Release is a short film about Hope, a woman in her 50s, forced out of an institution into an unfamiliar world, where she finds the promise of a future in a friend and disturbing echoes of the past.

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With Release, we aim to create a complex character study, with a more evocative, subjective feel than we’ve ever attempted, that will connect with audiences on a deeper level. 

Inspired by the forced closure of many psychiatric institutions in Victoria in the late 1990s, and the current crisis in poverty among women over 50, Release is about Hope, a woman institutionalised for years, with limited ability to care for herself, suddenly abandoned by a thoughtless system and left to fend for herself in a world she doesn’t know. She finds work at a laundry, where she is treated with kindness by the woman who runs it, and begins to see a new future. But when she is trapped and tormented by a teenage bully, her survival instinct kicks in and she proves herself a frightening force to be reckoned with.

We will be collaborating with a team of talented Victoria-based creatives, including our cinematographer, sound designer, composer, and award-winning editor, and to work with a production designer, costume designer and visual effects artist for the first time. We aim to begin pre-production in mid-2025, shoot in early 2026, with a festival and release plan for late-2026.