Winner of Best Short Film at the 2022 AACTA Awards, Finding Jedda is writer/director Tanith Glynn-Maloney's ode to Jedda (1955), the first Australian film to feature First Nations actors in the leading roles. More specifically, it’s a tribute to the star of the film, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who played Jedda (in her only acting role), alongside Robert Tudawali as Marbuck.

It’s 1953, and Rosalie (Siobahn Breadan) and her best friend Betty (Amarlie Briscoe) are adolescent schoolgirls at St Mary's Anglican Home in Alice Springs. They live under the strict rule of the nuns, but their daily routine is disrupted by the arrival of filmmakers Elsa and Charles Chauvel (Marta Dusseldorp and Ben Winspear). They are looking for their Jedda and boast that this will be the the first full-length colour feature filmed in Australia.

Shot beautifully by cinematographer Tyson Perkins, this sweet short film is a brief encounter with Rosalie in this imagining of the audition process for a film that continues to be viewed to this day, remembered not only for its stars but for its reflection of an ugly period in history for First Nations people.

It is important to note that, while the attitudes and language towards First Nations people depicted in the film Finding Jedda are offensive and racist, they are an accurate representation of the time and historically important to acknowledge.

Notes by Amal Awad