Selected texts available for filmmakers in the 2021 Microflix Awards.
The missing button by Joanna Beresford
The living room flashed like a summer thunderstorm. Cherie selected a song from the list in her phone. Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown…
Ticked Off by Marcus Rockstrom
The vociferously vegan Christie is forced to overhaul her life after a tick bite results in a rare disease that makes…
Tick by Samuel Pringle
There is a clock ticking beside you. It is an old clock, passed down through your family, solid and wooden and…
Good Warmth by Munira Tabassum Ahmed
Amilah returns, swollen-bellied and holy, to the room where she was born. Her mother’s house wails at the edges, calling memory…
Quicksand by Seetha Dodd
The box is palm sized. You wonder if you should open it, but you resist. You tuck it under your bed.…
Our New Neighbours by Christine Hand
The streets were neatly laced with elegant, well-maintained Queenslanders. This was a sought-after, prestigious suburb, close to Brisbane city centre. It…
Succulents by Kate Maxwell
You sat on the end of my single bed and read one of my poems aloud. Held your chin up, met…
Finding Glory by Katharine Pollock
Whenever I go back home, I’m relegated to a blow-up mattress in the dining room. I’m hidden only by the couch,…
Spinifex by Kim Waters
An edifice of plastered chicken wire looming over the street like a genie’s shadow burst from a bottle three stories high;…
Butterbox Boys by Lisa Habermann
It was hot in Wagga in the summer of 1981 and like in most country towns at that time, there wasn’t…
Lull by Helena Pantsis
They play a certain type of music at the grocery store, like elevator music, only horizontal, something to mirror the perfectly…
Baby Blue by Jessica Page
There is a chill of Baby through the corridor. It comes cold and sweet, like the taste of peppermint toothpaste that…
A Review by Jessica Waters
Ring, ring. ‘Hi, Jane. Meredith would like to see you now.’ Fuck. She knows.
The Long Goodbye by Kathy Prokhovnik
We’ve been outside paying homage to the night sky, the full moon, the cooling air. I know this place so well…
Ruby Sunset by Maria Bonar
A little nudge was all it took to unbalance her. As usual, she disregarded the warnings. We were told not to…
Pink Elephant by Monique La Terra
Suffused in a clinical blue, a single white tennis shoe lies on its side misplaced on the laminate floor. The apartment…
The Sandcastle by Thomas Wadsworth
Barbara takes a handful of sand and lets it pour through her fingers. ‘They’ve made it too fine,’ she tells David.…
Dance with Red Wool by Beth Spencer
There’s a rhythm here that I can’t get. Can’t get it now and couldn’t then. The poem fidgets like a five-year-old…
Nature Therapy by Karen Lethlean
Eucalypt smoke gurgles in my veins. Focus for a time on textured tree trunks and wisped grass-tree skirts. A rustling of…
I Can’t Delete His Number by Kel White
I can’t delete his number. I stare at my phone. Ten sans-serif numbers above his name. The green circle with the…
Stone Pulpit by Linda Kohler
Big cement cylinders with lids spot both sides of the road. Inspection points for the irrigation pipes. The boys have their…
The AVM Initiative by Rebecca Fraser
‘Cool tat, man. What is it? Like one of them tribal designs or something?’I glanced sideways. The guy was peering at…
Frank by Rose Hunter
One morning I emerged from the bedroom, bleary-eyed, to find my mother, ripping up the tiles in my kitchen. In the…
The Morning Belongs to Us by Siobhan Kavanagh
We lay on the deck at the beach house, reading newspapers, drinking tea, casting glances at each other’s bared limbs, coveting…
The Heart of the Advocate by Angela Costi
‘One word can change a truth into a lie.’With some help, she was able to turn her story into an affidavit.…
Remnants by Gayelene Carbis
My mother. I feed her, mush in a spoon that seeps down her chin. No teeth, only gums. Half-dead eyes. Cold…
Linden by Isabel Pereira
At sunrise, Linden would walk to the station and set down his cello. Upon opening the case, he would set up…
Masquerade by Denise O’Hagan
Wednesday 22 August 1979, Hong Kong International Airport Anna sets her bag down; he was right, she shouldn’t have bought so…
Nonno by Gayelene Carbis
‘Do I have to?’ I said. ‘One day you’ll be sorry you didn’t appreciate him while he was here,’ said Mum.…
A Distant World by Rachael Vella
He wakes to the foul, leathery smell of rotten boots. As he raises his head from his paws and sniffs, wind…
Priscilla by Sarah Johnstone
The headlights cut two shining tunnels through the torrential rain. Outside, it was cold, just above freezing. Inside the car, Priscilla,…
More than Coffee by Vickie Walker
Maddi adds a shot of espresso to the mug, froths milk and pours it, effortlessly adding the decorative leaf to the…
Jamaica by Michael Crane
My father left my mother today. He caught a taxi to the airport and boarded a plane to Mexico. This confused…
The Anonymous Site by Scarlett Wightley
The hot afternoon sun reflected off the water, darting like lightning. A cool breeze passed through the stringy-bark trees; the water…
The Christmas Beetles by Suzi Mezei
Everyone is quiet after dinner. They pretend to watch TV. The new Dada that Mama brought home for them is plonked…
Shards of Coloured Glass by Talesha French
The shards of the shattered stained-glass window sprawled out across the dead earth. The colours mixed like confetti, no one would…
The Boy’s Wish (Ding) by William Wines
The metallic doors slide open, the view at head height of a young boy. His blue eyes are faded like a…