda Film Festival are now in preproduction with features or embarking on massive cinematic adventures, and that momentum has some serious presence in this year's program. So much confidence. So much risk. So much ambition. It's just great." View this post on Instagram A post shared by St Kilda Film Festival (@stkildafilmfest) Palais Theatre image: J Forsyth.
