We are stoked that our short documentary Return Chute: The survival of a small town video store won the Best Film in the Open Shorts category (under 20 minutes) at the inaugural What The Film (WTF) Festival 2023 in Canberra. 

Congratulations to our co-winners, the Kings of Taiwan filmmakers, all award-winning filmmakers and to those whose films were selected for this year’s festival.

A massive thank you to the judges, festival organisers, the sponsors, and the audiences for supporting independent films.

In particular, we are grateful to WTF Festival Director Steve Cooke for his support and communication throughout the festival lead-up and afterwards. 

Our winner’s award will sit proudly on the shelf as our first-ever festival trophy!

Return Chute tells the story of Rod O’Hara, the current owner of Bellingen Video Connection – a video store barely surviving but still battling in this age of global streaming. Despite many business and personal setbacks, Rod and some loyal local customers have kept this hidden gem for lovers of the screen arts alive, but for how long?

Return Chute is directed and produced by Simone Atallah, with cinematography and editing by Mick Jones and sound mixing by Ryan Burrows.