Founded in 2000 by Rebecca Scott and Damian Harris, the first festival in 2001 played only in Canberra (at the Center Cinema) and was well attended, with some sold-out performances. Originally hosted by CSIRO, the festival grew steadily over the 2000s.
After a brief hiatus (there was no festival in 2014-15), SCINEMA found a new home with the Royal Institution of Australia. The 2016 Festival received over 1,300 submissions from over 80 countries,[2] and premiered in cities around Australia on 18 June 2016. The festival also hosts a community screening program as part of National Science Week, where community groups and schools can register to run their own screening program. In 2016 over 240 events were held around Australia, with a screening even held on the Davis Station in Antarctica.
In 2017, over 37,000 people participated in the festival which was screened at 317 events around Australia. One reviewer said of the festival "The most noticeable thing about the films is that, collectively and individually, they are less explicitly about science and more about us. These are very human stories about how we engage with the world — with the things in it, and with each other."[3]
| Film Title | Filmmaker | Year | Category Won |
|---|
| OWSIA (Darkened Water) | Alireza Dehghan | 2017 | Best Film |
| Fix and Release | Simon Dobson (Canada) | 2017 | Best Documentary |
| Einstein-Rosen | Olga Osorio (Spain) | 2017 | Best Short Film |
| The Purple Plain | Kim Albright | 2017 | Best Director |
| Think Like a Scientist: Natural Selection in an Outbreak | Nathan Dappen and Neil Losin (US) | 2017 | Best Experimental/Animation |
| Nex | Philipp Buschauer, Michael Loithaler and Marlene Raml (Austria) | 2017 | Award for Technical Merit |
| Pangolins in Peril: A Story of Rare Scales | Muhammad Ali Ijaz (Pakistan) | 2017 | Award for Scientific Merit |
| Test Tube Babes | Alice Wade | 2017 | Special Jury Award |
| MARATUS | Simon Cunich (Australia) | 2016 | Best Film |
| Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World’s Children | Donald Mitchell (US) | 2016 | Best Documentary |
| The Amazing Life Cycle of the European Eel | Sofia Castello y Tickell (UK) | 2016 | Best Short Film |
| Metamorphosis of Plants | Urszula Zajączkowska (Poland) | 2016 | Best Experimental/Animation |
| Corpus | Marc Héricher (France) | 2016 | Award for Technical Merit |
| Wonders of Life – Size Matters | Paul Olding (UK) | 2016 | Award for Scientific Merit |
| Stem Cell Revolutions | 2013 | Best Film |
| Clouded Leopard Kill | 2013 | Best animation |
| Night of the Crysal Mutants | Animator and sound by Dr Claire Pannell | 2013 | Best Experimental |
| Critical Thinking Series | James Hutson | 2013 | Best short film |
| The Measure of Things | Series directed by Mike Cunliffe | 2013 | Award for Technical Merit |
| Into The Gyre (USA) | Director: Scott Elliot Producer: Scott Elliot | 2012 | Best FIlm |
| Out of Our Minds (USA) | Director: Director Kate Webbink | 2012 | Best Director |
| Centrefold (UK) | Director: Ellie Land Producer: Siobhan Fenton | 2012 | Best Animation |
| Coffee Ring Effect (USA) | Director & Producer: Kurtis Sensenig | 2012 | Best Experimental Film |
| Reflector (USA) | Director: Dave Hill | 2012 | Best Short Film |
| Robot Quadrators Perform the James Bond Theme (USA) | Director: Kurtis Sensenig | 2012 | Award for Technical Merit |
| The Polar Explorer (Canada) | Director: Mark Terry | 2012 | Award for Scientific Merit |
| Australia: A Time-Travellers Guide (Australia) | Director: Richard Smith Executive Producer: Chris Hilton for Essential Media and Entertainment | 2012 | Best Television Series |
| The Lightbulb Conspiracy | Director: Cosima Dannoritzer Producers: Alexandre Piel and Joan Ubeda | 2011 | Best Film |
| The City Dark | Director: Ian Cheney | 2011 | Best Director and Award for Technical Merit |
| Wonders of the Solar System | Producer: Paul Olding | 2011 | Award for Scientific Merit |
| Where the wild things were | Director: Amber Cherry Eames | 2011 | Award for Cinematography |
| Do you know what time it is? | Director Paul Olding | 2010 | Award for Scientific Merit |
| Honeybee Blues | Stefan Moore | 2010 | Festival Director’s Award |
| Whatever! The Science of Teens | D. L. Faber, D. Ortega, A Delaney. | 2010 | Best Television Series |
| [null Breu] | D. Jeronimo Rocha. | 2010 | Award for Technical Merit. |
| An Eyeful of Sound | Canada, Netherlands, UK. D. Samantha Moore. | 2010 | Best Animated Film |
| Nano You | Spain, UK. D. Tom Mustill. | 2010 | Best Short Film |
| How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer | D. Annamaria Talas. | 2010 | Best Film |
| Sheep thing + Ladder = One | Nicholas Kallincos | 2001 | Best Student Film |
| Archmede (Mad Cow) | Ex Nihilo | 2001 | Award for Excellence in Science |
| Atom Bond - The Atom with the Golden Electron | Classroom Video | 2001 | Award for Most Innovative Film |
| Silent Sentinels | ABC-TV Science Unit | 2001 | Best Environmental Film |
| Australia: Eye of the Storm | ABC TV - Natural History Unit | 2001 | Best Film |
1. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.scinema.com.au/aboutus/index.html |title=Scinema - About Us |accessdate=2008-10-07 |publisher=scinema.com.au |date=28 July 2008 }}
2. ^{{Cite web|url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/film-festival-showcases-the-best-of-scientific-filmmaking|title=Film festival showcases the best of scientific filmmaking|website=Cosmos Magazine|access-date=2016-08-18}}
3. ^{{Cite news|url=https://theconversation.com/film-festival-reveals-the-passion-emotion-and-disappointment-that-can-come-with-science-78393|title=Film festival reveals the passion, emotion and disappointment that can come with science|last=Ellerton|first=Peter|work=The Conversation|access-date=2017-11-03|language=en}}