Film Maker

You can now vote for my short documentary film “Identity (Who Am I?)” in the Filmmaker Sessions 2026 Volume 3 online film festival by the Lift-Off Global Network.

“Identity (Who Am I?)” has been officially selected in the New Voices category along with 150 other short films. If you are a mega film buff and want to check out all the 5 categories of the Filmmaker Sessions 2026 Volume 3 click here. If you want to jump straight to the check out page for the New Voices category to watch and vote for click here. The $12 to watch the films goes to the Lift-Off Global Network. If you want to support the future films I’m working on I’d love to hear from you. When voting for “Identity (Who Am I?)” you’ll also need to select 3 other films to vote for. I haven’t seen any of the others yet but I’m looking forward to seeing them. If you want to let me know which other films connected with you I’d love to know. Voting is open until Sunday 22nd March. Please share as widely as you can to help me win.

Limited edition merch only available until 31st March 2026.

2025 what a year it was..

The Lift-Off Film Maker Sessions are different to other film festivals in two ways. One: you need to rent the films to watch them $12 or 22 films is cheap per film. Two: you vote for your top four favourites not just the top one. So I’ve copied the synopsis’s from each film’s page in this blog post to help you find the films you might like quicker. The only information I’ve added in is the first line under each movie title about the subtitles as many of the films aren’t in english.

Every vote for my film feature film “WUITAB” is greatly appreciated. You helped my short film “F.O.A.” win an Audience Choice Winner for Lift-Off Sessions Volume 12! Thanks to everyone who voted for WUITAB I didn’t win but it was fun sharing East Gippsland with the world.

“WUITAB” officially released midnight Christmas Eve. The soundtrack is also available on CD. DVD now available to order in PAL and NTSC formats. I’m still working on making other media options available. If you want some quirky WUITAB merch there are two designs to choose from. The “I fell asleep watching WUITAB” design and the “I stayed awake until the end of WUITAB” design.

The final? film festival “F.O.A.” is in for 2025 has just kicked off. The Lift-Off Sessions 2025 Volume 12 online festival runs from 15th December – 28th December. “F.O.A.” is in the Trendsetter Shorts section with 31 other films. If you want to watch them all it’s a $12 ticket to rent the collection. They firmly believe that indie films shouldn’t be given away for free.

You can watch now on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and your computer. If you are a massive movie buff there are also New Voices, Trailblazers Shorts, Student Shorts, and Features sections that you can get tickets too and binge watch.

If you check out the trendsetter shorts section, you can vote for “F.O.A.” with the code you’ll get in the email with your ticket information. You’ll be asked to vote for your four favourites so you may want to watch some of the others and make an informed decision. If I get enough votes I’ll move onto the next stage, which would be an exciting start to 2026.

“F.O.A.” is available for your viewing pleasure anytime on Rumble and Odysee or you can watch it on YouTube. If you would like to partner with me in making future films I have more waiting to be made.

F.O.A. the stop motion short film that wasn’t meant to exist but also clearly was meant to exist. It was the film that I created when multiple circumstances meant I wouldn’t get the one I had been planning on creating finished in time. Yet the end result of how all the individual elements came together and how people have connected with it, is more than I expected.

It was an honor to have F.O.A. selected to be featured on SBS TV mine is shown at the 24 minute mark.

Here’s the video of the red carpet awards day for the Focus On Ability Short Film Festival 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/live/cKQSioMp3c8

If you just want the moment I found out the result without waiting..

Below is a photo from the Melbourne screening when I won the first award for F.O.A. This photo gives you an idea of how big Melanie is.

5 film festivals so far, and more to come.

2024 what a year it was..

In 2024 The Focus On Ability Short Film Festival selected the two short films I submitted as finalists. In the open category I entered “The Continuing Adventures Of Elise & Puppy” a continuation of the story from my 2023 entry. This story and animation were created from scratch in 2024.

“The Continuing Adventures Of Elise & Puppy” is also available on Rumble and Odysee.

In the documentary category I entered “Endless Refrain – The Journey So Far” giving a brief snapshot on the origins of Endless Refrain.

Click here to watch “Endless Refrain – The Journey So Far”

After creating the two short films “Elise’s Blanket” and “Identity (Who Am I?)” for the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival early in 2023, the film maker hat stuck firmly to Neville’s head and he started creating more short films in the second half of 2023. You can binge watch the entire Tuesday Tunes playlist to enjoy the entire journey. If you just want the songs recorded as songs by Endless Refrain in 2024 without the songs that were recorded as spoken word videos then you can find them here.

2023 What a year it was..

Neville Hiatt’s debut animated film “Elise’s Blanket” was selected as a finalist in the 2023 Focus on Ability Short Film Festival in the Australian Open Category.

“Elise’s Blanket” is also available on Rumble and Odysee.

Neville Hiatt’s debut documentary “Identity (Who am I?)” was selected as a finalist in the 2023 Focus on Ability Short Film Festival in the Australian Documentary category.