Cass Cumerford has borne more than his fair share of setbacks in life. Now in his seventies, he decides to return to his long -forsaken childhood home of Bundaberg, a small city in Queensland famous for its rum. Through conversations with the strangers he encounters and the friends he makes, Cass gradually reveals the events that have shaped his life — the mistakes he’s made, the moments of joy and the grief that weighs him down — as he finds himself on a spiritual search for redemption.
Shot with raw intimacy and striking minimalism, FLATHEAD, the feature film debut from Jaydon Martin, blurs the line between documentary and fiction –capturing real people, real places, and a lived-in authenticity that rarely reaches the screen. Winner of the Special Jury Award in the Tiger Competition at the 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam, the hybrid docu-fiction, shot in crisp monochrome, is both a love letter and elegy to a disappearing Australia — an atmospheric meditation on memory, belonging, and the quiet ache of men searching for meaning in the places they once called home.
SELECT FILM FESTIVALS/AWARDS
- International Film Festival Rotterdam (2024) | Winner, Special Jury Award
- Melbourne International Film Festival (2024) | Winner, Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award
- Gijón International Film Festival (2024) | Nominee, Best Film
- São Paulo International Film Festival (2024) | Nominee, New Directors Competition, Best Fiction
- Warsaw International Film Festival (2024) | Nominee, Crème de la Crème Award
