Participants
21/22
Alies Sluiter
Writer/Director
Alies is a 2020 BAFTA Newcomer and Berlinale Talent Campus alumna. Her short film Ayaan, has played at festivals worldwide, winning 20+ awards, including Best Director of a Student Film from the Australian Directors Guild, a National Board of Review Motion Pictures Award and was nominated for a Dendy Award.
Amy Coop
Director
I am a Director, Writer and Producer working across TV & Film, with over 20 years experience as an Assistant Director too (a true Renaissance Tran). I’m infuriatingly tall, and funny, often at the same time. Black comedy, hard truths, awkward silences and surprising emotions are my jam. Taurus.
Amy Fox
Producer
Amy Fox founded Trembling Void Studios, which has produced six features, and the trans*-led TV sitcom “The Switch.” She produces and writes at the intersection of diversity and genre. Wren and Amy have co-written audioplays, corporate videos, and music videos. Amy is active in Vancouver’s Naval Reserves, and collective housing.
Bethany Bruce
Producer
Bethany’s producer credits include the AACTA Social Shorts-nominated Wolf and Broken Line North (SFF), and as executive producer on the TIFF-selected short film Birdie. She was mentored by acclaimed producer Bridget Ikin (Sherpa, An Angel at My Table) during her time working on the BAFTA-nominated feature documentary Sherpa and ABC series The Glass Bedroom.
Cati Weinek
Producer
Cati Weinek has produced beautifully crafted award-winning feature films and social change documentaries. Cati has over 30 feature films in development with her partner Dumi Gumbi at The Ergo Company based in Johannesburg but operating across southern Africa.
Courtney Paige
Director
Courtney Paige is an award winning actress, writer and director born on August 5th in Kelowna, BC. Canada. She fell in love with performing at a young age and became a member of the Kelowna Community Theatre Company when she was eleven. Paige made her breakout performance as Annika on E! Entertainment’s, The Arrangement and has since directed two features.
Daniel Harris
Producer
Daniel is a BAFTA Cymru nominated producer with experience delivering a wide range of content for a variety of platforms amassing over 90 million views, as well as working in film and TV for around 10 years.
Danielle Cormack
Director/Producer
Danielle Cormack is an award winning stage and screen actress. She is also a creative partner and producer for Four One One Productions. Dividing her time between NZ and Australia, her most recent endeavours have been directing theatre and working in script development on both local and international tv and film projects.
David Baeta
Producer
A journalist by trade, David Baeta has always played with words, images and sounds. He’s an award winning storyteller and surrounds himself with others that share the same passion for this craft. A multiplatform content creator since 2004, His productions have been seen on Unis, Radio-Canada, RDI, and ICI Explora.
Dee Dogan
Writer/Director
Dee Dogan is a Kurdish writer and director based in Western Sydney. Her short films include A Loss (Cannes Short Film Corner 2016) and Being Kurd – Bashur (Antenna Documentary Film Festival 2017). The Musician, a short she wrote directed by Fadia Abboud and Ana Kokkinos, recently premiered in the anthology film Here Out West, a finalist in the Cinefest Oz Film Prize.
Elan Gamaker
Writer
Elan Gamaker is a scriptwriter, director and story editor. He has completed two produced feature screenplays, episodes for television dramas, several shorts, and commissioned scripts. He is a story consultant for public and private film bodies. He is Programme Convenor of MA Screenwriting at the University of Roehampton, London.
Eliane Ferreira
Producer
Eliane Ferreira is a Brazilian creative producer, and her main focus are stories that combine entertainment, critical thinking and representation. She is the founder of Muiraquitã Filmes based in Brazil and Portugal. Her productions have been shown in renowned festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, IDFA, DOK Leipzig and Jeonju.
Fonna Siedu
Producer
Fonna-Tasha is a producer who champions narrative projects with compelling storylines and niche audiences. Since 2018, she’s worked on 40+ projects including the multi-award winning short PROMISE ME, BEING BLACK IN TORONTO (CSA’s Best Direction for Documentary Series), and upcoming CBC web-series VIRGINS! Review her projects at www.snailmailmedia.com
Hannah Moore
Writer/Director
Hannah Moore is an award-winning filmmaker committed to social justice and inclusive storytelling. Her short films have played at national and international festivals and on SBS Television. Her connection to community and extensive experience with marginalised young people, as well as in juvenile prisons, has greatly influenced her work.
Joanna Beveridge
Producer
Joanna Beveridge was a Creative Producer for NBCUniversal, ITV Studios and Network Ten, produced the award-winning web series SYDNEY SLEUTHERS and the Create NSW Screenability funded film MAGNETIC, now streaming on ABC iview. She was selected for Screen NSW’s Emerging Producer Placement and Screen Producers Australia ‘Ones to Watch’ program.
Jodie Ashdown
Writer
Jodie is a Welsh scriptwriter who is drawn to narratives with an unlikely hero, particularly LGBTQ+, older, or female protagonists.
Her work is often dark with a comedic edge and she enjoys finding the humour in classically serious subjects. Her work has been shown globally, including at BAFTA qualifying festivals.
Kate Separovich
Producer
With decades of experience in successfully co-ordinating and managing projects from production to delivery, Kate thrives on finding the balance between creative and practical solutions for productions and her passion for producing comes from the power entertainment has to influence and transform culture and society.
Laura Bergeron
Writer/Director
Graduated with distinction in Film Production in Toronto, Laura is a bilingual writer, director, editor, and animator. She directed several shorts and co-signed the web series Meilleur Avant, produced with the help of the Telefilm TTW grant. All of her work has been selected and awarded prizes at festivals around the world. Laura is currently working on multiple TV projects and her first feature.
Linh Duong
Writer/Director
Linh DUONG is a Vietnamese filmmaker who takes special interest in the unconventional depiction of sad, angsty and naggy middle-aged women. Her shorts blend between her signature quirky sense of humour and magical realism elements, and have been participating at prestigious film festivals around the world.
Lora Campbell
Writer/Director
Lora Campbell is an award winning transgender non-binary artist, educator and Queer advocate from Newfoundland, Canada who has been creating award winning projects for over a decade. When not filming, Lora co-facilitates a short film mentorship program which supports QTBIPOC emerging filmmakers making short films.
Lou Sanz
Writer/Director
Lou’s debut feature, AUDREY, is slated for production in 2022. She is currently developing her first series, CONFIDENCE, with support from Screen Aus. Her short films have been screened at Clermont-Ferrand, International Rotterdam Film Festival, Tropfest and St Kilda Film Festival. Her pioneering web series, THE PROBLEMATIC WORLD OF LOU, was one of the first projects to be financed under Film Vic’s multi-platform funding. As a performer, Lou became one of the country’s pre-imminent storytellers, winning multiple awards and touring work globally.
Mahak Jiwani
Producer
Originally from Pakistan, Mahak Jiwani is a producer based in New York. She has produced films all over the world, including DARLING which won the Orizzonti Award at Venice Film Festival, PREMONITION in Chile, YUME in Japan etc. Currently, she is a Manager of Scripted Content at Jigsaw Productions, splitting her time between the documentary and scripted departments.
Maria Caruana Galiza
Producer
Maria is a producer at Candle & Bell. She currently has feature films in development with the BFI Film Fund, Torino Script Lab and EIFF Talent Lab Connects. In 2017 Candle & Bell was named one of the Top 50 companies in England by Creative England.
Michael Wrenn
Producer
Michael Wrenn has been in Film for 25+ years working in exhibition (Everyman/Dendy) , distribution (Electric Pictures/Momentum), production, sales and acquisitions (Celluloid Dreams/Maximum/Arclight), and agencies (NZFC) across the UK, France and Australasia. Production Credits include The Rocket, Mystery Road, Women He’s Undressed, The Butterfly Tree, Three Summers, Slam, 6 Festivals.
Michelle Williams Gamaker
Director
Artist-writer-director Michelle Williams Gamaker works with fictional activism, critiquing the imperialist storytelling of 20th-century cinema. She was joint-winner of Film London’s Jarman Award and recipient of the Stuart Croft Moving Image Award in 2020 and her film The Bang Straws (2021) is shortlisted for the 65th BFI LFF Short Film Award.
Miley Tunnecliffe
Writer/Director
Miley is a multi-award winning Australian writer and director. Broadcast credits include THE HEIGHTS (ABC) and 100% WOLF series 1&2 (ABC). Miley wrote and directed the SBS acquired CALLING, and her SBS commissioned series MOLLY AND CARA. Miley’s currently developing film and TV projects for both the U.S. and Australia.
Munir Atalla
Producer
Munir Atalla is a Palestinian writer and producer based in Brooklyn, NY.
Nancy Urich
Producer/Director
Nancy Urich is a producer and writer with CUT/OFF/TAIL Pictures, a team of musicians/artists making arthouse genre. Their works have played Sitges, TIFF Midnight Madness, Fantasporto, Fantasia and more. Projects in development include breastfeeding horror, Feed, an adaptation of Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows, and a rotoscoped fantasy feature, Beshader.
Nicole Da Silva
Director/Producer
Nicole is an actor known for her work on Wentworth, Doctor Doctor, Rush, Carla Cametti PD and All Saints to be name a few. Feature film credits include The Tangle, Drama and the soon to be released Carmen.
Nicole DelPrado
Writer/Director
Nicole Delprado is a cross-genre writer and director. Her screenplays have received multiple accolades and her Screenability short film MAGNETIC premiered at Sydney Film Festival. She is a writer and director of the award-winning web series SYDNEY SLEUTHERS and was one of Screen Producers Australia’s ‘Ones to Watch’ 2019.
Sarah Walker
Writer
Sarah Walker is a highly experienced screenwriter and series runner, whose credits include many of Australia’s prime time TV series, most recently The Secrets She Keeps.
Si En Tan
Producer
Tan Si En is a film&tv producer. She produced ‘Wet Season’ by Anthony Chen (TIFF 2019, Platform Competition). Her latest co production ‘The Year Of The Everlasting Storm’ premiered in Cannes 2021. She is currently co producing Arnold is a Model Student by Sorayos Prapapan and This City is a Battlefield by Mouly Surya among others.
Simon Madore
Producer
For over 15 years Simon produced and directed a wide array of projects for Canadian broadcasters in a variety of genres. Whether we’re talking about music, bilingualism or plastic pollution Simon always treats them in an interesting, amusing and captivating way.
Stephanie Johns
Writer
Stephanie Johns is a writer, editor, punk and experimental musician fromNova Scotia. She’s won awards for her arts journalism in Halifax’s alt-weekly and co-founded Halifax’s first ever girls’ rock camp. FEED is her first feature project.
Victoria Thomas
Writer/Director/Producer
Victoria Thomas started out as a producer on shorts and indie features. She is now developing work as a Writer/Director and recent projects include the BFI/Screen Scotland funded A Birthday Party, and feature documentary Born In New York, Raised In Paris.
She is currently a Producer/Director on untitled African Queens TV series, Exec produced by Jada Pinkett Smith for Netflix.
Wren Handman
Writer
Wren Handman is a queer novelist and screenwriter. She has published five novels and was the lead writer for the award-winning sitcom The Switch. She is part of the team behind Home(less), a Harold Greenberg-funded project to be directed by Amanda Tapping and currently in pre-production. She works full-time as a writer and editor.