Australian drone documentary wins STEAM Award at New Media Film Festival in LA
Author
Date 13 June 2025
A groundbreaking short film exploring the lived experience of drone technology in suburban Australia has taken home the prestigious STEAM Award at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles.
AI in the Street: Drone Observatory documents the rise of Logan, Queensland—now dubbed the “drone delivery capital of the world”—as a live testing ground for autonomous drone delivery services. Since 2019, Logan residents have participated in delivery trials run by Wing Aviation, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., where drones drop off everything from coffee to groceries in as little as three minutes.
Created by Dr Thao Phan and filmmaker Jeni Lee from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at Monash University, the film moves beyond the technology to explore the lived experience of those beneath it. Through candid interviews with local residents and small business owners, the film surfaces the complex mix of convenience, unease, and ethical questions that come with being at the frontline of big tech experimentation.
“We were just guinea pigs,” says Maz, a Logan business owner featured in the film.
“Let’s test and see if this can work. Let’s prove to the bean counters back in the US that we can make this work.
“And then they did, and then for all of sudden to say we’re not going to deal with you any more we’re going to deal with Coles and DoorDash and whoever, it’s quite disappointing. They’ll say today we’re doing this, tomorrow we’re doing that. We’re usually the last people to know.”
The project reframes the sky as a new kind of public street—one managed not by local councils, but by global tech giants. It invites viewers to consider how artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping the sensory, social and ethical dimensions of everyday life.
The Drone Observatory is part of a broader research collaboration funded by the Warwick BRAID Collaboration Agreement, which includes Monash University, King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, and Careful Industries.
The film has been officially selected for screenings at Doc.London, Doc.Sydney, Ethnografilm Paris (2025), the ORION International Film Festival, and the Spotlight on Academics Film Festival.
In addition to the STEAM Award at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, the film has been named a Finalist for Best Ethnographic Film at ORION IFF, and nominated for the prestigious Tarkovski Grant at the Doc.Sydney Documentary Film Festival.
