His short films The Funk, Excursion and The Heisenberg Principle have screened at over 120 film festivals, garnering countless awards around the world. After graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003, Cris went on to win the Emerging Filmmaker Awards of both the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Film Critics’ Circle of Australia. In 2004, he was selected to participate in the Melbourne International Film Festival’s inaugural Accelerator Program. After directing a number of music videos and commercials, Cris returned to film in 2008 with the award-winning short The Funk, funded by the Australian Film Commission, which went on to screen at over 60 festivals, winning a number of international awards and an IF Award nomination back home. His first feature film The Death and Life of Otto Bloom opened the 65th Melbourne International Film Festival in July 2016.