For Melbourne filmmaker Natalie Van Den Dungen, who has been invited to screen her music video for Darren Hanlon’s All These Things, the creativity that the Portable Film Festival promotes provides a great source of inspiration. “You see someone coming up with brand new ways of doing things right when you think there’s no new ways left,” she says. “It pushes things to a new level.”

With previous contributors going on to win prizes at the New York Shorts Festival, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, Cinemanila and the Academy Awards, the Portable Film Festival is a great platform for independent filmmakers.

“It’s a great opportunity because it’s international,” says Van Den Dungen. “For me it’s great exposure, opening the Darren Hanlon video up to people who might not normally see it.”

Divided into categories including music, fashion, short film, documentary, animation and art, voting runs from Monday 6 December until December 19. Winners are chosen by public vote, with awarded films announced on Wednesday 22 December.

To check out some great independent films and register to help pick this year’s winners, head to portable.tv/film-festival.