Rose Riley (Clare) in Proclivitas. Photo by David Dare Parker. Credit Lake Martin Films.

The WA Made Film Festival cements its place as the state’s flagship celebration of Western Australian film culture, presenting its biggest-ever lineup of local films to date in 2026.

Held over 11 days across four venues, this year’s eagerly anticipated program features 129 short films, feature films, documentaries and smartphone films; 85 premieres, including 68 world premieres; 16 films made exclusively for the festival; nine ScreenCraft sessions, including panels, free webinars and masterclasses; over 130 filmmaker Q&A guests; and the second annual Student Awards.

“The fact that the WA Made Film Festival continues to screen more and more films each year is a testament to the hardworking and tenacious filmmakers of Western Australia,” says Festival Director Matthew Eeles.

“It’s an honour and a joy to provide the largest platform in WA for local filmmakers to have their work screened in a cinema.”

Acacia Daken as Megan and Oscar Millar as Avery in Lies Within Us

Feature Films

The 2026 WA Made Film Festival will kick off celebrations on Thursday, 19 February with the Western Australian premiere of the anticipated, emotionally charged psychological horror Proclivitas, the debut feature from highly regarded WA filmmaker Miley Tunnecliffe, shot around Perth and Mundaring.

Written and directed by Tunnecliffe (Molly and Cara, The Heights, 100% Wolf) and produced by Kate Separovich (Girt By Sea, Evie, Dirt Music), Proclivitas follows Clare (Rose Riley), a grieving woman who rekindles a romance with her teenage sweetheart, Jerry (George Mason), awakening painful memories of the past and a terrifying demon determined to possess her.

Proclivitas co-stars Hayley McElhinney, Kade Power, Chloe Brink and Steve Le Marquand.

Friday night will see the Australian premiere of the cat-and-mouse survival thriller Shed.

Written and directed by Steven J. Mihaljevich (The Xrossing, Violett), Shed opens on Christmas Eve when a crazed stranger embarks on a murderous rampage, killing a family in cold blood. As he begins to take over the family’s property, he is unaware that one family member remains – a curious and courageous 10-year-old girl, Mia.

Shed is produced by Mihaljevich and Nic McRobbie and stars Mani Shanks (in her WA Screen Culture Award-winning performance), Jason Jones, and Australian acting legend John Jarratt (Wolf Creek).

Other world-premiere feature films screening throughout the festival include Lachlan Saille’s arthouse drama Albatross; Lawrence Murphy and Oscar Millar’s mind-bending escape thriller Lies Within Us; Christopher Mark Peters’ young-adult drama Wreckage; Jason Robert Lester’s anthology horror Bleederville; and documentaries The Femme Fatales of West Australian Wrestling from filmmaker Zeke Morgan-Hind, and Jaron Herren’s AFL documentary The Mustangs, about the Mandurah Mustangs All Abilities AFL team.

The Australian premiere of Carl King’s five-part web series Scratch will also screen in full, along with Richard Eames’ provocative punk thriller Skeleton Girls. A Kidnapped Society.

Small Town Pride.

Short Films

2026 will see the festival’s biggest ever lineup of short films, with popular events such as Long Shorts & Short Longs, Saturday Shorts, Sunday Shorts, Thursday Shorts, Documentary Showcase, Family Flicks and Left of Centre returning to the lineup. Also returning after a hiatus in 2025 is LOL: Comedy Showcase, featuring 16 comedy short films guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.

Get Smart! Presented by Buy West Eat Best

The first Saturday of the festival will see the return of WA’s only smartphone filmmaking competition, Get Smart! Presented by Buy West Eat Best. This year, filmmakers were challenged to create a film around the theme Wave.

All films screened in the showcase were made exclusively for the festival, with the winner of the Best Film award – decided by the festival’s Smart Jury – receiving a $1,000 cash prize. This year’s Smart Jury will be announced soon.

ScreenCraft

The WA Made Film Festival brings together an ensemble of Australia’s leading industry and filmmaking names to present a curated ScreenCraft program designed to inform, challenge and inspire Western Australian screen creatives at every stage of their career.

Building on the success of its inaugural event in 2025, ScreenCraft returns with an exciting mix of live webinars, conversations, in-depth workshops and practical masterclasses led by some of the most respected voices in film.

Highlights include a live recording of the Cinema Australia Podcast, featuring Proclivitas director Miley Tunnecliffe in conversation with host Matthew Eeles, offering rare insight into Miley’s creative journey and career to date.

Emerging practitioners can take real steps forward with a Screenwest-led session unpacking career pathways, funding, development and placement opportunities in WA, while experienced producer Kate Separovich shares hard-earned lessons from drama projects that made it to screen, and those that didn’t.

Bold, interactive sessions with Shane McNeil, David Vincent Smith and Adon Blake dive into storytelling, low-budget filmmaking and collaborative set culture, while workshops on story structure strip away theory overload to reveal how films actually work.

Featuring acclaimed guests including Charles Williams, Ali Roberts, Annie Murtaugh-Monks and Ben Young, ScreenCraft 2026 is an unmissable opportunity to learn, connect and sharpen your craft within WA’s thriving screen industry.

Guy Pearce and Charles Williams on the set of Inside. Photo by Mathew Lynn.

Student Awards

The final day of the festival will celebrate the state’s student filmmakers with a special Student Showcase short film screening, along with the second annual WA Made Film Festival Student Awards, designed to recognise and celebrate emerging talent in the Western Australian film industry.

The 2026 WA Made Film Festival Student Awards provide a unique opportunity for student filmmakers to gain recognition within the local filmmaking community. This dedicated awards event will not only highlight the creativity and dedication of local students but also help strengthen the next generation of WA’s screen industry.

The full 2025 WA Made Film Festival program can be found here.

The WA Made Film Festival is proudly supported by Screenwest, Lotterywest and the City of Perth. Sponsors of the WA Made Film Festival include Buy West Eat Best, Quay Perth, Sandbox, Soundbyte, Fremantle Herald and Perth Voice Newspapers, Palace Cinemas, Edith Cowan University, WA Screen and Media Academy, Murdoch University, Ali Roberts Studio, Perth Actors Centre, Curtin University, RAC Arena, South Beach Boardies, Hunt and Brew, Eventbrite, Film Industry Gateway, Earth Sculptures Pottery and Chalet Retreat, Cinemachine, and is co-presented by Cinema Australia.

If you enjoy Cinema Australia as much as I love publishing it, please consider supporting Cinema Australia’s commitment to the Australian screen industry via a donation below.

I strive to shine a light on Australian movies, giving voice to emerging talent and established artists.

This important work is made possible through the support of Cinema Australia readers.

Without corporate interests or paywalls, Cinema Australia is committed to remaining free to read, watch and listen to, always.

If you can, please consider making a contribution. It takes less than a minute, and your support will make a significant impact in sustaining Cinema Australia as the much-loved publication that it is.

Thank you.

Matthew Eeles
Founder and Editor.

Make a donation here.