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‘The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste’ wins top prize at St Kilda

'The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste'.

Pernell Marsden’s short The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste continues to generate acclaim, snaring the top prize at St Kilda Film Festival last night.

In addition to taking home the $10,000 Best Short Film award, the film’s leads, Libby Segal and Frankie Gillespie McKay, also jointly won the Best Young Actor gong.

Marsden’s tale of two best friends who embark on a high-stakes game of imagination also won the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival’s Best Australian Short award, Sydney Film Festival’s Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director, and was nominated for an AWGIE Award.

St Kilda judges also recognised Emmalene Vidot and Savannah James’ I’m Not Your Heroine in multiple categories, winning both Best Documentary and Best Animation. The short follows a mother who is helpless to alleviate the pain of her son, who turns to drugs after his father-figure commits suicide.

Best Director went to Riley Blakeway for A Thousand Odd Days, a story about a young man who reflects on a day spent with his estranged mother, while Andrew Gough also won Best Achievement in Cinematography for his work on the film.

Kat Dominis, Mariana Rudan and Damian Walshe-Howling won Best Achievement in Screenplay for their film Unspoken. Set in Sydney 1979, it centres on a Croatian-born woman who is forced to expose a secretive love affair with her Australian boyfriend.

Best Achievement in Indigenous Filmmaking went to Motherhood in the Colony, directed by Genevieve Grieves and Aseel Tayah, while a special Judges’ Commendation in the category was given to Kalinda Palmer’s Re-imagining Our Futures: birthing.

The St Kilda Film Festival awards were presented last night at a ceremony at St Kilda Town Hall, hosted by Sammy J. The 2025 judging panel included cinematographer Ellery Ryan; filmmaker Rhianna Malezer; editor Cindy Clarkson; film programmer Spiro Economopoulos and City of Port Phillip First Peoples Programs Lead Fred Gesha.

St Kilda Film Festival is an Academy Awards qualifying event, with winners eligible for consideration for the Short Film and Documentary Short Oscars.

The full list of winners:

Best Original Score – Supported by JBL and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers:
Winner – Greg Dombrowski -The Horn
Alex Olijnyk – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
Ethan Hunter – Resonance
Matthew Shaw – Clown

Best Achievement in Sound Post-Production – Supported by Sennheiser and the Australian Screen Sound Guild:
Winner – Wiaan van der Westhuizen, Pliers
Luke O’Loughlin – Bőr
Frank Lipson – The Horn
Liam Annert & Sean Wilkinson – Unstoppable

Best Achievement in Editing – Supported by Roar Digital and Adobe:
Winner – James Ashbolt – Unstoppable
Michael Houlahan A.S.E – The Execution
Pernell Marsden – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
Graeme Pereira & Damian Walshe-Howling – Unspoken

Best Achievement in Screenplay – Supported by Australian Writers’ Guild and Cinema Nova:
Winner – Kat Dominis & Mariana Rudan & Damian Walshe-Howling – Unspoken
Maddie Grammatopoulos – Cordelia, Daughter of The Sea
Stefan Raabe – Dear Friend
Gregory Kelly & Pernell Marsden – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste

Best Achievement in Indigenous Filmmaking – Supported by CitiPower:
Winner – Motherhood in the Colony
Re-imagining Our Futures: birthing – (Judges Commendation)
The Truth About the Telegraph
Ngarridurndeng Kured

Best Achievement in Cinematography – Sponsored by the Australian Cinematographers Society and Panavision:
Winner – Andrew Gough – A Thousand Odd Days
Patrick Coe – Die Bully Die
Ryan Bell – RAGE
Adam Howden ACS – Unstoppable

Best Young Actor – Supported by the Melbourne Actors Guild:
Winners – Libby Segal and Frankie Gillespie McKay – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
Pliers
Rash
Clown

Best Actor – Supported by Chameleon Casting:
Winner – Steve Mouzakis – Hiraeth
Angie Milliken – A Thousand Odd Days
Nora Goldbach – Bőr
Caroline Sparrow – Pliers

Best Animation – Supported by Deakin University:
Winner – I’m Not Your Heroine
Beyond Measure
Hanna: A Faerie Tale
Baggage

Best Documentary – Supported by Shaun Miller Lawyers:
Winner – I’m Not Your Heroine
Kentaro
I Like Long Walks on Parramatta Road
Tarzan Pants (2023)

Best Director – Supported by the Australian Directors Guild and AFTRS:
Winner – Riley Blakeway – A Thousand Odd Days
Pernell Marsden – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
Bee Jessup – Bicker
Kate McGuinness – I Like Long Walks on Parramatta Road

Best Innovation Award – Sponsored by VicScreen:
Winner – I Like Long Walks on Parramatta Road
Bluebird
Rage
Red Earth

Best Short Film:
Winner – The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste
A Long Drive
Unspoken
Hiraeth
I’m Not Your Heroine

Best Youth Short Film – Supported by the City of Port Phillip and JMC Academy:
Winner – Ari Quig – Diced Peaches