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Spiritus 2025 Award Winners
On Sunday 9th of November the Spiritus Short Film Prizes for 2025 were announced at the Dendy Cinema Canberra as part of the Canberra Short Film Festival. The announcement followed a screening of the nine short films selected as finalists from a large pool of entries. The films were enthusiastically received by the audience, including film-makers and their representatives, judges, and friends and supporters of the Spiritus Prize.
Photo credit - Maddie Sutherland
Prizes Awarded
Professor Peter Sherlock, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, announced the four winners at the end of the screening:
Open Prize for the best overall short film
Damian McLinden, for The Ranch Motel
18 and Under
Nou De Souza, for What If I Told You The World Revolves Around Dung Beetles?
Highly Commended
Eleanor Evans and Giovanni Aguilar, for Broken Homes
Commended
Alison Stanton-Cook, for He Was A Good Man
The films were judged by Genevieve Jacobs (ACC&C Board Member), Maximo Gowland (Argentine Ambassador), Miriam Pickard (Drama teacher and film maker), and Greg Battye (retired Professor, University of Canberra), and the judging panel commended the film-makers for their imagination and creativity in telling stories and conveying powerful emotions. Audience members gathered after the screening for a reception and an opportunity to share thoughts and views on all of the finalists in a wonderful celebration of the medium of short film.
About the Spiritus Short Film Prize
The Spiritus Short Film Prize is an initiative of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture as part of its commitment to promote the lively interaction between the arts, sciences and culture; one of the Four Pillars of the Centre’s work and mission. The Centre believes that there is wisdom to be found in such an interaction which can contribute to a vision of hope and the common good for Australia. The Centre embraces and welcomes interfaith discussion and understanding from the multi-faith community.
The Prize began in 2015 as the Religious Short Film Prize. It was renamed as the Spiritus Australia Short Film Prize in 2020 to better reflect its purpose and aims. Initially the Prize was held biannually but has now become an annual event in partnership with the Canberra Short Film Festival.
The term Spiritus is Latin for spirit or breathing. It’s about ‘raising audience consciousness of the transcendent dimension of life and/or portraying spiritual values’.
2025 Spiritus Short Film Prize
Entries for the 2025 Spiritus Short Film Prize are now closed. The Spiritus Short Film Prize awards films according to the following criteria:
- High artistic quality
- Wisdom for the common good
- Human and planetary flourishing
- Universal impact
- Inventive expression
For films to be entered, they must be shorter than 12 minutes.
Judges
The judges for the 2025 Spiritus Short Film Prize were:
- Genevieve Jacobs (ACC&C Board Member)
- Maximo Gowland (Argentine Ambassador)
- Miriam Pickard (Drama teacher and film maker)
- Greg Battye (retired Professor University of Canberra)
Find out more about our judges here.
Previous winners
We are incredibly fortunate to have received so many wonderful entries over the years, each demonstrating their own unique vision of the human spirit.