Everything you need to know about the AACTA nominated short, The Moths Will Eat Them Up

Ling Cooper Tang in The Moths Will Eat Them Up.

Dynamic female filmmaking duo Tanya Modini (writer, co-director) and Luisa Martiri (co-director/producer) are on the ride of their careers with their short film The Moths Will Eat Them Up continuing to garner international praise via film festivals around the world.

Like moths to a flame, the award nominations keep racking up with the most recent accolades including a nomination for Short Film for outstanding writing achievements for the 55^th Annual AWGIE Awards plus Best Sound for a Live Action Short ASSG Awards 2022 which accompanies their recent nomination for an AACTA Award for Best Short Film 2022. Also, a recent winner of the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Australian Short Film and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director at Sydney Film Festival 2022. The Moths Will Eat Them Up also screened at the St Kilda Film Festival.

The film will be screening in Queensland at the Heart Of Gold Short Film Festival in late October and is currently touring as part of the Sydney Travelling Film Festival where it will play next in Townsville, Cairns and Southport in November. It will also have its International premiere at the Show Me Shorts in New Zealand in October as well as the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York in the UK in November. Could this be Australia’s Oscar nomination for 2023?

Driven to create film content which allows everyone to authentically explore the deep-seated fears women live with every day in an accessible way has catapulted Modini and Martiri to a much wider film audience. Testament to this is also the signing of an international distribution deal with MagnetFilm in Berlin.

Inspired by true-life events, Tanya Modini’s personal experience on a train ride home one night, led her to write The Moths Will Eat Them Up. Her interest and insights into this subject have been developed through working in the prevention of violence against women sector for many years.

What should have been a simple train ride home at night for a woman turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse until an unforeseen force is summoned. The short film is a psychological thriller that exposes the terror of gendered violence against women, and how some men choose to be bystanders – ignoring other men’s violence as ‘none of their business’. The themes of hope and collective strength also emerge, seen metaphorically in the story as an omnipresent collective women’s spirit of protection and justice.

Luisa Martiri and Tanya Modini first met through the RIDE Short Film Initiative (Respect, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality) led by Unless Pictures and funded by Screen Queensland after Modini’s project was selected for funding in 2021. Luisa Martiri was interested in creating, thought-provoking cinema that centres diverse, female stories so the pairing of these two dynamic women was kismet. Luisa produced and co-directed the short film alongside writer and co-director Tanya Modini.

“Our desire is to contribute to a more diverse film industry, so we crewed and cast with a majority of females from a variety of backgrounds. Given the subject matter of the film, we felt it was even more important the female perspective was front and centre from beginning to the end of the process. We are proud of the fact we had a 65% female crew and provided opportunities to emerging female creatives,” say Modini and Martiri in a joint statement.

Kevin Spink in The Moths Will Eat Them Up.

From the Directors

By Tanya Modini and Luisa Martiri

The Moths Will Eat Them Up is a psychological thriller that exposes the terror of gendered violence against women. It also explores how some men choose to be bystanders – ignoring other men’s violence as ‘none of their business’. The themes of hope and collective strength also emerge, seen metaphorically in the story as an omnipresent collective women’s spirit of protection and justice.

Tanya wrote The Moths Will Eat Them Up after experiencing a similar incident on a train at night but her interest and insights into this subject have been developed through working in the prevention of violence against women sector for many years.

While watching this film, we want the viewer to experience what it feels like to be a woman travelling alone at night in contemporary society – to put the audience firmly in the shoes of this woman and have them question what they might have done in this situation. To accentuate this, we shot the scenes outside the train in a wider aspect ratio (2.35:1) but as soon as our protagonist steps into the train carriage, the aspect ratio changes to 3:2 – thus creating a sense of a more confined space that she is trapped within.

The positioning of The Moths Will Eat Them Up within the thriller genre helps elevate the film beyond the traditional audience that might be interested in and watch content about women’s issues – opening it up to a much wider audience. The Moths Will Eat Them Up intrinsically thrills and entertains but has a sting in its tail that reflects the zeitgeist and mood for change currently being felt around the world. The Moths Will Eat Them Up flips the thriller genre from the male gaze to the female gaze and perspective – something that allows us to authentically explore the deep-seated fears we live with every day as women.

Ling Cooper Tang in The Moths Will Eat Them Up.

About the Production

The Moths Will Eat Them Up was supported by Screen Queensland as part of the RIDE (Respect, Inclusivity, Diversity, Equality) Short Film Initiative in 2021. The initiative granted six Queensland (Australia) filmmakers from under-represented backgrounds 55,000 AUD each towards the development of a short film. Each team was mentored by Executive Producers Meg O’Connell and Jackson Lapsley-Scott from Unless Pictures from development through to post-production.

In an effort to contribute to a more diverse film industry, the production was crewed and cast majority females from a variety of backgrounds. Given the subject matter of the film, the filmmakers felt it was even more important the female perspective was front and centre from beginning to end of the process. 65% female crew worked on the film which also provided opportunities to emerging female creatives.

Over a period of three months of pre-production, writer/co-director Tanya Modini and producer/co-director Luisa Martiri set out to overcome the logistical challenges of The Moths Will Eat Them Up and bring Tanya’s vision to life. The script was incredibly ambitious, featuring a moving train and a continuous presence of moths, the symbolic through line of the film. The filmmakers managed to obtain access to an out-of-commission train carriage and utilised simulated travel for our moving train scenes. The train stations and train carriage being in separate locations also provided us with an interesting, creative obstacle. Shot across 2.5 days, it was a fast-paced shoot and a challenge bringing together all the technical aspects of the film. The VFX came together beautifully in post-production, along with the sound and score, heightening the film’s suspense and impact.

Tanya Modini

Writer & Co-Director

Tanya Modini is a screenwriter and director from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland who is driven to create impactful, entertaining content featuring stories told through authentically diverse perspectives.

Tanya’s writing is informed by her wide-ranging previous work roles which include police officer, trauma counsellor, and as an advocate in the prevention of violence against women.

She brings direct experience and an ongoing interest in exploring the differing ways that people emotionally react to crises and confronting stimuli, and will always take on challenges and push boundaries to champion diversity, and promote LGBTIQ+ and women’s issues wherever she can.

Tanya wrote and co-directed short film The Moths will Eat them Up which was selected for the Sydney Film Festival 2022 where it won the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director. Tanya was selected alongside her co-writer and producer Stephanie Dower, to take part in the inaugural Attagirl development lab 2020 as the co-writer/director for feature Seeing Scout, and was a finalist in the Screen Queensland Greg Coote Scholarship 2020.

Luisa Martiri

Producer & Co-Director

Luisa Martiri is an award-winning director and producer driven to create exciting, thought-provoking cinema that centres diverse, female stories. In 2021, Luisa produced and co-directed the short film The Moths Will Eat Them Up alongside writer & co-director Tanya Modini. The Moths Will Eat Them Up was funded and supported by Screen Queensland as part of their RIDE (Respect, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality) Short Film Initiative, led by Unless Pictures. The Moths Will Eat Them Up was an official selection of Sydney Film Festival, St Kilda Film Festival, Cinefest Oz, Aesthetica Short Film Festival and Show Me Shorts NZ 2022. At St Kilda Film Festival, it was nominated for Best Actor, Best Achievement in Sound Post-Production and Best Original Score. It won the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Australian Short Film and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director at Sydney Film Festival 2022. Recently, it received a 2022 AACTA nomination for Best Short Film.

In 2020, Luisa produced and directed her sophomore short film, Pools, alongside writer Alex Philp, marking their second film collaboration thus far. The film follows a young woman who takes a road trip to Brisbane to terminate her pregnancy alongside her reluctant mother. Pools was an official selection at Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2021 and had its World Premiere in Bondi, Sydney in January 2021. Since then, Pools has screened in Brisbane and the Gold Coast as part of Flickerfest’s national tour and Queensland filmmaker showcase; Cinefest Oz 2021; and had its international premiere at Show Me Shorts 2021 in New Zealand.

She has completed various courses in filmmaking including Girls on Film: Creating Strong Female Characters at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney and an International Professional Certificate Program in Film and Television at the University of California in Los Angeles. Recently, she was selected for the QLD edition of AFTRS Talent Camp. Luisa has a passion for showcasing female stories and the complex bonds between women on screen.

The Moths Will Eat Them Up will screen at the Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival on Thursday, October 27. Details here.