Sydney filmmaker's iPhone horror film wins festival nod

Sydney filmmaker James Demitri shot his feature-length horror film Fire Alive entirely on an iPhone 16 Pro Max using the Blackmagic Camera app. The film was named a finalist at the SF3 Film Festival.

Completed in five days, the production relied on practical lighting throughout. Most scenes were filmed in a dark, wood-panelled basement designed to evoke 1970s horror cinema. The story follows four filmmakers investigating whether hauntings are real, building on ambiguity and a series of twists.

Demitri came to the project after a two-decade career in celebrity and fashion photography before moving into narrative filmmaking. He set out to test whether a feature film could be made with a smartphone and a dedicated camera app rather than a conventional film setup.

The choice of equipment shaped both the film's look and the production process. Blackmagic said Demitri used the app's manual controls to lock exposure, white balance and aperture while filming in rapidly changing low-light conditions.

That workflow was important because the film was shot in a confined interior space with few lighting changes available on set. By using practical lighting instead of a larger rig, the production kept its setup simple while leaning into the darker visual style associated with older horror films.

Demitri said footage captured with the iPhone and app compared favourably with material from some larger-format shoots he had undertaken. He said the setup reduced noise and banding issues he had encountered with other cameras in low-light scenes, while also producing footage that held up in grading.

Smartphone filmmaking has become more common in recent years as handset camera systems and specialist software have improved, though feature-length productions remain a smaller part of that trend. Demitri's film adds to a growing body of work made outside traditional camera ecosystems, particularly by independent filmmakers working with tighter resources and smaller crews.

For app developers and hardware makers, projects like this also show that phones are being used for more than social video and short-form content. The commercial pitch around these tools often centres on accessibility and flexibility, though many filmmakers still regard dedicated cinema cameras as the standard for long-form work.

Creative test

Demitri framed Fire Alive as an attempt to challenge that perception. "Blackmagic Camera just feels like you've upgraded your gear to the next level," Demitri said. "It swaps what feels like a phone to feeling like you're using a professional camera."

His comments reflect a broader shift in independent production, where smaller devices can change how crews operate on location. Lighter equipment can make it easier to work in cramped spaces, move quickly between setups and avoid some of the costs attached to larger camera bodies, lens packages and support gear.

At the same time, such productions still depend on careful control of image settings, lighting and post-production. Using a phone does not remove those constraints, but it can change the balance between cost, mobility and image quality.

Festival recognition

The film's place as a festival finalist gives the project a measure of industry recognition beyond its technical setup. SF3 focuses on smartphone filmmaking, making it a natural venue for projects testing the limits of mobile production in narrative work.

Demitri said he hoped the film would encourage other filmmakers to attempt projects they might otherwise rule out because of equipment limits. "I really want to encourage other creatives to not do something because you think you can't," he said. "The phone and the app will do an excellent job of something you can show on the big screen. It's a genuine tool of choice, not a fallback."

He also said he intends to continue using the same production approach on later films. "The combination of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Blackmagic Camera is mind blowingly good," Demitri said. "I'm really looking forward to doing more with it."