The Stellar 12 Directors 2020
Jane Cho
Film: The Egg
Jane Cho is a first-generation Korean-Australian – born in Seoul and raised in Sydney.
Jane studied classical violin and piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has worked and travelled as a professional violinist over the past 15 years. Recently, Jane decided to put her music aside to pursue her passion for film and story.
Since then, Jane has worked on writer/director, Abe Forsythe’s feature films ‘Down Under’ (Damon Herriman, Alex England) and ‘Little Monsters’ (Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Gad) as well as most recently working on ‘The Dry’ (based on the novel by Jane Harper and starring Eric Bana).
Jane is now currently working under producers, Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky at Made Up Stories, Australia, where they are in production for the Australian feature film, ‘Penguin Bloom’ (Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln).
Cassie De Colling
Film: Allie
Cassie is an award-winning director. She works around the world on projects spanning documentary, advertising and VR.
Her work is known to be cinematic and brave. Some of her recent accolades include being nominated for Best Director in Commercial Content by the Australian Directors Guild.
She represented the Australian VR community with her VR experience ‘Uku360’ as part of the Sheffield Doc Fest Alternate Realities Market, and her recent short documentary ‘Ai’s Journey’ is currently touring Europe as part of the exclusive World Ocean Film Festival. She is also represented for commercial work in L.A.
Cassie is an up-and-coming filmmaker who is quickly carving a name for herself as a director with a knack for creating meaningful content and high concept visual storytelling.
Thomas José Field
Film: A Rare Breed
Thomas José Field is an emerging filmmaker who now resides in Melbourne after studying Screen & Media at TasTAFE in 2017.
Thomas produces video content under the moniker Red Wombat Productions, and ends up working a lot on reality TV shows. Thomas plans to create new documentary works in 2020 and beyond.
Joel Stephen Fleming
Film: Night Fill
In 2016, Joel won the Canon Film Grant Competition championed by Gracie Otto. The prizes included a $10,000 grant to direct and create a short film from his screenplay ‘Georgia’s Peak’ (starring Shuang Hu from ‘Family Law’).
Later that year Joel got the opportunity to direct Steve Le Marquand, (‘Broke’, ‘Last Train To Freo’) in a short film shot in Winton as part of the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival.
In 2018, Joel created comedy web-series ‘Summer School’. Later that year the pilot episode won Best Comedy at Sanctuary Cove Film Festival, Changing Face Film Festival and Orion International Film Festival.
In 2019 Joel co-wrote and co-created a new comedy series ‘Welcome To Wrigleton’ with his partner Sian Laycock. The pilot is now complete and is currently seeking a distributor.
Their company, 13th Street Films, has also shot a series of national TVC's including a great charity campaign for BuyABale to help farmers in need.
Sian and Joel were selected to attended a Writer's Retreat at the Outback Film Festival in Winton, with Simon Taylor (‘Plushed’, ‘2019’). During that time, they developed dramedy series ‘The C Word’ which will be directed by Clare Sladden.
Joel is also co-writing ‘Christian In The Closet’ a dramedy based on actor/writer Cameron Hurry’s (‘Night Fill’) real life experiences as a homosexual Christian.
In 2019 Joel won the Continue Short Film Initiative and is slated to direct his first feature film from his own screenplay ‘Take-Off’ with Continuance Pictures.
Andrew Goldsmith
Co-Director
Film: Lost & Found
Goldy (AKA Andrew Goldsmith) has spent a decade creating award winning films, music videos and commercials.
With roots in visual effects and animation, he has developed a stylistically striking voice, specialising in the weird, wonderful and fun approaches to filmmaking. He has been honoured by the likes of The Annie Awards, The AACTAs, The ADG Awards, Berlinale, SXSW and many more.
Greg Holfield
Film: Pinchpot
Since dropping out of Vancouver's Emily Carr College in the mid 1980s, Greg Holfeld has made dozens of commercials and commissioned films, animated and storyboarded more film and television than he's actually watched, created short films such as ‘Heartbreak Motel’, ‘Sumo Lake’ and ‘Get in the Car’ that have screened in competition the world over, and illustrated a stack of children's books and comics as high as a sugar-fuelled six-year-old.
In a poorly arranged deal with Satan, he won a Cristal d’Annecy for a toilet training film in 2002 (‘Tom's Toilet Triumph!’). He spends his spare time trying to coax edible vegetables out of the hard, dry earth of his home in Adelaide, South Australia.
Natalie Erika James
Film: Drum Wave
Natalie Erika James is a Japanese-Australian writer, director, and producer based in Melbourne, Australia.
Her debut feature, ‘Relic’, is a psychological horror starring Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin, produced by Carver Films (‘Snowtown’, ‘Partisan’) & Nine Stories (Riva Marker, Jake Gyllenhaal), and supported by the Russo Brothers’ AGBO, Screen Australia and Film Victoria. ‘Relic’ premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an AWGIE award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Australian Writer’s Guild Awards.
Natalie is currently developing ‘Drum Wave’, a Japanese folk horror with development support from Screen Australia and Film Victoria. ‘Drum Wave’ was one of 14 projects selected for the project market at the International Film Festival & Awards Macao, and won the Best Co-Production prize. Her 2018 proof-of-concept short for ‘Drum Wave’ was nominated for Best Australian Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival and premiered internationally at Fantastic Fest.
Natalie is signed to WME and directs commercials and music videos through Melbourne production company, Fiction (fiction.net.au).
Jaina Kalifa
Film: Happy Android
Jaina Kalifa is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who is passionate about working on character-led stories and projects that make a positive social or environmental impact.
His documentaries have screened in film festivals around Australia and overseas and have been broadcast internationally.
His latest film ‘Happy Android’ premiered at Hot Docs 2019 in Toronto and won a number of awards on the festival circuit before being broadcast on ABC TV’s ‘Compass’ program.
His film ‘Strudel Sisters’ was the winner of the 2016 Devour Golden Tine Award for Best Short Documentary and in Official Selection for Hot Docs 2016 and Sydney Film Festival.
Jaina produced ‘Land Art’, a four-part documentary series for broadcast on ABC News 24 and ABC iview, and he has a number of documentary projects in development.
Drew Macdonald
Film: Here There Be Monsters
Drew Macdonald is an award-winning filmmaker repped by 3 Arts and Verve in the U.S..
His short films ‘Creeper’ and ‘Here There Be Monsters’ have played over 100 festivals worldwide winning multiple awards along the way leading to the feature versions of both going into development in the U.S..
He has an original television drama, ‘Perception’, in development with Essential Media and a survival thriller, ‘The Stag’, in financing with Prodigy Films.
He also Associate Produced the Emmy-nominated and AACTA winning feature documentary; ‘Only The Dead’, for H.B.O and he co-wrote and produced The ‘Wanderers’ for ABC Australia and was nominated for an AWGIE in 2018.
Bradley Slabe
Co-Director
Film: Lost & Found
Bradley Slabe is an Annie Award-nominated and Oscar® shortlisted writer and director.
His latest short film ‘Lost & Found’, which he wrote and co-directed, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won an Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts Award (AACTA), Major AWGIE Award, and ADG Award.
Listed as one of “25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2019” by Austin Film Festival and Moviemaker Magazine, Bradley has several projects in development and is listed as one of AWG's Showcase Writers.
He currently writes for animation for the international screen, most recently the Kidscreen-nominated, ‘Kitty is Not a Cat’ on the Disney Channel.
Stef Smith
Film: Joy Boy
Stef Smith is a director and writer working across narrative and commercials.
Her film ‘Joy Boy’, was a recipient for Create NSW 2017 Generator: Emerging Filmmaker’s Fund and premiered on SBS Viceland and SBS OnDemand in 2018 and has since gone on to win multiple awards including Best Australian Short Film at Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2019 and continues to screen at festivals around the world.
Stef is a recipient of the 2018 Australian Director's Guild Commercial and Content Mentorship program and was mentored by Photoplay Films where she is now signed as a Playtime director for commercials.
Stef was selected by Create NSW to attend the MIFF Accelerator Director’s Lab 2018 and was funded by Create NSW again in 2018 to develop her television drama project, ‘Fish’, which was also shortlisted for Sundance New Voices Lab 2019.
In 2019 Stef directed multiple commercials and the entire season of Audible Originals Australia first original drama narrative series at 11 x half hour episodes long.
Leela Varghese
Film: Crush
Leela is a writer/director/content producer/ television presenter with a flair for quirky comedy. She has written, presented and produced on Channel Ten’s flagship children’s program, ‘Totally Wild’, and ABCME's ‘Behind The News’.
Leela’s short, ‘Crush’, was a 2019 Tropfest finalist where it won Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Female Actress.
Keiren Wheeler
Film: Bloom
Kieran Wheeler has been working in the Melbourne film industry for over 10 years.
His short films have screened at film festivals all around the world and he enjoys taking tax deductible holidays to these festivals. He does not enjoy filling out film permit applications or talking about himself in the third person.