Inspiring anyone with a smartphone to tell their story through film

SF3 is one of the biggest smartphone film festivals and educators in the world, bringing affordable and accessible filmmaking to all.

Drum roll for all the winners from our 11th season!

THIS is the post you’ve all been waiting for…the winners of our 11th Gala Finals. Here are the creme de la creme of smartphone films. Experiencing them on the big screen at the Sydney Opera House at a completely sold-out event was a vibe! The HUGEST congrats to all 16 of our Gala Films. YOU are what makes us SF3.

And the winners of SF3 2025/26 are:

SF3 Best Film Award, SF3 & Blackmagic Design Award , SF3 & Australian Cinematographers Society Best Cinematography Award and SF3 Best Documentary – Squashbox by SJ van Breda

SF3 Best Feature Film Award – Fire Alive by JAMES DEMITRI

SF3 Best Director Award supported by the Australian Directors’ Guild and the SF3 & Luma Touch Finished on Mobile Award – Umami by Aida Bahrami

SF3 & ACS Best Cinematography Runner-Up Award – René Burleigh for Umami

SF3 #FILMBREAKER Award, SF3 & Australian Writers’ Guild Guild Best Screenplay Award & the SF3 Best Original Score Award supported by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers – My Wife Made Me Talk by Philippe Klaus

SF3 & Australian Writers’ Guild Best Screenplay Award – Sundown Syndrome by Livia Hendricks

SF3 #FILMBREAKER Award – SUPERBOYFRIEND by Kristy McDonnell & Nehir Hatipoglu

SF3 & WIFT NSW Best Female Creative – Viol8te by Narelle Nash

SF3 Best AI Film – The 5-Minute Empire by Tez Frost

SF3 First Nations Award – Brandon Fairley for Cactus

SF3 and Chicken & Chicken and Chips Casting Pitch Award – The Devil You Don’t Know by Tyrone Bruinsma

SF3 Best Editing Award – UNSAVED by Ali Wells

SF3 Best Actor Award – Rhys Sherlock for DRIFTER

SF3 Best Actress Award – Kathy Luu for My Wife Made Me Talk

SF3 Best Original Score Award supported by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers– Squashbox by David ‘Qadasi’ Jenkins & Maqhinga Radebe

Our 11th Festival closed with a bang – with our SF3 Mini & Feature Film Screenings AND we were the very last event to be held at the beautiful Palace Chauvel Cinema. It was a day of fun, friends and fabulous films; a curation from across the globe of films from just 1 minute in length to our 93 minute feature film, Fire Alive, which had a few people leaving cause it was so scary. Soo fun. And we also gave out some awards. Congrats to everyone and our winners are:

SF3 Kids Feature Film Award – Unholy Union by Aaron Scully and The Hills Drama School Advanced Teen Class – Leisel Hussey, Sierra Turner, Danielle Attard, Arwen Phillips, Fintan Hogan, Jared Elliott, Riley Fletcher, Riley Taylor & Aarushi Singla\

SF3 Feature Film Award – Fire Alive by James JAMES DEMITRI

SF3 Founders’ Flick Pick – Not Born Yesterday by Michèle Jedlicka

SF3 & Spineless Wonders Short Australian Stories Best Adaptation Award – The Park by Aaron Scully and The Hills Drama School Adult Class – Fintan Hogan, Fred Khan, Patrick Kucharski, Claire Peng & Emily Rankin

SF3 & Spineless Wonders Short Australian Stories Best Adaptation Author Award – CARPARK by Tanya Vavilova

SF3 Community Award – Kung Fu Debut by Bevan Garozzo

SF3 Best Australian Mini Award – NAMASTE by Vladimir Zokitch

SF3 Best Australian Mini Runner-Up Award – Over the Hill in Clackerville by Nathan Baldassero & Steven Caldwell

SF3 Best Australian Mini Runner-Up Award – Auditum by Natasha Reynolds

SF3 Best International Mini Award – Signal by Hari Varma

SF3 Best International Mini Runner-Up Award – Sombras by Julia Papa & Olivia Cogorno

SF3 Best International Mini Runner-Up Award – Adam v Ammo by Kevin, Otis & Rose Jones

JOY – that is how to sum up our SF3 Kids Screening at the Sydney Opera House! We had the most wonderful day celebrating the talents of our youngest filmmakers aged from just 4 years old all the way through to 18! These kids know how to make films and tell a great story and it’s an absolute honour to champion them at SF3 Kids.

Here’s a list of the Award Winners and congrats to all 25 finalists:

SF3 Best Primary School Film Award, SF3 & Blackmagic Design Award Primary School & SF3 Best Actress Award – Cooking with Frankie and Pina by Aria, Frankie & Pina Macedone

SF3 Best High School Film Award and SF3 & ACS Best Cinematography Award Winner – Colo(u)rful 3D SQUARE by Dylan Quick

SF3 Best Director Award – Communication by Indianna Thompson

SF3 & AWG Best Screenplay Award – Someone Like Me – An Allegory About Belonging by Ashley Black, Malachi Butler, Tyler Letcher, Chahlisah Wongsa, Lacey Mowbray, Dominic Beeton, Jack Wheeler & Chelsea Rowley-Sissions

SF3 Best Editing Award – The Brother Duel by Andy Tang

SF3 Best Actor Award – Matthew Pieri for Communication

SF3 Best Actress Award – Polina Kryvokyyzha, Sofiya Karmalita & Elina Myshanych for The City

SF3 Best Original Score Award – Paradise by Ella Grace Helton

SF3 & Blackmagic Cam Award High School – They Call Me BART by Zac Deren

SF3 Community Award – The Heist by Jonathan Shaw & Josh and Joyce

SF3 & ACS Best Cinematography Runner-Up Award – Aston Di Donato for NAIVE

A very big thank you to our 2025/26 sponsors who are donating over $50,000 in prizes for our award winners!

SF3 Major Sponsors are Blackmagic Design & Rode Microphones.

Silver Sponsors are Melodie, Luma Touch and Try & Byte.

Bronze Sponsors are Chicken & Chips Casting, Rubber Monkey & Waterloo Studios / Sydney Film School and Sydney Actors School

Our 2025 Prize Sponsors are Reeflex, StoryBoard Quick, the Australian Cinematographers Society, the Australian Writers’ Guild, the Australian Directors’ Guild, Screen Producers Association, the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, Ribbet, The Hub Studio, WriterDuet, InkTip, iPitch.tv, WIFT NSW, AACTA/AFI, Backstage, StarNow, Shot Lister, FilmLocal, Song Saga, Spineless Wonders, NIDA, Trenear Printing, Film Ink, ACTS and Ironbark Digital.

And thanks to support from the City of Sydney and Screen NSW.

Our Venue Partner is the Sydney Opera House.

What is SF3?

SF3 or the SmartFone Flick Fest is one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals for filmmakers of all ages and abilities. We are a world-wide festival open to anyone with a smartphone or tablet and a great idea for a short film.

Tell me more

Past SF3 Films

Our recent winners are all on the festival circuit but you can watch some of our old finalists here from across the years and be inspired to pick up your phone and create your own!

Watch Now

SF3 is a top tier Smartphone Film Festival. The team genuinely love smartphone filmmaking and supporting smartphone filmmakers. They watch the films, they know the filmmakers. The festival is a professional, warm and inviting space.

Darcy Yuille

Filmmaker & SF3 Best Feature Film Award Winner

This is the new wave of filmmaking and is something all cinema lovers will appreciate — it’s a short, sharp feast of film.

Nicole Da Silva

Actor & SF3 Ambassador

A really fantastic festival run by the team with some phenomenal industry support. They really care about the filmmakers and put on a spectacular show.

Joshua Belinfante

Filmmaker & SF3 Multi-Award Winner

Workshops

We run smartphone filmmaking workshops around Australia and the world, from one hour classes to five day workshops to students of all ages and abilities, both live and online. Email us to find out more – sf3@sf3.com.au

Get Involved

Our Ambassadors

Our Ambassadors are the most wonderful and supportive professionals from the elite of the film industry and include: Phillip Noyce, Kerry Armstrong, Nicole da Silva, Christopher Stollery, Kriv Stenders, Pieter de Vries, Garry Maddox, Kara Rose, Jon Bell, Anthony Kierann, Jason van Genderen & Emily Prior.

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