Equal the Contest

We are continuing to roll out hosted screenings and have now held over 60 hosted screenings since release. Of note in the last 12 months we’ve screened with the Hawthorn Football Club to staff and most recently held a screening as a pre match event for AFLW in October 2025.

Equal the Contest has also now secured international distribution with Bounty Entertainment

Equal the Contest has also over the past 12 months been re-edited to create a 20 minute version with an inclusion workshop built around it and the pilot project is now complete and we are rolling this out with Local Government Orgs.

Over the last year, Equal the Contest has won awards including the Positive Media Award at the Australian Pride in Sport awards, the Master Graduate award at Photography Studies college. We’ve now been accepted into a total of 9 film festival – 3 International and 6 in Australia – and have conducted over 45 hosted screenings both publicly and internally with organisations like Headspace Australia, Vic Health, Essendon Football Club, Sport and Rec Victoria, VicSport and Netball Victoria to name a few.

Mitch was a recipient of a State Government ‘Change our Game’ grant and is currently working on an abridged version of the film, which will form a 1hr workshop to be taken into sporting clubs in 2025.

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Working with Australian distributor Umbrella Entertainment, Mitch collected some fellow Falcons together and – in keeping with the entire project – went about shooting the official key art themselves.
The concept celebrates the diversity of the Mt Alexander Falcons with the inclusion of three LGBTIQA+ people (Alana, Herbie and Mitch) along with allies representing the Falcons diversity of age and culture (Tadpole and Mariam). The key art also celebrates the history of women’s football present in the film, with a ghost like image of Mavis’s sister Lorna in the team line up at the back. They all stand on a field torn to reveal a 1948 newspaper article titled ‘2000 spectators at girls’ football match’ which again references women’s football history along with the challenge of being rejected from the league and denied access to play.

Image by: Mitch Nivalis
Poster design by: Andrea Pribaz
Location: Harcourt Football Netball Club, VIC

Official selection for Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
Screening:
Sunday 19th November
2pm
Capitol Theatre Melbourne.
Booking link here: https://tix.mqff.com.au/Films/Equal-the-Contest

Equal the Contest has now been picked up for Australian distribution by Umbrella Entertainment. More information to come…

“Emotive, moving, inspiring, important and essential viewing”

“Courageous, beautiful, necessary”

“A powerful story of the bravery to ‘be the change’ and a community’s determination to achieve it.”

“It’s a human story of equality – very powerful, very moving, and ground breaking”

“This is a story of our times. A real story showing why change is needed and how change can happen. It is about local communities, individuals and sport. It is revelatory and inspirational. Make sure you see it.”

“It shines a light on the embedded culture that AFL is today, which isn’t a true reflection of our society as a whole or representative or inclusive of the people who play or want to play AFL. Our world is changing and the larger systems (corporations) need to catch up and start embedding new systems that are supportive of inclusive language, equal and equitable opportunities and actually live and embed the values they so ‘proudly’ display on their socials. Each movement is a step forward and this documentary is the pebble we needed to start this important movement forward. Well done Mitch, The Falcons and everyone else who was fortunate enough to be involved in this much needed documentary.”

See loads more audience responses via the website: https://equalthecontest.au/index.php/audience-responses/

A discussion guide for Equal the Contest has been created to facilitate conversations post-screening. It’s available to download from the website at: https://equalthecontest.au/index.php/discussion-guide/

Essendon Football Club hosted a screening of Equal the Contest in August 2023, for players and staff.

Equal the Contest has been selected to screen at Geelong Pride Film Festival 2024 – dates TBC

Equal the Contest screened on 27 August as part of the official selection at Queer Screen film festival 2023. The screening was followed by a panel discussion hosted by ABC Queer’s Mon Schafter, Director Mitch Nivalis, Pride In Sport’s Ben Cork and Jen Pedder, the President of Sydney’s LGBTIQ soccer club the Flying Bats.

Equal the Contest was selected to screen at CDOC on 17th June 2023, making its world premiere. It screened to a sold out audience both in cinema and online and a standing ovation.