Adelaide creatives head to iconic French film festival
A local creative collective is off to the prestigious international film festival, Cannes, with their home-grown film — made in just two days.
“Speechless,” is how film producer Madison Siegertsz reacts to her nods at the Filmapalooza 2025 for This is Fine.
“I don’t think it sunk in until later in the day where people were like saying, oh, we need to go to France to represent Australia.”
The film was made in October 2024 as part of the Adelaide 48 Hour Film Project, where over 500 professional and amateur filmmakers across 70 teams spent a weekend trying to make films in 48 hours.
The Team CRAM, responsible for This is Fine, members included the CRAM Collective and screen production company titled clarice would like a word (co-founded by the film’s producer, Madison Siegertsz).
After taking part in the 48 Hour Film Project, Team CRAM made This is Fine, which won multiple awards including Best Acting Ensemble, Best Writing, Best Directing and Best Film.
The film then travelled to Seattle for the international Filmapalooza competition, where it received nominations for Best Directing, Best Acting Ensemble and Best Use of Prop. It won the Best Writing and second-runner up for Best Film categories.
This win took This is Fine to the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival.
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Director Ren Williams and Madison tell CityMag that the news is taking its time to sink in.
“It was the last day of Fringe when we found out. And so, I had booked in like four back-to-back shows and I was finding out the news as I was sprinting from show to show,” Ren says.
“I couldn’t process it all at the time because it was just, there was so much happening, but just the amount of like, messages that were flooding through to all of us, oh, just like, the feeling of everyone being so proud. And again, that thing of representing Adelaide and Australia.”
Team CRAM have taken out the prestigious title of third best film at Filmapalooza, a first for the Adelaide 48 Hour Film Project. This picture: supplied.
This is Fine follows three housemates cooped up in their house during a relentless heatwave. Ren Williams describes it as a “fun little dark comedy” with undertones of sobering reflection on the unconquerable climate crisis.
Ren and Madison say they never participate in the 48 Hour Film Project to win awards, but rather to leverage the opportunity to share their passion for filmmaking with their close colleagues and friends who make up Team CRAM.
“I was feeling a bit down in the film industry,” Madison says.
“There were times that I was like, I think I’m going to give up being a producer because I wasn’t getting a lot of recognition and that recognition can be used to be on your resume to get to get other jobs.
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“But then I joined 48 Hour with Ren and I found myself loving film again, just because I enjoyed making films and it made me happy, and I want to continue pursuing that feeling.”
Team CRAM spent 48 hours writing, shooting and editing This is Fine, which won the Adelaide 38 Hour Film Project in November. This picture: supplied.
Kristen Hamill brought the 48 Hour Film Project competition to Adelaide after participating and winning the Boston contest in 2012. While 2024 marked her final year as a City Producer for the competition, she says she’s “incredibly proud” of its growth and the community that the contest continues to foster — one that is epitomised by Team CRAM.
“Anyone can participate that’s interested in making a film, and we really focus on people meeting other creatives and not having everything stop after you make your 48 hour film, but encouraging people to work on things throughout the year and get involved in other kind of filmmaking and screen activities together,” Kristen says.
“If you look at how long [Team CRAM] has been participating in the 48 [Hour Film Project], I think they started in 2017, back when core members of the group were studying at Flinders Drama Centre, so they’ve been participating for you know, quite a while.
“Now they’ve teamed up with Maddie and her group, so it’s really a testament to the collaborative nature of the event, and just trying different things, and they obviously succeeded with it.”
Kristen says that the platform of Cannes is anticipated to provide a world of opportunity for Adelaide filmmakers.
“[The Short Film Corner] runs adjacent to the main festival at Cannes, and it really serves as a networking and promotional platform for short film makers, so I think for them to be able to screen, it’s going to mean they’ll get more exposure for their film,” Kristen says.
“I know that the short films are included in a digital library that’s made accessible for producers and buyers and other film festival organisers, so the exposure piece is really exciting, but also it’s an opportunity for them to work with other international filmmakers and attend some really amazing workshops and panels that are part of the festival as well.”
Ren and Madison encourage South Australians to get in on the fun and chaos of the 48 Hour Film Project, and despite almost burning down composer Oscar Sarre’s washing line while shooting in the process, they have every intention of returning to the competition in 2025.
“Films, as we all know can take years of post-production and won’t come out. But the cool thing about this challenge as well is that at the end of a weekend, you have a film, you’ve made a short film and it’s out there in the world,” Ren says.
“And that’s just like, such an achievement. So yeah, it’s for anyone, for however many people, for any experience. It’s just — it’s brilliant. And that’s why we keep coming back.”