Footscray film-makers take first prize in film festival

Orlando Catoggio and Samuel Roberg, 13, filming “Sunshine Bones”.

Two budding Footscray filmmakers are basking in the glory of winning first prize in the secondary school category at the Sunshine Short Film Festival.

Orlando Catoggio and Samuel Roberg, both 13, claimed top honours with Sunshine Bones, an action-packed film they wrote, directed, acted in and edited, as well as writing and performing the music.

The friends, year 8 students at Footscray City College, beat out much older contenders to take the prize.

Orlando’s passion for filmmaking and visual effects has spurred him to enter the film festival every year since he was nine.

“When I was about four years old, I started doing small animation videos with my dad,” he said.

Sunshine Bones traces the creepy encounters experienced as two friends fight for their lives in an abandoned school.

Samuel said the pair spent months creating the short film, injecting as much humour as they could into a story that is in the Ghostbusters vein.

“It was pretty exciting to win this year,” Samuel said.

The boys are eagerly awaiting an announcement about the theme for next year’s festival so they can get cracking on a new entry.