steve anthopoulos

Film: Voice Activated

Steve is a comedy writer and director. His short film VOICE ACTIVATED - about a deliveryman, who stutters, forced to cooperate with a voice activated car - premiered at the Sydney Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short Film by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

In 2022 he wrote and directed MY SUMMER IN THE HUMAN RESISTANCE, a proof of concept short made through The Black List / Hornitos ‘Take Your Shot’ initiative.

The feature screenplay, a coming of age comedy set in a world ruled by robots, made The Black List's ‘Aussie List’ and won the grand prize at Final Draft Big Break.

He’s directed ads for Ausfilm, Netflix and Staples, and loves comedies that find a way to be both fun and meaningful.

Genevieve Clay-Smith

Film: What Was it Like?

Genevieve is a filmmaker and the co-founder and former CEO of Bus Stop Films. A pioneering organisation dedicated to making the film industry inclusive.

She has a body of work spanning drama, comedy, documentary, and advertising and has pioneered inclusive filmmaking in Australia and internationally.

Genevieve’s films have been showcased at Toronto International Film Festival Kids and the United Nations. She has claimed awards at Oscar qualifying festivals, Rhode Island International, Cleveland International, Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia and Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.

She is the Series Director of SBS documentary series, Perspective Shift for which she was nominated for a 2020 ADG award and AWGIE award. Her 2020 short film, Groundhog Night premiered at Sydney Film Festival.

She’s also directed segments for Sesame Street including their 50th Anniversary season and is the creator and series director of ABC Kids interstitial series Tell Me a Tale.

Alex Cummings

Film: A Defiantly Happy Story

Alex is a freelance director, DoP and Editor based in Naarm/Melbourne. He has worked for the past 5 years primarily as a DoP and Editor across a variety of areas of production, creating content for a myriad of renowned brands and companies.

Alex has just finished directing his first documentary short, ‘A Defiantly Happy Story’ and is in production on a second short film about a 72 year old actor from his hometown.

His dream is to establish himself as a documentarian and continue to tell fascinating stories about real people.

Jonathan Daw

Film: Tangki (Donkey)

Jonathan Daw is an Australian filmmaker who specialises in stop- motion animation. Over the last 20 years he has worked in animated film in roles including director, producer, animator, sculptor, model- maker and trainer.

Jonathan has worked extensively in Central Australia on collaborative animation projects with organisations including Tjanpi Desert Weavers (two Ngayuku Papa short films), Tangentyere Artists, and Indigenous Community Television (ICTV). From 2011 to 2017 he worked for Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media in Yuendumu, and his animated projects for PAW Media include the award-winning Bush Mechanics (2014) with Warlpiri filmmaker Jason Japaljarri Woods; Kardiya-rlu Kangurnu, a half-hour animated documentary for NITV; and Yarripiri’s Journey, a half-hour documentary for NITV’s Songlines on Screen series.

Prior to moving to the Northern Territory, Jonathan worked as a sculptor, set builder and assistant animator on Adam Elliot’s feature film Mary and Max, completed a placement as an assistant animator on Aardman Animations’ TV series Shaun the Sheep, and worked as a set assistant at Anifex studios. He has directed and animated several short films, including Daffodil, Extreme Makeover, and Catch of the Day and The Seagull, winning awards at Flickerfest, St Kilda Film Festival, Shorts Film Festival and the South Australian Screen Awards. More recently he animated a sequence in Del Kathryn Barton’s feature film, Blaze (2021).

DC Fairhurst

Film: This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us

D.C. Fairhurst is a genre filmmaker from Sydney, Australia. His work has won numerous awards and screened at festivals and pop-culture events worldwide, including a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. His debut feature film Reaching Distance premiered at CinefestOz before a nationwide theatrical release. The psychological thriller is currently available to stream on Stan.

D.C.’s online horror projects White Void and The Drowned Bellboy passed over one million views on YouTube and TikTok. A feature adaptation of White Void was optioned by Vital Pictures, with D.C. attached to direct.

As an Editor, D.C. has cut various award-winning short films and music videos, advertising for Microsoft and Google, plus the Lisa Blair documentary Ice Maiden, scheduled for release in 2023.

Olivia Martin-McGuire

Film: Freedom Swimmer

Olivia is an Australian-British documentary filmmaker and photographer living in London who spent five years living in China and Hong Kong. FREEDOM SWIMMER is her second film. Her first film, the documentary ChinaLove is currently on NETFLIX, was nominated for Best Australian Documentary at Sydney Film Festival, and competed in competition at the Asia Pacific Awards. Her photographic work has been exhibited in various international galleries, festivals, museums and publications.

Tanya Modini

Film: The Moths Will Eat Them Up

Tanya Modini is an award-winning writer/director based on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Australia.

The short film she wrote and co-directed, The Moths Will Eat Them Up, was selected for the Sydney Film Festival 2022 where it won the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director. Tanya's script for The Moths Will Eat Them Up won the 2022 AWGIE in the short film category. The film was nominated for a 2022 AACTA Award.

The feature film she is currently co-writing, Seeing Scout, was selected as part of the inaugural Attagirl International Film Lab. Her short film script, As If I Wasn’t There, was longlisted for the Monte Miller Awards 2022 and is currently in pre-production.

Lachlan Pendragon

Film: An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It

Lachlan is a writer, director, animator from Brisbane, Australia. He is a Student Academy Award winner and Oscar nominated filmmaker for his stop motion animated short film, "An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It". Lachlan created the short through a Doctor of Visual Arts program at Griffith Film School in Brisbane.

Riley Sugars

Film: Hatchback

Riley Sugars is a Mornington Peninsula born filmmaker who often serves as a Writer, Director and Producer.

His newest comedy film Hatchback (2022) starring Stephen Curry was Nominated for Best Short Film at the 2022 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA), as well as winning Best Comedy Short Film at the Canberra International Film Festival, Best Director at CineFest Oz, recently winning 2nd Prize at the Peninsula Film Festival and being selected for a number of Australian and International festivals.

His period drama Rabbits (2019) was an official selection at the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival, as well as taking home Best Student Film at the Nottingham International Film Festival and the Oxford International Film Festival. When Riley isn't working on shorts, he works on feature films, television and commercials. He recently worked on Shayda (2023 Sundance Selection) and as Location Manager on Melbourne shot Wog Boys Forever (2022).

Riley hopes to Direct his own feature work in the coming years.

Tjunkaya Tapaya

Film: Donkey

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM - the Cultural Director of Tangki – Donkey, is an award-winning, multidisciplinary Pitjantjatjara artist, whose arts practice encompasses fibre arts, ceramics, painting, wood carving, textiles, printmaking and writing.

Tjunkaya lives in Pukatja community in northern South Australia, where she is a senior artist with Tjanpi Desert Weavers, and a keeper of culture who excels at giving new form to stories, as showcased in the short film Obsessed: Tjunkaya Tapaya and the Tjanpi picture book, Tangki Tjuta – Donkey.

Tjunkaya was awarded an Order of Australia for her services to Indigenous visual arts and to the community, and she is also a winner of the Perpetual Gladys Elphick Award, and The Design Files x Laminex Design Award (Handcrafted Category). Her artwork is exhibited in Australia and Europe, and it is in the public collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, National Museum of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, and the British Museum, London.