Melburnian John Ruane's Feathers (1987, 50mins), is a social comedy, based on a Raymond Carver short story. It stars a strange-looking baby, a peacock who thinks he's human, and the four central characters: Jack and Fran (James Laurie and Rebecca Gilling), and Bert and Olla (Neil Melville and Julie Forsyth). Jack and Bert are mates at a panel-beating shop. But when Bert invites Jack and Fran to visit his family at their little farm just outside the city one evening, the difference between their lifestyles is starkly apparent. Steadfastly resisting cliche and confounding comfortable assumptions, Feathers is insightful and disarmingly affectionate—an absolute delight.

Director Geoffrey Wright's Lover Boy (1988, 59mins) tells of the liaison between 43-year-old Sally (Gillian Jones) and 16-year-old Mick (Noah Taylor), exploring the painful impossibility of a relationship, and the suburban malaise that has spawned it. Sally employs Nick to mow her lawns. After a couple of post-work drinks they fall into bed together. The affair develops as they discover that they care for one another. And then her husband returns. Set in North Altona in the 80's, Lover Boy vividly depicts the roughness of life in the outer suburbs (revisited with the same force in the director's later work, Romper Stomper) Performances are compelling, with Ben Mendelsohn, Daniel Pollock and Alice Garner adding colour to their roles as Mick's mates. A hit at Cannes, and a prizewinner at MIFF.