End of Year Exhibitions

For more than 50 years, the VCA Film and Television school has presented their graduating students’ short films as an in-cinema experience. At the height of COVID19, VCA Film and Television partnered with Melbourne International Film Festival to shift that tradition to an online format using MIFF’s www.play.miff.com.au streaming platform.

Challenges

The first VCA cohort to screen at MIFF Play online, the graduates of 2020/2021, was a small number of only 30 films. In 2022, however, almost 80 films needed to be completed, prepared, uploaded, subtitled, classified, tagged and quality-controlled before made available for public viewing. This amounted to over 600 minutes of content – or approximately seven feature-films. New systems needed to be invented for students to update press kit materials and sign off on assets.

Outcomes

Prior to moving to MIFFPlay, the VCA partnered with ACMI for a 2-week season of screenings. Approximately 4,000 people went to the cinema across those two weeks to see VCA students’ work. The MIFFPlay platform, live Australia-wide, reached audiences of 14,000 people in 2021, 22,000 people in 2022, and 17,000 people in 2023. Judging purely on reach, a shift to an Australia-wide graduation season was a huge success. Interestingly, the 2023 graduating cohort were given the option of either the MIFF online showcase or a return to an in-cinema season; students overwhelmingly and perhaps unexpectedly chose the MIFFPlay online platform.

Reflections & the Future

Whilst the audience numbers are terrific, the students also wanted to hold cast & crew screenings in person (low-key affairs in the VCA cinema) thus proving that the interest in in-cinema screenings is definitely still there in this generation of filmmakers. Moving into 2024 it remains to be seen whether students will choose MIFFPlay or return to an in-cinema season. What is sure is that the experience has strengthened the partnership between the VCA and MIFF - and has blossomed into a very mutually beneficial enterprise. MIFF’s ability to showcase VCA’s short films to a massive database of genuine film-loving subscribers combined with VCA’s in-built audience of hundreds of students and their thousands of volunteer cast and crew makes for a vital partnership. This is the key to success – whether it be online or an in-cinema graduation showcase.