James Hunter with the award for Best Film- Secondary School for his film, 'The hitchiker's guide to physics.'

The Australian Institute of Physics, with support from the Department of Education, Science and Training offered two series of seed grants this year, enabling a total of 17 projects to be successfully realised across Australia, as part of the Einstein International Year of Physics celebrations.

With thanks to funding from EIYP, CSIRO’s Science Film Festival ‘SCINEMA’ ran a short film competition with a physics theme for Australian students. The grant money contributed to a national mail-out to science teachers, which brought in entries from across Australia. 13 finalists were selected; these films being curated into a 90 minute program that screened as part of SCINEMA to an audience of 10,000 across 70 venues.

Our audience voted ‘Where is the Science in That?’ from Elliott C.E.C. Science Class as Best Film (Primary Schools), ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to Physics’ by James Hunter from Canberra’s Stromlo High as Best Film (Secondary Schools) and ‘Remember the Tritons’ by James Cook University students Jasper Montana and Danni Lambert as Best Film (Tertiary Institutions).

Audience vote was accepted by paper ballot at screenings and on our website (www.csiro.au/scinema) for Best Film. Our winners were as follows:

Best Film - Primary Schools - WHERE IS THE SCIENCE IN THAT?(Elliott C.E.C. Primary Science Class)

The Primary Science Class of Elliott C.E.C. in the Northern Territory won Best Film - Primary Schools Section for WHERE IS THE SCIENCE IN THAT? - A class activity where the kids of this remote NT community took a camcorder around town asking and explaining the physics of their everyday lives - what makes the bus move? What makes the sound from a guitar travel to your ears? What path does a kicked football follow?

Best Film - Secondary Schools -THE HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO PHYSICS (James Hunter - Stromlo High School- ACT)

Young Canberra filmmaker James Hunter's THE HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO PHYSICS won Best Film - Secondary Schools Section. James handled the media like a seasoned professional for the lead-up to SCINEMA 2005. He heard ABC radio airing clips from the original Douglas Adams radio play of Hitch Hiker's and got himself invited into the studio to talk about his film.

Best Film - Tertiary Institutions - REMEMBER THE TRITONS (Jasper Montana & Danni Lambert - James cook University- QLD)

James Cook University duo Jasper Montana & Danni Lambert had luck on their side as their entry came in very late to the SCINEMA office, but after seeing their film, we just had to rearrange our program to include them. Their film ties in nicely with another of our documentaries this year - Larry Zetlin's Crown of thorns Starfish. A triton is a giant snail, and the only natural predator of the starfish.

For more information on this project, contact Festival Director Cris Kennedy Cris.Kennedy@csiro.au or visit www.csiro.au/scinema