jury & Industry Speakers

Founder, Round 3 Films

Vidad’s an award winning writer / director / editor / and non-award winning part-time comic book collector. With an ever growing focus in documentary film, he co-runs Melbourne based studios Round 3. Their award winning documentary web-series’ includes HIGH RISING, SILO ART TRAIL and THE STREETS BARBER STORIES, the latter which has won a number of awards at Melbourne WebFest. Round 3 Their earlier work has also included music videos for acts such as The Herd, Opiuo, and Sietta. 

Journalist, Content Creator

Laura Hudson is a former senior editor at WIRED and culture editor at The Verge with over ten years of journalism and editorial experience. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, FiveThirtyEight, TIME, The Guardian, BBC and The LA Times. At The Verge, she created Better Worlds, a fiction project of original sci-fi tales by award-winning authors, and scripted animated adaptations for those stories. Most recently, she worked as a staff writer for the upcoming HBO Max drama DMZ, directed by Ava DuVernay. 

Film Maker, Goons INC.

Andrew Shanks is a South Australian award-winning filmmaker. He is the co-founder and co-director of the production company and YouTube channel FURY FINGERS FILMS, which has amassed over 10 millions views online for their unique brand of video game inspired action comedy. Their 4 part web series GOONS. INC won the ‘2018 Best Web Series SASA Award’. In 2019, Andrew co-created, wrote and directed the 6 episode action adventure rom-com web series LOVE, GUNS & LEVEL UPS, which was the recipient of SKIP AHEAD funding through SCREEN AUSTRALIA and GOOGLE AUSTRALIA. The series is currently in post-production and aiming for a late 2020 release online. Andrew is also currently working as an editor on television shows such as Masterchef Australia, Australian Survivor and Lego Masters. 

Writer, Director

Leon Cheo is a writer/director whose web series People Like Us won ‘Best Short TV Drama’ at the 2016 ITVFest (Vermont), ‘Best Web Drama Series’ at the Formosa Festival of International Filmmaker Awards, and ‘Best Supporting Actor – Drama’ at the 2017 Indie Series Awards. The series also garnered multiple nominations internationally and is distributed on HereTV, Gagaoolala and Dekkoo. 

Leon’s short films have screened at festivals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, Tehran, Germany, Italy, Canada and more. Highlights include SIN-SFO (Best Live-Action Short and Best Director, 2019 National Youth Film Awards Singapore); Nuts (Honourable mention for the YOMYOMF Interpretations 2.0 competition, founded by Justin Lin); and The Three Sisters (Best Short Film, 2012 NETPAC-Jogja Asian Film Festival). 

Actor, Comedian

Annie Louey is a comedian, broadcaster and actor. She recently took to the web to perform her solo show, Annie Louey’s Big Break, after the Comedy Festival and gigs everywhere were cancelled due to COVID-19. She can be heard on the airwaves as a regular guest on ABC Breakfast and as a presenter on JOY94.9. Annie’s most recent acting gig saw her playing a lead pirate, in an educational series for Victorian high schools. Plus, if you love Aunty Donna, you might recognise her as an undercover ticket inspector from their Glennridge Secondary College webseries. 

Academic, Documentarian

Dr Kim Munro is a lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University as well as the 2020 programmer of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC). Kim is a documentary maker and has exhibited and screened works in festivals, galleries and television both in Australia and internationally. Kim has published broadly on interactive and immersive documentary, web series, transmedia and collaborative and participatory practices.  

Actor & Director, Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia

Philip Hayden is the Director of the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia and has led the organisation since it began in 2011. Amongst many television, film and theatre appearances Philip has performed leading roles on London’s West End, in classic HBO drama Band of Brothers, in the hit Stan show Romper Stomper, been a semi regular on children’s television for the BBC and for award-winning Australian theatre company Red Stitch. Philip has also co-founded several theatre companies, the latest of which (Key Conspirators) is presently focused on developing new Australian writing and produced the hit, sell-out show Quite Drunk, Very Jesus-y in 2019. Outside of performing Philip is also one of the founders and original Directors of the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival. A pioneering festival designed specifically to support mid-career and emerging theatre makers in Melbourne. 

Producer, Feather Films

Melanie Brunt is a producer of thoughtful, character-driven short films across fiction, animation and documentary categories through her company, Feather Films. Her films, including THE ORCHESTRA, DUGONG and LESSONS FROM THE NIGHT have won over 50 awards, screened at 150+ festivals; including Sundance, Tribeca, Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Palm Springs International ShortFest, and Aspen Shortsfest. Her films have been nominated for 4 AFI/AACTA Awards. Melanie was a producer on Princess Pictures’ multi-award winning, short form series WRONG KIND OF BLACK, which in 2019 won the Grand Jury Award at Melbourne Webfest, and was nominated for an International Emmy. 

Founder, Round 3 Films

Vidad’s an award winning writer / director / editor / and non-award winning part-time comic book collector. With an ever growing focus in documentary film, he co-runs Melbourne based studios Round 3. Their award winning documentary web-series’ includes HIGH RISING, SILO ART TRAIL and THE STREETS BARBER STORIES, the latter which has won a number of awards at Melbourne WebFest. Round 3 Their earlier work has also included music videos for acts such as The Herd, Opiuo, and Sietta. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: How to Produce Impactful Storytelling

Screenwriter, Academic & Author – Metal fish, Falling Snow

Cath Moore is an award winning screenwriter who graduated from AFTRS with an MA in Scriptwriting in 2002. She also holds a PHD in Danish Screenwriting practices and teaches at The University of Melbourne and RMIT. She has written for children’s TV, skit comedy, shorts and documentary. Cath writes for The Age and has worked as a story mentor for FilmVictoria’s Story Lab initiative. Her latest film ‘The Pen Licence’ won a special jury mention at the San Francisco International Film Festival. She was an author in the anthology ‘Growing up African in Australia’ and her first novel is will be released in July 2020. 

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Identity in Writing & Multiplatform Storytelling
• Pitch iview judging panel

Actor, Writer – Homecoming Queens

Michelle Law is a writer and actor working across print, theatre, film and television. She wrote the smash-hit play Single Asian Female, which has sold out seasons and continues to tour across Australia. Her screenwriting work includes the SBS show Homecoming Queens, which she co-created, co-wrote and stars in. Michelle has been awarded a Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award, and two Australian Writers Guild awards. She is currently developing two new plays, an opera and an original feature film. Her latest play, Miss Peony, will be staged at Belvoir St Theatre in 2020. 

Featuring on: 

• Roundtable: Identity in Writing & Multiplatform Storytelling

Head Of Network Programming SBS

Peter Andrews is the Head of Network Programming for Australian Broadcaster SBS and is based in Sydney. He is responsible for the overall programming & content strategy for SBS, SBS On Demand, SBS VICELAND, SBS Food and SBS World Movies, overseeing the team that is responsible for the acquisition of content across all genres, including formats, for all SBS platforms.  Prior to SBS, Peter was Network Program Manager for Network TEN Australia from 2002 to 2013, and before that Program Manager for Channel Seven Sydney.  With almost 20 years in the content business, Peter has a great passion for storytelling in all its forms, and is always looking for world–class innovative content, that provokes with purpose, inspires, surprises and delights audiences.  

Featuring on:

• In Conversation with SBS On Demand: The Anatomy of an AVOD Platform

Online Investment Manager, Screen Australia  

Alyce is an Investment Manager at Screen Australia in the Online department. Her role includes managing development, production and completion funding for multiple online projects across YouTube, Facebook, ABC iView, SBS OnDemand, Blackpills, Netflix and Stan, as well as several VR projects that have been accepted into Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. Alyce deals with creators, writers, producers, platforms, broadcasters and other humans every day, using her years of experience working in the online sector to give guidance on the best way to create unique content that will reach a global audience. 

She watched a lot of Youtube during high school and uni, so she’s lucky she found this job where that knowledge is actually useful. In addition to watching web series, Alyce has helped oversee initiatives such as Skip Ahead with Google and Fresh Blood with the ABC.  

 Featuring on: 

• Workshop: Working with Screen Australia

Producer and Co-Founder Cockatoo Co.Lab

Bec has experience working in different sectors of the media, film and TV industry including journalism, acting, partnerships, marketing and producing at prestigious Australian businesses, such as the ABC. She co-founded New Media Production Company, Cockatoo Colab, founded a network of media makers that spans regional Australia, is the Associate Producer of Visible Farmer, a 15-part web series highlighting women in the regions and currently has a regional web series in post-production. She also produced the internationally acclaimed platform agnostic series ‘600 Bottles of Wine’ (BBC, Netflix) which she co-created with Grace Rouvray and Ainslie Clouston. 

Featuring on: 

• Masterclass with Cockatoo Co.Lab: Becoming a Creative Entrepreneur 

Co-Founder, Ludo Studios

Daley Pearson is a writer – director – producer and a multi Emmy® Award winning creator and co-founder and director at Ludo Studio. ABC’s Head of Comedy says, “Pearson is one of Australia’s greatest comedy-maker discoveries.” Pearson also stars as Thor’s room-mate, Darryl with Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Goldblum in Taika Waititi’s Team Thor comedy series for Marvel Studios. 

Featuring on:

• In Conversation with Ludo Studios: Exploring the Ludo Development Process

Film critic and journalist, ABC Radio, news.com.au

Wenlei has been a journalist and writer for more than 10 years, and has been published in Empire, AdNews and news.com.au, where she is currently a TV and film critic, and homepage editor. She can also be heard rambling on ABC radio.

Featuring on:

• In Conversation with Ludo Studios: Exploring the Ludo Development Process

Senior Online Investment Manager, Screen Australia  

Lee Naimo works at Screen Australia as Investment Manager for Online Production. Lee is a comedian, improviser, musician and artist best known as one-third of musical comedy trio The Axis of Awesome, who have over 200 million views online and an army of fans worldwide. Lee was also Creative Producer for Insert Coin, a sketch comedy series about video games that was part of the 2017 Melbourne WebFest Selection.

Featuring on:

• Workshop: Working with Screen Australia
• Panel: Approaching Alternative Formats and Emerging Platforms

Author, Netflix Nations & Associate Professor, RMIT

Dr Ramon Lobato is an Associate Professor with the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University. A screen industries researcher with a special interest in digital distribution, Ramon is the author of books including Netflix Nations (New York University Press, 2019) and Shadow Economies of Cinema (British Film Institute, 2012). He currently leads two Australian Research Council projects investigating the impact of subscription streaming services and smart TVs in Australia. With his colleague Alexa Scarlata, Ramon has been tracking local content levels in Australian streaming services since 2017 to inform public debate and decision-making. 

Featuring on:

• In Conversation with SBS On Demand: The Anatomy of an AVOD Platform

Creative Entrepreneur & Actor/Creator, Phi and Me

Diana Nguyen is an actor, comedian and Creative Entrepreneur. She has worked in the entertainment industry for 15 years and has appeared on The Project, Q&A, 5 bedrooms, How to Stay Married and more. She wrote “5 ways to disappoint your Vietnamese mother” in Alice Pung’s book in 2008 Growing up Asian in Australia which opened the Pandora box for writing. In 2011 Diana and co-creator Fiona Chau wrote Phi and Me, and debuted at the MICF in 2011. A sold-out sensational hit with 4.5 stars in the Herald Sun, and touring around Australia, LA and Edinburgh it was time to make the stage show into a web series. With crowdfunding of $28k, and funding from Screen Australia, the first ever Vietnamese Australian family comedy series, Phi and Me TV was released in June 2019. 

She is also a LinkedIn Video Content Creator behind #DancingDiana and #JustDoingKaraoke with over 52k followers, and hosts a Linkedin Live Interview show called The SnortCast, interviewing funny people around the world in how they use comedy in their work. 

Diana has been promoting Phi and Me on Linkedin with over 500k followers and a fanbase around the world. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: Purpose and Strategy with Changer Studios
• Roundtable: Identity in Writing & Multiplatform Storytelling

Writer of Content, Apollo & Retrograde

Anna Barnes is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author. She was the lead writer and co-producer of ABC’s comedy Retrograde (Unless Pictures & Orange Entertainment) that was developed and shot in isolation. She is the writer of AACTA nominated Content - Australia’s first ever vertical video series for Ludo Studios and ABC TV. 

In 2017, she won an AWGIE for the geolocative story app Ghosts of Bileola. Her writing has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Killings, The Lifted Brow and the Age. Her book, Girl! The Ultimate Guide To Being You (Penguin 2012), was named one of the 2013 Eva Pownall Notable Books by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Her plays and monologues have been performed around Australia. In 2007, she was the winner of the British Council’s Realise Your Dream award, facilitating her to study playwriting at Royal Court Theatre, London, UK. In 2012, she collaborated with comic artist Sara Drake (USA) to tell the story of losing her sense of smell for Radio with Pictures at the Sydney Opera House. She won Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwright’s Award in 2013 for her play MinusOneSister. MinusOneSister was published by Currency Press in 2017. She is a writer on season 2 of Ludo Studio’s animation The Strange Chores (ABCTV). She is currently developing an original series with Snapchat (USA).  

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Approaching Alternative Formats and Alternative Platforms

Creator, Youth on Strike! & Founder, Mashup Pictures

Rob Innes is a producer and director with a focus on innovative storytelling. In 2016 he was named as a “Ones to Watch” by the Screen Producers of Australia. Rob produced and directed ABC TV original documentary series Housemates (series 1 and 2), and then produced hybrid documentary comedy series What Could Go Wrong? for ABC digital. He has produced short films such as Bright Lights for The Guardian, worked with VICE, and recently produced and directed the digital series Youth On Strike! with Junkee Media. Rob has also created the webseries Busker Stories that has more than 1 million views. He is developing a number or projects as well as freelancing with different productions as a producer. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: How to Produce Impactful Storytelling

Director, Stu, My name is Stu & Production Manager, Story Island

After directing several short films and working as a casting director on awarded projects in France, UK and Spain, Capucine decided to leave Paris to seek new opportunities in London. 

Capucine joined Story Island Ltd, a female-lead creative Start Up developed around a shared love for storytelling and new media. Surrounded by a team of young international talents who believed in mobile storytelling, she directed “Stu, My Name is Stu”, an award winning dramedy webseries, specifically designed for new media. It is now after a successful crowdfunding, that she is about to shoot Season 2. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: Approaching Alternative Formats and Emerging Platforms

Producer/Director, Love Songs & Creative Producer, Amplify

Michelle produced the feature film length web series Feedback., which delves into the challenge’s young writers face in today’s culturally complex society. She co-produced and co-directed Love Songs with Hayley Adams, the world’s first narrative web series for TikTok. The series has over 150k followers, 8 million views and 2.4 million likes.  

She has a strong understanding of young adult culture, as is reflected in her fanfiction focused podcast One Shot, which is distributed by female and queer focused podcast network Lipp Media. Her first short film Super Birthday won third prize in the Village Roadshow Unscene Film Festival in 2019. She currently works as a Creative Producer at Amplify.

Featuring on:

• Panel: Approaching Alternative Formats and Emerging Platforms

Producer Retrograde and Apollo, Line Producer Content

Jackson Lapsley Scott is a producer and film festival organiser. He’s produced music videos which have received multiple awards and cumulatively over a million views online. Jackson produced the feature GRACE, WHO WAITS ALONE (Georgia Temple, 2015) which played Queensland Film Festival and won Best Script at the Beunos Aires Festival; the short FITTING which screened at Palm Springs, London BFI, and other film festivals; and was AACTA-nominated for his work on web series CONTENT, which was reviewed in the Guardian, the New York Times and listed as one of Junkee’s 50 Shows That Defined the Decade. He joined Unless Pictures in 2020 to produce RETROGRADE – a 6 x 22 min comedy for ABC TV + iView which was created and broadcast during pandemic lockdown. Jackson has a background in theatre and live event production, was Program Manager for the Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival for four years and in 2020 took the role of Festival Director. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: Approaching Alternative Formats and Emerging Platforms

Company Director, Pink Pepper

Taryne Laffar is a producer, writer, director and casting director who descends from the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations in Western Australia and a diverse global bloodline.Her filmmaking credits include Who Paintin’ Dis Wandjina?, BINGO!, Rainforest WarriorZ, On Country Kitchenand she has also produced six short documentaries for NITV’s Our Stories, directing three. Taryne was the Series Producer of ABC iView comedy series, KGB and Our Law in 2019. Taryne’s casting credits include; Bran Nue Dae, Mad Bastards, Stone Bros, A Few Less Men, Go Karts, Jandamarra’s War, Straight Shootin’ And Yagan.

Taryne also known as Pinky, received Screenwest’s Spark Yearlong Initiative 2018/2019 and was selected for SPA’s prestigious 2019 Ones To Watch program and subsequently announced Screen Forever’s SBS First Glanceprize winner. She is also an Indigenous Producer Program recipient through Screen Australia, and also completed their intensive, Developing The Developer. Taryne was appointed a new member of the Screenwest Industry Advisory Group Committeein late 2019 and also accepted committee member roles for: WIFT WA and Screenwest’s Diversity Committee in early 2020. Taryne’s latest projects include: feature anthology Redwas,Old Mate (Comedy Webseries), Tata Detective (Television Drama Series)and Our Law (currently available on SBS OnDemandand recent finalist for best documentary at Sydney Film Festival 2020) is also in series development.

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story II: Broadening Your Lens

Founder, More Sauce

Luke has directed a number of short films including multi-award winner Cockroach, and Australian Summer, winner of Tropfest. In 2010 he began directing television such as Dave in The Life, SEX: An Unnatural History and the landmark documentary series Great Southern Land which landed him an ADG nomination for best direction in a documentary TV series. In 2014 Luke created, produced and directed the online series, Low Life: A Black Comedy About Depression. It went on to win over 25 major festival awards and was sold to Amazon Prime and CanalPlay.

In 2017 he completed directing and producing the follow up series, High Life which was Executive Produced by Stephen Fry and stars Odessa Young with music by Sarah Blasko. The series has won over 30 major awards including Best Digital Original at C21 Content London and was also nominated for an AACTA Award. It took out the Web Series World Cup for 2017 for being the most awarded and successful web series of the year. The series has sold to BBC3, Channel 9, CanalPlay and Fullscreen. Luke just completed production on his first feature film, I Met A Girl, starring Brenton Thwaites and Lily Sullivan. The film is scheduled for release in 2020 through AMP Worldwide.

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Pathways – Levelling up your Crareer and your Projects

Writer & Partner, Jungle Entertainment

Phil Lloyd is a writer, actor, producer and director, perhaps best known for his role as Myles Barlow in Review with Myles Barlow. As well as Review, Phil co-created, wrote and starred in The Moodys, A Moody Christmas, At Home with Julia, Here Come the Habibs, The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting, and Sando. As an actor Phil has featured in comedies such as How To Stay Married, True Story with Hamish & Andy, and Drunk History, and dramas like Rake, Wild Boys and The Secrets She Keeps.

Phil has won multiple AWGIEs, AACTA Awards, and a Cannes Gold Lion, and has been nominated for a Logie and an International Emmy. Phil was an Executive Producer for Bad Mothers on Channel Nine, and before joining Jungle Entertainment he was Script Producer for Home & Away on Channel Seven. Phil has written pilots for FX, CBS and Fox in the US, and is an Executive Producer for the US remake of The Moodys, starring Denis Leary and Elizabeth Perkins on Fox. Review was also remade in the US for Comedy Central, where it ran for three seasons.

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story I: A Guide to Comedy

Senior Producer, Princess Pictures

Mike worked at Screen Australia since it was founded in 2008 and before that with predecessor agency the Australian Film Commission since 2005. In his role as Investment Manager at the Federal Government’s key screen agency, Mike managed many award-winning projects including online content, TV series, feature films, apps, interactive drama & documentary, and video games, and conceived and ran many initiatives, conferences, and training opportunities. 
 
Mike had special responsibility for innovative digital production, exploring new platforms, finance, and revenue models. Amongst several special programs, Mike initiated and managed SKIP AHEAD with Google/YouTube to support content creators to grow online subscribers, and FRESH BLOOD with ABC TV/iview to find the next wave of comedy filmmaking talent. Prior to joining the agency, Mike held positions with the UK Film Council and the South Australian Film Corporation, and worked with production companies Picture Palace North (UK) and Monkeystack.  
 
Mike’s commitment to unique and remarkable talent, coupled with his creative judgement and enviable knowledge of current trends in international production make him an invaluable asset at Princess Pictures. 

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story I: A Guide to Comedy

YouTuber & Actor/Creator, Nevernight

Piéra Forde is a multi-talented actor, producer and creator from Brisbane, Australia. As an actor, she noticed a lack of roles that excited her, so she set out to create her own, with a heavy focus on the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Piéra has built a name for herself through her various roles in high profile Australian and international films, television shows and her prominence in the online book community on YouTube. When she’s not training animals or lost in a fantasy book, Piéra is bringing those fantasy worlds to life on screen, with a strong focus on complicated character relationships, dynamic stories and morally-grey characters. 

Piéra wrote, produced, directed and starred in ‘Maximum Ride’, a web series adapted from New York Times best-selling author James Patterson’s young-adult series of the same name. This series quickly took off and garnered a large online fan-base worldwide.  

In 2019, Piéra received funding from Screen Australia, in association with YouTube and Google to adapt another award-winning fantasy novel, ‘Nevernight’ by Jay Kristoff, into a digital short-form series. Piéra’s career is testament to the fact that if you have a goal, you work hard and believe in a little bit of dark magic, you can be the master of your own dreams. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: Purpose and Strategy with Changer Studios

Creator, That Start Up Show

Ahmed is an award-winning creative entrepreneur, filmmaker, and artist with a passion for exploring the intersection between technology, storytelling, and social impact. He executive produced critically acclaimed “The Tunnel”, the first feature film to be crowdfunded and released commercially via BitTorrent. Building on his early experience in online storytelling, he launched the ‘Free Hugs Campaign’, Australia’s first viral music video and campaign spawning a global movement. Collaborating with Rocky Horror Picture show’s Jim Sharman, he co-produced ‘Andy X’ an experimental online musical about Andy Warhol.  

More recently, he co-created 3 seasons of web series That Startup Show, recognised as a Webby Honouree. In 2020 he was a contributing artist for interdisciplinary sci-fi art project “The Parallel Effect” for the 2020 Next Wave Festival, and is currently directing a VR hybrid series exploring the boundaries of empathy. Ahmed is the creative director and co-founder of Futureology and currently lives and works upon the land of the Wurundjeri people. He holds a Master of Design degree from UNSW Art and Design. 

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Pathways – Levelling up your Career and your Projects

Founder & Producer, Galactic Baby

Lauren Elliott is one of Western Australia’s most groundbreaking comedy producers. In 2019, she released three web series – cult Indigenous comedy series, KGB on ABC iview, The Big Spaghetti on YouTube and LIFT on 10Peach. She also won a 40under40 award, which declared her one of WA’s leading entrepreneurs under the age of 40. Lauren has a wealth of experience in film & TV, marketing, public relations and events having worked in Australia, the UK and the US. She is represented by CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles which has resulted in a number of exciting opportunities in the US, including a producing partnership with Sacha Baron Cohen’s production company, Four By Two, who saw “early shades of Ali G” in her work. She was the winner of the inaugural Screenwest Emerging Producer’s Initiative in 2015 and was awarded $100,000 to put towards projects and professional development. Following her win, she spent six months learning the Hollywood ropes at Red Hour Films and Abso Lutely Productions in Los Angeles and now splits her time between Perth, Sydney and LA. 

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story I: A Guide to Comedy

Lecturer, RMIT University

Dr Stayci Taylor is a screenwriter, script editor and story consultant whose credits include ten seasons of an award-winning bilingual serial drama and a co-creation of a prime-time sitcom. Like most screenwriters she has a screenplay in development, following two tranches of competitive early development funding from the New Zealand film commission. She currently works as a researcher, lecturer and co-manager with the Master of Media program at RMIT. She is co-editor of two books about script development, forthcoming in 2020 and 2021. She is published widely in academic journals on the topics of screenwriting, comedy and web series. This is Stayci’s fourth year with Melbourne Webfest, in such roles as Grand Juror, panel moderator, pitch iView judge and mentor.

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story II – Broadening Your Lens

Founder, Four Leg Films

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story II: Broadening your Lens

Creator Official Selection series – Girl, Interpreted

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Identity in Writing & Multiplatform Storytelling

Production Executive, Film Victoria

Tamasin Simpkin has experience in both online and traditional media spaces, and a passion for collaborating with diverse talent to create meaningful entertainment. Joining Film Victoria as a Production Executive earlier this year, she works across both the development and production funding programs. An alumni of the Screen Producers Australia Ones to Watch Program, and nominee for Breakthrough Business of the Year, she has over a decade of experience working across the production process.

Her most recent production, Get Krack!n, was described by critics as “the finest satire ever put to air on Australian television”, “comedy at its groundbreaking best” and “a must-watch for all Australians”. Tamasin’s previous work on The Katering Show allowed her to develop the knowledge and skills pertinent to online production and distribution – be it an independent project or in collaboration with a network. The first series had 2 million views in its first week online and took out numerous awards, including Best of the Fest and Best Short Form Series at the New York Television Festival, an AWGIE for Best Short Form Series, and the award for Best Comedy at ITV Festival, Melbourne Webfest and the Online Video Awards. Series two also broke the record for most watched ABC iView original program at the time of its release.

Featuring on:

• Roundtable: Developing your Story II: Broadening your Lens

Creator, Sheilas

Hannah Reilly is an award-winning writer, director and actor for film, television and theatre. In 2017 she co-created, wrote and starred in ABC1’s ‘Growing Up Gracefully’, A six-part comedy-doco series that used etiquette books to skewer the outrageous double standards placed on women, for which she was nominated for a Logie Best Newcomer Award. 

In 2018 Hannah and Eliza produced, co-wrote, directed and starred in their multi-platform series; ‘Sheilas’ A comedy series on the amazing but forgotten women of Australian History, for which she won an Australian Writers Guild Award. Hannah has also been the recent recipient of the Rebel Wilson Comedy Commission, for which she will be developing an original musical comedy THE DEB with Rebel Wilson and Camp Sugar Productions. 

In December 2018 she was selected by Bunya Productions (Sweet County, Mystery Road) to attend a three-day intensive genre masterclass with Jeremy Podeswa (The Handmaid’s Tale, Game of Thrones), and Raelle Tucker (True Blood, Jessica Jones) where she an Eliza workshopped their eight-part dramedy series ‘Cleanskins’ which is currently in development under their own company Bikeshed Productions. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: How to Produce Impactful Storytelling

Co-founder, Twisted Mirror and London Short Series Festival

Nominated comedy producer, Mikael Thiery has a passion for cinematic stories as well as online creative storytelling. After his first professional experience at Warner Bros France as a 2nd Assistant producer, Mikael embraced the online space by co-producing and directing the comedy sketches titled Ash Airways (Nominated comedy series at Seoul Web Fest 2016). Mikael teamed up with his business partner to set up the “London Short Series”, a festival celebrating original short-form content including VR films. Mikael is the co-founder of Twisted Mirror Films and moved forward by creating the brand-new venture – Twisted Mirror TV, the online comedy factory! 

Featuring on:

• WebFest Forum Sunday

Actor, Comedian

Annie Louey is a comedian, broadcaster and actor. She recently took to the web to perform her solo show, Annie Louey’s Big Break, after the Comedy Festival and gigs everywhere were cancelled due to COVID-19. She can be heard on the airwaves as a regular guest on ABC Breakfast and as a presenter on JOY94.9. Annie’s most recent acting gig saw her playing a lead pirate, in an educational series for Victorian high schools. Plus, if you love Aunty Donna, you might recognise her as an undercover ticket inspector from their Glennridge Secondary College webseries. 

Featuring on:

• WebFest Forum Saturday

Production Designer, Moments of Clarity

Featuring on:

• WebFest Forum Saturday

Director, The Florists

Maxime has worked as a cinematographer since his film school graduation in 2011. He has shot documentaries, short films, music videos and ads. He recently shot the feature documentaries: Playing hard, currently on Netflix, and Being Dr. Miami which had its world premiere at Miami Film Festival last march. For several years, he developed his first project as a director, The Florists, among his other work, and he absolutely loved the experience. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: The Canadian Web Series Industry

Producer, Moments of Clarity

Paul Moran is a Scottish creative producer living in Northwest Tasmania. After graduating with BA(Hons) in Filmmaking & Screenwriting Paul found soon found himself settling on the other side of the planet, but a notorious Scottish sensibility followed him to Tasmania where he found a palpable resonance with his homeland. 

Having produced several internationally screened and award-winning short films, Paul became a recipient of Screen Australia Enterprise funding, securing a placement at Blue Rocket Productions to be mentored as a creative producer. In this period Paul has worked as an associate producer on kids animated series, Dumbotz, for Nine Network and has produced a short documentary, Sidelines, for SBS, an animated web-series, Moments of Clarity, as well as working on several other projects across the company’s slate. 

As a gregarious lover of people, places and the stories that lie intertwined within them, Paul actively seeks to combine his passions and open view of the world with his imperative for telling screen stories. Paul has been selected as one of Screen Producers Australia’s “Ones to Watch” and is currently developing several projects for various platforms. 

Featuring on:

• WebFest Forum Saturday

Founder, Pink Moon Studio & Researcher, Ryerson University

Featuring on:

• Panel: The Canadian Web Series Industry

Curator, National Film and Sound Archive

Heather Gill has spent 15 years working in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sector. Currently at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), she has been working as a curator for the past six years. The majority of this time has been focusing on short films, web series and home movies. She is continuously building a practical understanding of the varying demands of analogue and born digital formats, from both archival and industry perspectives. With a keen interest in film, social history and good information management, she is a passionate advocate for how audiovisual archives – like the NFSA – can offer the creative industry opportunities for collaboration, learning and navigating challenges. Heather was a member of the 2018 Melbourne Web Series Festival jury. 

Featuring on:

• WebFest Forum Sunday

Strategic Advior, Transmedia Zone, Ryerson University

For over a decade Dan Speerin has been at the heart of technology and storytelling in Canada. As a producer, filmmaker, host and one of the first YouTube partners in Canada, he has been asked to create work for social networks, television and radio. Alongside his production partner Vince Kesavamoorthy, he has co-created and produced three multi platform television series, a CBC radio digital special and one of the first multi platform election specials in the social networking era. The duo were also the first and only Canadian series on YouTube’s largest news and politics channels “TYT Network”. 
 
Dan has been a tireless advocate for a healthier and more fair digital creator culture. In 2015, he joined the board of the Independent Web Creators of Canada, eventually taking on the role of Vice President and Chair, where he mentored, advocated and promoted Canadian entrepreneurs and storytellers. His views about digital culture and emerging technologies have been featured in stories by the CBC, Washington Post among others, while he’s been a featured speaker at events like JFL42 and Canadian Music Week. He looks forward to continuing his work of mentoring new artists and helping to carve a new path for the Canadian industry to fully embrace an original, entrepreneurial spirit in Canadian storytelling. 

Featuring on:

• Panel: The Canadian Web Series Industry