THE JURY

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Samantha Lang is an internationally recognised director. Her short films include “Out”, “God’s Bones”, “Malady” and ”Audacious” (which won the Dendy Award for Short Fiction in 1995). Her television credits include ”Third Party” (an episode of the “Twisted Tales” series), “All Saints” and numerous episodes of “My Place” and “My Place 2” a young people's TV series produced by Penny Chapman and Helen Panckhurst for the ABC. Sam has also directed a number of major commercials through Cherub Pictures.

Since graduating from AFTRS Samantha experienced a meteoric rise in notoriety with her first feature, “The Well”. This was the only Australian feature and the only feature directed by a woman to be chosen for competition at Cannes, 1997. “The Well” has also received 11 AFI award nominations.

Samantha then went on to direct the adaptation of Dorothy Porter's novel “The Monkey's Mask”, which won the Audience prize at the St. Tropez Film Festival and screened at many international festivals. Samantha moved to France while making “L'Idole” a French language feature film, released in Australia in 2003. The film starred LeeLee Sobieski and James Hong. “L'Idole” screened at Locarno and Toronto Film Festivals.

Also working with theatre, Samantha, in association with Australian Theatre for Young People, followed up her commitment to storytelling and community development by conceiving a drama/filmmaking program for indigenous students on Palm Island, Queensland. Samantha continues to develop feature films including “The Jungle”, produced by Amanda Higgs, written by Alice Addison and is currently Head of Directing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Born in Australia, writer/director Michael Petroni is a 1996 graduate of the American Film Institute. While at AFI, he wrote TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US, which won both the AFI Screenplay of the Year and the WGA/Scenario Magazine Award for Best New Screenplay of 1996. Michael made TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US his directorial debut; the film starred Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter, released in Australia in September 2002 (U.S. February 2003).

Michael¹s recent projects include the supernatural horror/thriller THE RITE for New Line Cinema starring Anthony Hopkins as well as the third installment in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA franchise, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER for Fox 2000.
Both THE RITE and NARNIA opened #1 at the US box office..

Other current projects include AFTERLIFE (Fox 2000), an adaptation of the acclaimed novel THE BOOK THIEF (Fox 2000) as well as the next Master and Commander sequel (20th Century Fox).

Other works include ­
THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS starring Jodie Foster, Vincent D¹Onofrio, Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch and Jena Malone.
MIRACLES, ABC TV series starring Skeet Ulrich.
Michael also owns the Australian production company See Pictures with fellow producer, Jamie Hilton.

INTERNATIONAL JURY

Paul Welsh is a producer, commissioner & executive producer of live action and animated shorts, documentaries and feature films. Paul’s producing credits include Nick Whitfield's “Skeletons”, winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature at EIFF 2010. “Skeletons” was BAFTA nominated in 2011 for Outstanding Debut and played numerous international festivals around the world.

Paul’s second feature “Lore”, directed by Cate Shortland (“Somersault”) is currently in post-production in Sydney.

Alongside feature development and production through ECF, Paul founded and manages DigiCult, a multi-award winning talent development organisation in the UK. The cult develops, commissions and produces a high percentage of Scotland's new filmmaking talent and in March 2011, the company launched a new initiative - Incubator - combining short and feature development for the first time in the UK. Working with a talent pool of emerging and established writers, directors and producers, Incubator has delivered three long shorts and 5 new feature projects since May 2011.

Escaping the Scottish winter, Paul will be running the Springboard Initiative for Screen Australia through to March 2012.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

In 2009 David Jowsey formed BUNYA Productions with award winning filmmaker Ivan Sen. BUNYA Productions is a boutique independent feature film production company focused on digital production and based in Sydney. BUNYA Productions first film was Ivan Sen’s ultra low budget digital feature “Dreamland”, which was selected in competition at the 2010 Pusan Film Festival in South Korea. The company has recently completed production on Ivan’s new feature “Toomelah”, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival 2011 in UN CERTAIN REGARD. Both of these projects were produced by David Jowsey.

David is also Producer of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival selected feature film “Mad Bastards” by Brendan Fletcher and is currently in production on the feature film “Satellite Boy” by Catriona McKenzie. Until 2008, David Jowsey was Commissioning Editor of Documentaries at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC TV) in Sydney and prior to this an Executive Producer at ABC TV. In his 12 years at ABC TV, David developed and oversaw production of many programs, including live entertainment and special events, magazine series, music programs, drama and a large slate of documentaries which have won awards both in Australia and internationally.

Before joining the ABC, David was Executive Producer at CAAMA Productions in Alice Springs. This was preceded by a two-year stint as Lecturer in Producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney and four years at Television New Zealand in Auckland.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Most recently he appeared in the Nine Network telemovie “Panic At Rock Island” and is currently seen in the Steven Spielberg produced epic series ”Terra Nova”, shot entirely in Australia. Damian’s film credits include pivotal roles in “Macbeth”, “He Died With A Falafel In His Hand” and A Wreck A Tangle as well as ”Ned Kelly” and the award winning short film ”Saturn’s Return”.

Damian most recently appeared as the lead in the Andrew Traucki thriller “The Reef” and won the Best Actor Award at this year’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival. Damian is currently editing his latest short film “Suspended” which he wrote, produced and directed this year and is expected to hit the film festival circuit very soon.

As a presenter, Damian is the host of Nine Network’s series ”Customs” and for the programme Flickerfest On EXTRA.

AUSTRALIAN JURY

Renee Brack is the face of Movie Network Channels ‘Movie Extra‘. Hard Copy turned Renee into a TV reporter - where she states "the highlight of that job was the infamous Chopper Read interview and it was great fun to play the TV reporter in the movie starring Eric Bana". After years of reporting on public affairs and crime, Renee shifted into movie reporting doing a range of shows for Movie Network Channels including: Cinemascope, On The Set, On The Big Screen plus numerous film-related events and TV specials.

 Renee has interviewed many people from all walks of life, ranging from the unjustly incarcerated to A list stars such as Morgan Freeman and Sylvester Stallone, along with A list directors including Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), George Miller (Happy Feet) and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill).

As well as presenting, Renee‘s work includes taking television from concept to transmission - writing, producing, editing and all the production steps that entails.
"My Dad taught me how to write when I was 3 years old and it‘s still the thing I love the most, followed closely by the interview process".

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Michael Cordell is one of Australia’s most established producers and filmmakers. He made his first documentary “Franklin Wild River” at twenty featuring a young Bob Brown rafting through the Tasmanian wilderness. After a decade in print journalism and television current affairs Michael made the 1997 documentary feature “Year of the Dogs” that had a wide theatrical release, screened on the BBC’s prestigious “Storyville” and has won numerous awards. It is still among Australia’s highest grossing theatrical documentaries.

Among Michael’s various credits as a producer and/or director are “Dykes on Bikes” (ABC), “Bondi” (ABC), ”The Track” (ABC), “Drama School” (Seven), “Street Practice” (ABC), “A Case for the Coroner” (ABC), “The National Sex Survey” (Ten), “Suspicious Minds” (Nine) and “Political Football” (ABC). “The Original Mermaid” (SBS) won him the Film Critics’ Circle Award for Best Director in 2003 while his provocative documentary “Music and Murder” screened at the Melbourne Film Festival in 2004.

Michael is Executive and Series Producer on the “Two Men in a Tinnie” series with Tim Flannery and John Doyle that won him SPAA Independent Producer of the Year in 2006 (factual). The series is now in its third run. Michael has been Executive Producer on ”Recruits” (Ten), ”Dave in the Life” (SBS) ”Anatomy of a Massacre” (ABC) and “Bondi Rescue” (Ten). Bondi Rescue is now moving into its seventh season, has won four consecutive Logies for Most Popular Factual Series in Australia and has been twice nominated Most Outstanding Factual Series.

Michael’s recent directing credits include the documentary feature “Three Boys Dreaming”. Filmed over four years it was shortlisted for best documentary at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival and screened on the ABC in early 2011.

Michael also produced and directed the first murder trial ever filmed in Australia as part of the five-part ABC court series “On Trial” screened in 2011.

Most recently Michael was EP and writer on “Go Back to Where You Came From”. The provocative series is the highest rating locally produced program screened by SBS during ratings and received global attention in the press and social media. It has been nominated for a Walkley for Best Documentary, has won two UN Media Awards and won the company SPAA Independent Producer of the Year award. Michael is currently producing “The Great Mint Swindle” the company’s first telemovie, commissioned by the Nine Network.
 

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Ian Darling is an AFI award winning Documentary filmmaker with Shark Island Productions. His director and producer credits include “The Oasis”, “The Soldier”, “Polly and me”, “In the company of actors”, “Alone across Australia”, and “Woodstock for capitalists”.

Currently he is directing “Paul Kelly – Stories of me”. He is the founder and patron of the Documentary Australia Foundation.

 

DOCUMENTARY JURY

“Mrs Carey’s Concert” is Sophie Raymond’s debut feature length documentary, and builds on her successful career as an animator and singer/songwriter with academic foundations in Anthropology & Theatre.

Sophie teamed up with Bob Connolly after a chance meeting at IDFA in 2003. She was at the festival representing (as co-director) the highly successful, short animated doco IT’S LIKE THAT. The film went on to garner several awards and enjoy an Australian theatrical release and over 60 festival screenings worldwide.

Previously, Sophie was Assistant Animator on Adam Elliot’s Oscar winning short “Harvie Krumpet” and she went on to work on Elliot’s recent feature animation “Mary and Max”.

As a singer/songwriter Sophie released and toured three albums of her own work nationally and internationally, and presented a regular segment on ABC National radio, thus bringing a wealth of hands-on experience to her role as sound recordist, editor and co-director of Mrs Carey’s Concert.

Her next work in development is an animated documentary series “The Nature of Things” with co-producer Jane Liscombe.

GREENFLICKS JURY

Ruth recently wrote and directed the documentary film ”Waste Not”, which won Best Documentary Film at St Kilda Film Festival in 2011. ”Waste Not” has also been acquired by Qantas for both domestic and international in-flight entertainment, and has been accepted into dozens of film festivals all over the world.

Before joining the Total Environment Centre three years ago, Ruth was best known as a feature writer and film reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, ABC Radio, Time Out Sydney, and countless other glossies.

With a BA majoring in film and theatre from UNSW, and twenty years as a journalist in radio, TV, and print was followed by 2 years teaching film and making docos at Rooty Hill High School, and two year as a history guide at the Museum of Sydney.

Ruth also worked with Goalpost Pictures on a television series, and currently has several screen projects in development.

GREENFLICKS JURY

Wendy Zukerman is the Asia Pacific reporter for New Scientist Magazine. She has also written articles for The Australian, The Age, Popular Science Magazine (Australia) and ABC Online.

Wendy is regularly interviewed on ABC local and national radio, and presents "Up and Atom" every Tuesday morning on Sydney's FBi Radio. Wendy also fumbles her way through new media via her blog wendyzukerman.com and nascent twitter account @wendyzuk.

 

GREENFLICKS JURY

After running making his own documentary films and running a Post house for ten years in Sydney, Jake had a hankering to get back to his two wheeled roots and introduce Sydney to the exciting world of E-bikes.

He now has a shop in Pyrmont and has hundreds of passionate customers who are zipping all over town on their electric bikes, the missing link in transport that is taking Sydney by storm. 

Jake still believes film can spark fundamental changes to the way we live as a society and sites The Inconvenient Truth, Gaslands, The Earthlings and Fuel as films in recent times that have been an inspiration.

FLICKERUP JURY

Taylor Glockner is BOGES in “Conspiracy 365”. Even though Taylor is a relative newcomer, he is being touted as one of Australia’s most promising young actors.

After graduating from Brisbane’s Film & Television Studio International, Taylor scored the role of Boges in the Family Movie Channel television series “Conspiracy 365”.

Thanks to his performances in short films “Invade” and “Loco”, Taylor has been dubbed one of Australia’s hottest new talents, particularly in the eyes of teenage girls.

FLICKERUP JURY

Alyssa McClelland is a filmmaker and AFI-nominated actress. She has made her mark in many Australian feature films, television series and onstage with the country’s most prestigious theatres. She stars in the recently released feature film “Surviving Georgia” (alongside Holly Valance and Pia Miranda).

Alyssa has written and directed two critically acclaimed short films “Emilia Eckle” and Tropfest 2010 finalist “Nic and Shauna”, with a third short film “Home”- that she produced and starred in alongside “True Blood” star Ryan Kwanten - currently making its way around the festival circuit.

Most recently, Alyssa directed the 11-episode web series “One Step Closer To Home”, which she also wrote, produced and starred in with actor Ryan Johnson.

McClelland was shortlisted for the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards 2009 for her achievements in filmmaking.

FLICKERUP JURY

Gracie has directed five short films, all of which have screened at prestigious international and Australian film festivals. She is preparing to direct her first feature and has three writer/director projects in development - an Australian/French co-production Rue De Tournon about the wild and romantic adventures of two Aussie girls in Paris; Blonde V Brunette, a noir piece inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch and living in LA.

Also, Gracie is currently shooting a feature documentary on legendary British theatre and film impresario Michael White. Although directing is her major focus, Gracie has earned critical acclaim as an actress for her performances in leading roles in two Australian feature films - “Three Blind Mice” (2008) and “LBF - Living Between F**ks” (2011) both of which have screened at major film festivals including SXSW, Sydney, London and Toronto.

“Three Blind Mice” also marked Gracie’s debut as a feature film editor, probably one of the few times the leading actress doubled in this role.