Illawarra movie shines bright at Sweeping Plains festival
Judges' eyes were caught by LudoVic - a story about a boy, a hat and the end of the world
A film by Screen Illawarra’s Nick Bolton and production company Ten Alphas has won two categories at this year’s Sweeping Plains Film Festival.
LudoVic, “a story about a boy, a hat and the end of the world”, screened at the inaugural Sweeping Plains event, a showcase of independent and emerging voices at Palace Cinemas Moore Park on September 30.
Nick, whose film bagged best film and best production design categories, said it was "really good" that the hard work of the production team behind LudoVic had already been acknowledged with so many awards, including Official Selection at the Verona International Short Film Festival and semi-finalist at the New York Indie Shorts Awards 2026.
He also said a film called Ganibarra – a short documentary about the displacement of First Nations people from Country and the systemic killing of dingoes that followed, and which had been shown at this year’s inaugural Screen Illawarra First Nations Film Festival – was gaining plenty of positive exposure.
“It’s getting to every film festival going at the moment, so we’re very happy with that.”
Kiama added to event schedule
More than 50 people attended Screen Illawarra’s first event held at Finding Fillmore’s in Kiama.
The October 8 function was a re-screening of six commissioned films – Faye, Birdwatcher, MiMic, Firebird, Mama Bird and Bin Day – from the 2026 Creative Wollongong Short Film Festival.
“It was brilliant, really good – total full house, lovely reception."
Nick said Finding Fillmore’s was "an amazing venue: it’s like Frank’s Wild Years [in Thirroul], but five times as big.
“They could probably have 100 people there to watch a gig and we had 50 seats for the cinema.
“Lovely group of people, great venue – so we're going to do that once a quarter now.”
Screen Illawarra’s next networking drinks are scheduled to be held on Tuesday, October 20 at Headlands Hotel in Austinmer.
Unbroken Whispers: The ripples connecting sea
There are two screening events coming up.
The first is the Illawarra launch of Unbroken Whispers, a night of story, sea country and connection with Associate Professor Jodi Edwards and award-winning photographer and producer Natalia Baechtold.
"Dr Jodi Edwards has made three films as part of her PhD or thesis, so we are screening them on the 29th of October at the Gala Cinema in Wollongong,” Nick said.
“It's a 6.20pm arrival for blue carpet [to tie-in with the films’ ocean themes], not a red carpet, light refreshments and then the films start at 7pm."
Each film is about half an hour long. Afterwards, the audience is invited to stay on for a Q&A with Nick and Jodi.
Tickets are free and available via Screen Illawarra.
New films at November fundraiser
The second Screen Illawarra event will be on November 14.
“We’re having a showcase of six or seven new films that weren't part of Creative Wollongong [Short Film Festival], and this is going to be a fundraiser for Screen Illawarra, entry by compulsory donation, so as long as people pay a dollar, they're welcome,” Nick said.
“There's some really good films. A lot of these films are winning lots of awards around the festival circuit at the moment.”
