It is the sixth year NOVA Employment has staged the Focus on Ability Short Film competition, aimed at raising awareness of the abilities of people with a disability.

Nowra High’s entry, Focusing On Our Ability, is the work of the school’s MC or Multi-categorical Class, a class that caters for students with a range of disabilities.

The eight students were encouraged to enter the competition by their teacher Juile Dart, aide Robyn Cato and school principal Angela Byron.

The five minute film, which is now one of 27 finalists in the school’s short film category, is completely the students' own work, from the initial concept, through to script, shooting, editing and final production.

Student Daniel Burns said as the film’s name suggested it focuses on the student’s abilities.

“Each of us have our own special abilities; for some of us it's sporting, others it is IT, cooking, painting or music and we just combined all those abilities to produce a movie showing off what we can do,” he said.

All eight class members took part in the project, which features a martian who comes to earth looking for a team and looks over the MC group from Nowra High.

What he finds is a group of students who have a wide range of abilities – like Zac Bassett who is a great friend, Mark Woods an animal carer and lover, Tyler Day  who is an IT whiz and chef, Izaiah Williams who is an indigenous artist, Trent Walters who is a talented musician, playing guitar, keyboard and drums “with an eclectic taste in music”, Daniel Burns and Kirren Burger who are outstanding sportsmen, while Kyal Sinclair acted as narrator.

Teacher Julie Dart said she was proud of her students' efforts.

“They did all the work themselves and it is a credit to them,” she said.

“Tyler did an outstanding job putting it all together and coming up with the finished product, but they all played their part.”

Principal Angela Byron said the film brought her to tears the first time she saw it.

“I’m just so proud of our students, they have produced a wonderful film,” she said.

The films will be both judged by a professional judging panel and put through an online voting process, with separate prizes for each category.

The Nowra MC students are now in the running for more than $70,000 worth of cash and prizes. 

But now the students need your help to take out the viewers’ choice vote.

You can only vote once so to support the Nowra High school’s efforts go to www.focusonability.com.au and go to the school’s short film section, find the Nowra High entry and vote.

Voting closes this Sunday, August 17 with the awards night to be held at Hoyts Cinema, Fox Studios, in Sydney on September 4.