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Adrianne Pecotic
Adrianne is the Executive Director of AFACT. Her background as a lawyer has put her in good stead for one of the most interesting and challenging jobs in the country; working with agencies and studios to put an end to piracy.
Alan Finney OAM
Alan has had a long career within the Australian film industry beginning as a writer / producer / actor and has gone on to become General Manager and Vice-President of Walt Disney distribution in Australia.
Andrea Buck
Andrea has come to the attention of the Australian film industry as the producer of the Indie sleeper hit of 2007 - The Jammed. She has written and produced many feature films and documentaries in South Africa and the United States. She is the co-partner of The Picture Tank with director Dee McLachlan.
Andrew Denton
Andrew has been involved with radio and television for many years; he has interviewed everyone from the Original Camp Quality Kids to some of the world's most famous celebrities. He recently made his first feature length documentary, God on my side.
Andrew Pike OAM
Andrew is the co-author, with Ross Cooper, of the book Australian Film, 1900 - 1977. He has supported Australian film with his family run distribution company Ronin Films for over 30 years. Some of his past successes as a distributor (and exhibitor) include Shine, Strictly Ballroom and Road to Nhill. Until December 2006 he was the owner / operator of the Electric Shadows Twin Cinema; a cultural icon in Canberra.
Anthony Buckley A.M.
Anthony began his career as a laboratory assistant and later as a film editor with the Sydney newsreel company Cinesound. Through the 1960's he edited many notable feature films and as a documentary filmmaker, his pioneering compilation film, Forgotten Cinema, helped influence the government to support the renaissance of the Australian film industry in the late 1960s. He is still actively involved in industry affairs and continues to guest lecture at the AFTRS.
Antonio Zeccola
Antonio is owner of Palace Films and Cinemas. He has worked hard to create a small family dynasty, which continues to be a force within Australian distribution and exhibition.
Antony Ginnane
Antony has been involved in all aspects of the film and television industry for 35 years. He moved his base of operations to Los Angeles in 1991 where he had a non-exclusive 'first look' deal with Fries Entertainment. At Cannes in 1996 he relaunched his own international sales entity, IFM Film Associates Inc.
Bob Connolly
Bob is an Academy Award Nominated Australian filmmaker. He is best known for his 16mm documentaries about Papua New Guinea (First Contact &Black Harvest) and Rats in the Ranks made with late partner Robin Anderson. He has a passion for Australians to tell their story on the big screen.
Brendan Cowell
Brendan is one of Australia's rising stars with early roles in Life Support and Love my Way. He was nominated for Best Actor in Matt Saville's Noise for the AFI and IF Awards in 2007. His background is in theatre where he grew a passion for telling stories that are worth being told and helped create Rougestar Productions with Anthony Hayes and Leland Kean in an attempt to put a spark back into the stories told in Australian theatre and film.
Bruce Beresford
Bruce is an Academy Award Nominated Director. He's helped re-invigorate the Australian Film Industry in the 70's and has gone on to direct such films as 'Breaker' Morant and Driving Miss Daisy. He is currently in production of Mao's Last Dancer based on the popular novel. Bruce has got a really great new book out about his life in the screen trade called Josh Hartnett definitely wants to do this... Check it out here.
Chris Kiely
Chris has a passion for cinema and worked for many years since the 70's running the Valhalla Cinemas in Melbourne and Sydney with business partner Barry Peak. In the Mid-nineties he took over the operation of the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney with Alex Meskovic. At the end of 2005, both Sydney cinemas closed their doors, after the Melbourne Valhalla closed 10 years earlier. The Chauvel has since re-opened with the help of Palace.
Dee McLachlan
Dee directed the sleeper hit of 2007 - The Jammed. This was her sixth feature film. She has directed feature films in a range of genres and production budgets varying from $80,000 to $7 million. She is the co-partner of The Picture Tank with producer, Andrea Buck.
Didier Elzinga
Didier is the CEO of Rising Sun Pictures; one of Australia's leading digital effects companies. He has led his once small team to become the leader in feature film VFX in Australia.
Dov Kornits
Dov publishers FILMINK; one of Australia’s top film magazines and has a passion for quality cinema. He recently created Leni media with his wife to distribute two young filmmakers' first film Burke & Wills.
Frank Cox
Frank formed NewVision Films in 1982 and acquired some of the finest of world cinema and Australian features for distribution throughout Australia and New Zealand. In mid-2002, Frank Cox established Hopscotch Films with ex-Dendy Films head Troy Lum and Sandie Don. Through Hopscotch, Frank continues to be an active player within Australian cinema.
Dr. George Miller
George is an Academy and AFI award winning writer, producer and director. After jobs on many films in Australia and abroad, George is committed to solving the brain drain of Australia's great talent and continues to work in Sydney. His company Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM) have recently announced a partnership with OmniLab in an effort to grow a vibrant film industry in Australia.
Gerald Hensley
Gerald is the director of business development at DTS. We met him at the movie convention in August and interviewed him about his thoughts on the digital revolution and the affect it will have on filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors and ultimately the audience.
Glenys Rowe
Glenys is the former general manager of SBS Independent and an acclaimed producer. She produced the early work of David Caesar including Idiot Box and is currently making a behind the scenes documentary about her husband while he is busy at work on his next film.
John L. Simpson
John is an award winning producer with over twenty years experience working in the performing arts arena. In early 2007 John launched Titan View to bring important Australian films to audiences worldwide. He associate produced Razzle Dazzle and is the producer and co-creator of the powerful new Australian film Men's Group which won the 2007 Digi Spaa Spartan Award. His passion, vibrancy and innovation to feature film production and distribution was witnessed when he released the sleeper hit of 2007, The Jammed, into cinemas around the nation
Dr Kate Shaw
Kate went to the University of Melbourne to do a PhD on the politics of protecting place. She received the award from the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) for best paper in the planning field in 2006 and has written the book Sub Urban Fantasies: Melbourne Unmasked. She is a well-known commentator on issues relating to gentrification and cultural diversity.
Mark Gooder
Mark is president of acquisitions and development for Icon Productions. We met and interviewed him while he was in Queensland for the movie convention before he headed back to Santa Monica at Icon HQ.
Mark Pesce
According to wikipedia, Mark is one of the early pioneers in Virtual Reality, is a writer, researcher and teacher. The co-inventor of VRML, he is the author of five books and numerous papers on the future of technology. He gave us two hours and here is our reaction.
Mark Sarfaty
Mark is credited for taking Dendy cinemas from the brink of extinction to the expanded competitive quality cinema chain it is today. Mark is Managing Director of Screen Associates Pty Ltd and Executive Director and Vice President of the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia as well as being Co-President of the Sydney Film Festival
Mark Spratt
Mark runs Potential Films and Chapel Distribution, which specialises in contemporary foreign films and cinema classics respectively. He has a passion for independent films and has often had run-ins with the censorship board for famously banning the Australian exhibition of his films.
Megan Spencer
Megan is an Australian documentary filmmaker who specialises in the 'guerrilla video' style of documentary portraiture. She is also a prominent film critic and journalist. In 2007 she was Guest Artistic Director for the 10th Revelation Perth International Film Festival, and is curator of the new Destination Film Festival.
Michael Sergi
Michael is the co-founder and artistic director of the Canberra International Film Festival, multi-award winning television director, ACT representative of the ADG and a lecturer at the University of Canberra.
Mike Baard
Mike worked for South Africa's largest integrated entertainment company Nu Metro Film Distribution for 13 years, before moving to Sydney in 2003. There he was involved with several entertainment businesses, including Ninth Dimension Home Entertainment, before taking up the position as the Managing Director of Universal Pictures Australia in 2007.
Mike Selwyn
Mike Selwyn is the head of production at the newly formed Paramount Pictures Australia. He has an extensive background in accounting and working within the international and Australian film distribution business.
Murali K. Thalluri
Murali is visionary filmmaker from the suburbs of Adelaide. His debut feature film 2:37 - made entirely with private investment - was in official selection at the 2006 Canne Film Festival. It has had critical acclaim and put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch. His new film is titled "Jewel".
Nash Edgerton
Nash began acting and doing stunts in the early nineties. He has since written, produced, directed and edited countless TVCs, shorts, and music clips and has just completed post production on his directorial feature debut The Square. Check out his website Blue-Tongue Films.
Natalie Miller
Natalie has a long history of supporting Australian filmmakers, first at the Longford cinema and now at her successful Cinema Nova. She also runs Sharmill Films, which is the oldest independent distributor still under original ownership in Australia.
Nick Deocampo
Nick is a multi-award winning filmmaker and author from the Philippines. He is the director of the Mowelfund Film Institute in Quezon City and is a frequent panel member at premiere film festival events around the world.
Dr. Paolo Cherchi Usai
Paolo is one of the world's most respected film historians and scholars. He is currently the director of the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australia. He is an author of many well-known books about digital culture and silent cinema. His film Passio has been hailed a "masterpiece" and with only 7 prints and the original negative destroyed by Paolo, it was his 'attempt making a cinematic experience deliberately rarified' .
Paul Wiegard
Paul is the joint CEO of Madman Entertainment with Tim Anderson. Essentially a niche-focused business, Madman is Australia's leading distributor of anime - enjoying around 90 per cent of the DVD market share - as well as Australian and global independent film, Asian cinema, Bollywood, action sports and other special interests.
Peter Broderick
Peter has a background in film production but in recent years has become the scholar of choice for independent filmmakers (Four Eyed Monsters) on the future of self-distribution. He is based in L.A. but travels and speaks frequently at Festivals and Conferences worldwide. He has a great website which we recommend for all independent filmmakers.
Rachael Turk
Rachael is the Editor of IF Magazine; which is an excellent Australian Film Industry related magazine. She has been a freelance journalist for over ten years, and is an award-winning writer/director.
Ray Edmondson
Ray is the Deputy Chair and representative of audiovisual sector and of the Asia/Pacific Regional and International Memory of the World Committees. He works at the NFSA in Canberra, Australia and is very passionate about the principles and philosophy behind audiovisual archiving.
Richard Harris
Richard is the current CEO of the South Australian Film Corporation. Previously, he was the head of the ADG for 10 years. He wrote a very revealing platform paper for Currency House called Film in the Age of Digital Distribution: The Challenge for Australian Content. He is very passionate about creating a viable and sustainable industry.
Richard Wolstencroft
Richard is the outspoken head of MUFF (Melbourne Underground Film Festival). He has often been criticised for his views on Australia's film culture but is a firm believer that diversity is needed for Australian film to be viable and thrive.
Robert Connolly
Robert graduated from film school in the early 90's and joined John
Maynard at Arena
Film as an equal partner. He began producing, writing and directing
films with strong political agendas. Robert co-produced Romulus,
My Father, which won four AFI
Awards in 2007
including Best Picture. He is currently in production of Balibo
starring Anthony
LaPaglia.
Robert Reeve
Robert is a well-respected Lawyer and business affairs advisor for the Becker Group. He has helped facilitate the film code of conduct between distributors and exhibitors and helped us a great deal at the movie convention to gain awareness.
Rolf De Heer
Having written, produced and directed feature films for nearly two decades, Rolf has become one of Australia's leading filmmakers. His films consistently challenge moral conventions and push the boundaries of the filmmaker's art. He recently finished his twelfth feature film Dr Plonk, a black and white silent comedy in the style of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The film closed the Adelaide Film Festival in 2007 and was selected into the Visions Section of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Sandy George
Sandy has a big soft spot for Australian Films and has been tracking the industry for close to 20 years. She has written for many papers and was the film writer for The Australian until the end of 2007. She continues to write for Screen International.
Scott Hicks
Scott is an academy award nominated writer-director who never seems to stop working. He has just finished No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones and an excellent documentary about acclaimed composer Philip Glass; Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. We got a quick interview with Scott at the ADG Conference in Sydney last month where he presented Glass followed by a Q&A at the Chauvel Cinema and hosted a seminar on 'The Director Taking Control' the next day
Shane Abbess
Shane is an exciting and emerging filmmaker with a big vision. His debut feature film Gabriel was picked up and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. He is outspoken about changes that need to take place in Australia and believes that we have the talent to make Australia's industry self-sustaining.
Simon Weaving
Simon is an award-winning filmmaker, critic and teacher. His animated short The Story of Ned was a Tropfest finalist in 2007. And again his film Ascension has made the top 16 in this year's final. He's a regular critic for the Canberra Times and is currently working on a feature length script set in post-war Australia entitled BURNT.
Stephen Basil-Jones
Stephen is a 15-year veteran of the Australian and International Film Industry. He has worked in numerous senior distribution & marketing roles worldwide for such major Hollywood studios as Sony Pictures Entertainment (formerly Columbia TriStar Films), DreamWorks Pictures & 20th Century Fox Films. He has recently returned to Sydney as the Managing Director for Sony Pictures Releasing Australia and Executive Vice President for Australia & New Zealand.
Sue Maslin
Sue is the multi AFI award-winning producer of such films as Japanese Story and Hunt Angels. She always has new films on the horizon and her credits tell of a screen producer driven by social issues and a passion to make stories worth being told.
Tony Hayes
Tony began his career as an actor and has branched out to producing, writing and directing because he is passionate about Australia and telling Australian stories. He received the IF Rising Star award in 2002 and has recently completed his first feature length film; Ten Empty, starring Jack Thompson and his good friend and Roguestar partner Brendan Cowell.
Troy Lum
Troy started his career at a very young age at Dendy Films, before joining forces with Sandie Don of Dendy Films and Frank Cox of New Vision to form the incredibly successful independent distribution company, Hopscotch Films. He has made a mark in the industry by bringing risky, but quality product to our screens.