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The 2020 Stellar Judges

Desiree Akhavan

Desiree is the director and co-writer of ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane, which won the 2018 Sundance Grand Jury Prize. ⁣
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Her first film, ‘Appropriate Behavior’, was her graduate thesis at NYU. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, as well as Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards. ⁣
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Most recently, Akhavan created the Hulu original series ‘The Bisexual’. She is currently working on a collection of personal essays to be published by Random House. Desiree has a BA from Smith College and an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Film Program.⁣

Michael Caton

He’s the Australian acting equivalent of being in your happy place – a man who makes people smile just by looking at him. Depending on your age, he’s like everyone’s favourite mate, Dad or Grandfather!

Michael will join the judging panel for the third time at the Stellar Short Film Festival. Michael has one of the most successful acting careers in Australia, spanning six decades, and has a plaque on the Australian Film Walk of Fame to prove it!

His TV credits are too numerous to list but include roles in ‘Skippy’, ‘The Sullivans’, ‘A Country Practice’, ‘Five Mile Creek’ and ‘Packed to the Rafters’, plus he’s been on stage in productions like ‘Hair’ and ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical’.

As for film, audiences around the world know Michael thanks to cracking performances in dozens of films, most notably our fave ‘The Castle’. Michael will be reunited at Stellar with his co-star Stephen Curry, making it a night sure to be filled with memories and photos that will go “straight to the pool room”.

Genevieve Clay-Smith

Genevieve is an award-winning writer/director whose work has been showcased at various Oscar qualifying film festivals and the United Nations. She's the first person in Australian history to hire people with intellectual disability on professional film sets as crew, and created an inclusive employment model which is now being adopted at top Australian production companies so more people with disability can be employed in the film industry.⁣
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She's co-founder and former CEO of Bus Stop Films and recently started Mongolia’s first inclusive filmmaking program in partnership with the Arts Council of Mongolia in 2018. ⁣
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Over a 10 year period she has produced over 30 inclusive films with over 300 people with intellectual disability. She's the series writer and director of SBS documentary mini series, ‘Perspective Shift’ and was named 2015 NSW Young Australian of the Year, and the 2019 National Telstra Business Woman Young Leader award winner.⁣

Rick Davies

Rick has been in numerous TV series, films and web series since graduating from the National Theatre Drama School in 2005, including producing, writing and starring in his own short film in 2010, ‘When the Wind Changes’, which screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival as part of the Accelerator Director’s Program and picked up a number of awards in festivals around the world.

For many of you, Rick is best known (and loved) for his leading role as Jimmy Proudman in ‘Offspring’ for the Ten Network. He’s also managed to keep busy playing Daniel Piscioneri in ‘Beaconsfield’, the story of the mining disaster in Tasmania, and David Hookes in the highly acclaimed drama series ‘Howzat – The Kerry Packer Story’.

Sophie Hyde

Sophie’s debut fiction film, ‘52 Tuesdays’, (director/producer/co-writer) won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Crystal Bear at Berlinale. Her second feature film, 'Animals', premiered at Sundance and was released in 2019 in Australia, the UK, and Ireland. ⁣⁣
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She also created, produced and directed Episode 4 of the acclaimed 4x1 hour series for SBS Australia, ‘The Hunting’, starring Asher Keddie and Richard Roxburgh.
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Sophie is co-founder of film collaborative Closer Productions, and also works as a producer, with a strong belief in nurturing new voices. She produced the feature documentary ‘In My Blood It Runs’, which premiered at the Hot Docs Festival in 2019 and was an official selection at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Alyssa McClelland

Alyssa McClelland is an award-winning director and writer. She directed, wrote and starred in the cult-hit web series ‘One Step Closer To Home’ seasons 1 and 2. Her first short film ‘Emilia Eckle’ had a successful run on the international film festival circuit and her second short film ‘Nic and Shauna’ was a finalist in the world’s largest short film festival, Tropfest. 

Her latest short film ‘Second Best’ won the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival 2018, as well as the award for Best Short Film at the Milano Film Festival, the award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film at Flickerfest International Film Festival, Best Foreign Film Award at the Lakeshorts Film Festival and the Youth Award at the 20MinMax Film Festival in Germany. It has screened at over 25 film festivals on the international circuit and last year Alyssa won the Australian Director’s Guild Award for Best Direction in a Short Film. 

Alyssa is signed with the production companies FINCH in Australia/ New Zealand and Anonymous Content in the USA/ UK and she has directed campaigns for a host of major brands such as Google, Apple, Air New Zealand, Netflix, Qantas and Telstra. Her advertising work has won numerous awards, including the coveted Black Pencil at the D&AD Awards and the award for Best Direction at the London International Awards. Alyssa also won the InStyle Magazine Woman Of Style Award scholarship for her work as a filmmaker.

Master of Ceremonies

Scott Major

We are so lucky to have Scott as our Master of Ceremonies for the Stellar Short Film Festival for the third year running.

Scott is an actor, director, producer and writer. He has worked extensively in television, theatre and film around the world for the last 30 years. Scott has performed leading television roles in 'Heartbreak High', ‘Wildside', ‘Neighbours', 'Always Greener' and 'Late for School', amongst others. Film credits include ‘Envy', 'He Died with a Falafel in his Hand', ‘Ned', ‘Trench' and 'The Heartbreak Kid'. He founded Bathroom Floor Productions in 2004 and his recent theatre work includes 'All The Intimacy', 'Both Sides of the Bar', 'The Fellatio Monologues', 'Death in a Box: one pussy's tale', 'The Subtle Art of Flirting', ‘Closer', ‘Terminus' and ‘Salt'. Scott is an ADG award winning director, currently on ‘Neighbours' and has just completed Season 2 Channel Ten's 'Playing For Keeps’ where he was set up director. Scott is also co-founder and director of the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival. He is currently the sole director for the upcoming channel 10 mini series 'With Intent' due for release later this year.