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Gender Careers for Screen Directors

Ray Argall Company Director

Ray Argall graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1980 and has enjoyed a colourful and productive filmmaking career spanning more than 30 years. In that time he has worked as a director, producer, DOP, editor and writer on features, short dramas, documentaries, and established a reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative cinematographers through his work on features such as Wrong World, The Prisoner of St Petersburg and most recently, Look Both Ways. Ray’s first feature, Return Home, received the 1990 AFI Award for Best Director, and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Director and Best Film; and screened at Berlin, Edinburgh, Seattle and a retrospective in Cannes. Ray has also produced numerous music videos for Midnight Oil, Crowded House and Hoodoo Gurus among others; and has produced several feature concert films, most recently for Split Enz. He also produced the animated short feature Les Contes des Animaux for theatrical and DVD release in France. Ray has directed hours of TV drama, and has specialised in setting up drama series such as Sea Change and MDA. He has been a lecturer at AFTRS and the Victorian College of Arts.

Jonathan Brough Company Director

Jonathan Brough’s career kicked off in style when his second short, The Model won a slot at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Since his debut at Cannes, Jonathan has continued to make award-winning content for film and television in both New Zealand and Australia. His television credits include The Family Law (Matchbox/SBS), Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane (Sticky Pictures/ABC), The Time of Our Lives (Amanda Higgs/ABC Australia), It’s a Date 1 & 2 (Princess Pictures/ABC Australia), Wonderland (Fremantle/Channel 10 Australia), The Pretender (Great Southern TV/TV3 NZ), Spirited (John Edwards/Foxtel Australia), The Insider’s Guide to Happiness (Gibson Group/TVNZ), Trails of Napier (Rhys Darby/HBO, pilot), The Unauthorised History of New Zealand and Eating Media Lunch (both TVNZ) and Outrageous Fortune (SPP/TV3 NZ). He has also made several more acclaimed short films, including The Model (Official Selection Cannes Film Festival), Permanent Wave (London and Sydney Film Festivals) and No Ordinary Sun (Best Short Film Auckland Film Festival 2005, Official Selection Edinburgh, Hof, Slamdance). He is currently developing two feature film projects.

Samantha Lang Company Director

Samantha Lang graduated with a BA in Directing from the Australian Film and Television School. In 1997, Samantha’s debut feature film, The Well was accepted into Official Competition at the 50th Cannes International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or. It was also nominated for 11 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards and went on to screen at over 30 festivals worldwide. In 2000, her next feature, The Monkey’s Mask screened at Toronto Film Festival, and was followed by a third feature, L’Idole (2003), which she co-wrote with Roman Polanski collaborator Gerard Brach. The French language picture was released internationally in 2003, opening the Locarno Film Festival and also screening at Toronto Film Festival. In television, Sam has worked on series such as the award winning children’s series My Place 1 & 2 for Matchbox Pictures, as well as on All Saints, Twisted Tales and Packed to the Rafters for Channel 7. Most recently, she has completed work on the telemovie Carlotta for the ABC. She continues to develop feature film and television projects. She was Head of Directing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (2010-2013).

Michela Ledwidge Company Director

Michela Ledwidge is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur and internet pioneer. In 2013 she directed the immersive interactive video installation ACO VIRTUAL and the social mobile game Tag Town. Michela is interested in freeing performers from the confines of the stage and taking their performances to people in their own environments, as well as exploring audience desire for focus and control in relation to performance. Michela won the inaugural Sydney Film Festival Peter Rasmussen Innovation Award in 2009 and co-founded Mod Productions in 2010.

Jennifer Peedom Company Director

Jennifer Peedom is well known for her gripping, intimate portraits of people in extreme circumstances. Her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries Miracle on Everest, Living the End and Solo, which played in the Official Selection of major documentary festivals, including IDFA and Sheffield, and won numerous awards including an AFI for Best Documentary. She recently completed a major feature documentary Sherpa, with producers Bridget Ikin (Look Both Ways, An Angel at My Table) and John Smithson (Touching the Void, 127 Hours). Sherpa premiered at the 2015 Sydney Film Festival as the only documentary selected for the Official Competition. It went on to receive critical acclaim and an international festival circuit run including Telluride, Toronto and London Film festivals. It has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival. Jen was the recipient of the inaugural David & Joan Williams Documentary Fellowship which recognises and rewards creative ambition, intellectual rigour and innovation in documentary cinema.

Nadia Tass Company Director

Nadia Tass directed her first feature film, Malcolm, in 1986. Since then she has directed the Australian features Rikky and Pete, The Big Steal, Mr Reliable and Amy, which received 23 international awards. Nadia’s work in the US includes Pure Luck for Universal Studios, The Miracle Worker for Disney, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story for Disney, Undercover Christmas for CBS Network, Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, and Felicity: An American Girl Adventure for Warner Bros, and Custody for Jaffe Braunstein Films. She also directed Stark, a mini-series, for BBC/ABC television. Nadia has continued her relationship with commercial theatre by directing for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and in 2002/2003 directed the musical theatre production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which toured Australia and New Zealand. Nadia’s work was rewarded with a nomination for Best Direction of a Musical, 2003, at the prestigious Sir Robert Helpmann Awards. Nadia is currently in post-production of a feature film with the working title Love and Mortar, which will be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox in Australia.

Jeffrey Walker Company Director

For over a decade, Jeffrey Walker has helmed major Australian television productions shown domestically and around the world, including the Emmy-nominated Dance Academy, Rake, HBO’s Angry Boys and the prestigious Jack Irish telemovies starring Guy Pearce (winner of an Australian Academy Award for Best Director). Most recently, he directed the BBC television series Banished (nominated for an Australian Academy Award for Best Director). Jeffrey began directing and producing in the US in 2012 on highly successful productions including Modern Family and Amy Poehler’s Difficult People.

Stephen Wallace Company Director

Stephen Wallace is a filmmaker who has directed five feature films: Stir (1980), The Boy Who Had Everything (1984), For Love Alone (1865), Blood Oath (1990) and Turtle Beach (1992). After making several short films (including Break Up and Brittle Weather Journey), he began his professional career with the low budget 50-minute drama The Love Letter From Teralba Road (1977), followed by the hour-long, low budget drama Captives of Care. He has directed a number of features (one-off dramas) for television including Gordon Bennett (Channel 9), Quest Beyond Time (Channel 10), Women of the Sun (SBS), and Mail Order Bride, Hunger, Olive and Envy for the ABC. During the last 10 years he has also directed for series television (Water Rats, Flying Doctors, Pig’s Breakfast and Twisted Tales), and was the President of the Australian Screen Director’s Association (ASDA now ADG) 1992-2000. He has always had an interest in theatre and acting and has his own small theatre company, Impulse Theatre, with Michael Gillett. He continues workshopping with actors to prepare for new productions.

Kingston Anderson Manager

Kingston Anderson is currently the CEO of the Australian Directors Guild and Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collection Society. He comes from a theatre and film background, working as a theatre director, film and television producer as well as a consultant for screen organisations across Australia. He was the Film Commissioner for New South Wales and has served on a number of boards, including the Association of Film Commissions International (AFCI). He currently sits on the board of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the Australian Copyright Council (ACC). He has been a judge for the documentary category of the Australian Walkley Awards, the Australian Subscription Television & Radio Association Awards and on the jury for the Oceania Film Festival. He has produced a number of documentary programs for Australian television, including the series Taxi School for SBS Television Australia, and A Frontier Conversation and Kulka for National Indigenous Television (NITV). He was also one of the producers on the SBS drama Aftershocks, about the devastating Newcastle earthquake that was based on a verbatim account of events. This film won the Best Actor Award at the Australian Film Institute Awards for its lead actor, Jeremy Sims.

Gillian Armstrong Director

After briefly working as an editor, Gillian Armstrong earned a scholarship to the newly created Australian Film and Television School. At the school’s interim training scheme for directors, she graduated alongside Philip Noyce and Chris Noonan in the school’s first group of directors in 1973. In 1975 Armstrong began the first in a series of documentaries. Starting with Smokes and Lollies, she revisited the girls in 1980 in Fourteen’s Good, Eighteen’s Better, and again in Bingo, Bridesmaids and Braces (1988). It was with My Brilliant Career (1979) that Gillian Armstrong made her feature film directing debut. Often considered one of the highlights of the Australian period genre, the film won many awards and was invited into competition at Cannes in 1980. She has returned to many of the same issues and themes in Mrs Soffel (1984), Little Women (1994), Oscar and Lucinda (1997) and Charlotte Gray (2001). Despite the success of these more commercial films, it was Armstrong’s lesser-known documentary Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst (2006) which earned her the most critical recognition during this time. Her most recent work is the documentary feature Women He’s Undressed (2015).

Rebecca Barry Company Director

Rebecca Barry’s work has screened on most major television stations in Australia. Her recent projects include producing The Surgery Ship, a documentary for SBS through her new production company Media Stockade and I Am A Girl, a feature length documentary film. Rebecca is a graduate from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Her work has screened on most major television stations in Australia as well as numerous local and international film festivals. She has been the recipient of many awards including winning the Best Student Documentary prize at the Australian International Documentary conference 2003, the AFTRS Film Australia Award 2003 and was the recipient of the AFTRS Screen Critics Circle award for Best Director and Best Film. She was also a nominee for the Emerging Talent Award by the Screen Critics Circle 2003 and recently Highly Commended at the 2009 Australian Directors Guild Awards. Her work as director includes Footy Chicks (SBS), Inspiring Teachers (SBS), Home and Away (Channel 7), The Surgeon (Channel 10), You Am I – The Cream and The Crock (DVD release), Beats Across Borders (ABC), The Space in Between, The McDonagh Sisters (SBS), A Modern Marriage (SBS) and Overture (ABC).

Anna Broinowski Director

Anna Broinowski is a filmmaker, writer and rock violinist who likes to explode clichés about the East. She toured her bilingual play The Gap to Tokyo, and uncovered Japan’s queer, drug and Otaku subcultures in her first documentary, Hell Bento!! Subsequent films include Forbidden Lie$ (about hoax-author Norma Khouri), Helen’s War (about anti-nuclear crusader Dr Helen Caldicott), and Aim High In Creation! (about the cinematic genius of North Korea’s late Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il). Anna’s films have won the Writer’s Guild of America Best Non-fiction Screenplay, the Rome Film Festival ‘Cult’ Prize, a Walkley Award, Best Director at Films Des Femmes, an Al Jazeera Golden Award, three AFIs, and a Moscow Film Critics’ prize (a hollowed-out wooden elephant). The hollow is for burning bad reviews. Anna was born in Tokyo and grew up in the Philippines, Burma, Iran and Canberra. At 19, she hitchhiked to Darwin and was kidnapped by truckies. This made her drop the study of law and do what she does now.

Megan Simpson Huberman Director

Megan Simpson Huberman is a senior development, production, and creative executive in the Australian screen industry, and multi-hyphenated creative talent. She has written, directed, and developed TV drama, feature films, and documentary, including Dating the Enemy, starring Guy Pearce and Claudia Karvan, which was one of the top 20 rating programs of the year when it made its broadcast debut on the Seven Network. She has worked with hundreds of writers and producers across Australia. Her previous roles include Head of Production and Development at Screen NSW, and Development Executive at Screen Australia. She is currently working in development on drama projects with Essential Media, Jungle, and ABC Fiction; is the co-creator and story producer of a new series in development with SBS; and has written two drama series that have been optioned by Werner Film Productions.

Opportunities

Applications open now for Commercial and Content Directing Mentorship for female directors. Applications will close 30 November 2016. More information here >

Applications now open for Shadow Directing Initiative for TV drama. Applications will close 14 December 2016. More information here >

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