We acknowledge and respect the Traditional Owners of lands across Australia, their Elders, Ancestors, cultures and heritage, and recognise the continuing sovereignties of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which the ACTF is based and pay our respect to their Elders past and present.

We are honoured to have the opportunity to learn from the oldest cultural storytellers in the world and seek to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to share their rich culture and perspectives with children in Australia and around the world via stories on screen.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings or text.

Nominations, Festival Screenings and More!

It’s been a week full of special events from the festival circuit.

The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF) will be screening four episodes from ACTF supported shows at this year’s festival! Disney’s hit series Balloon Barnyard (Like A Photon Creative) and NITV’s local favourite, Little J and Big Cuz (Ned Lander Media) have been accepted for the pre-school program. After winning last year’s Children’s Jury Prize, Little Lunch (Gristmill) will return to CICFF, with both "The Nightmare Before Graduation" and "The Halloween Horror Story" accepted for screening. Congratulations to all the teams who brought these series to screen. CICFF is the largest children’s film festival in North America, and recognises its top submissions with both professional and children’s jury prizes throughout the festival in October.

The ACTF hosted an awards presentation for the very first time this week when Lee Gluckman, Chairman of the US Film & Video Festival, made a special visit to recognise Little Lunch. "The Nightmare Before Graduation" picked up a Gold Camera Award and a Best of Festival (Entertainment) Award in June, which Lee personally presented to Gristmill producers Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. Lee’s visit offered a great insight into the inner workings of this 50 year old festival, whose judges were taken by Little Lunch; “The first time I saw it, I thought; I’ve never seen anything so beautiful before.” Lee said.

To cap things off, the Little Lunch Graduation Special has also been accepted as a finalist in the 2017 Japan Prize! Run by Japanese broadcaster NHK, the Japan Prize recognises creative programming with high educational values and positive social themes. This will be Little Lunch’s second time as a finalist in the prize, with the results to be announced in October.