Gender Matters
Brilliant Stories funding
BIographies

Sex in the west

Troy Lum Producer

Troy Lum was the head of distribution company Dendy Films from 1998-2002 where he acquired and released seminal titles such as Amelie, Buena Vista Social Club and The Blair Witch Project. In May 2002, alongside Frank Cox and Sandie Don, Troy launched Hopscotch Films, which went on to become Australia’s leading independent distributor. In 2011, Hopscotch was acquired by Entertainment One, one of the world’s leading independent content and distribution businesses. Troy helped develop local releases such as Somersault, Bra Boys, Mao’s Last Dancer and Saving Mr Banks on which he also served as Executive Producer. Troy is Managing Director of Hopscotch Features, a joint venture with writer John Collee and producer Andrew Mason. A ‘one-stop shop’ for film finance, development, production and distribution, Hopscotch Features has enabled Troy to deepen his involvement in the Australian film landscape and to work with emerging and established filmmaking talent from as early as concept stage. The first films to emerge from this partnership are Australian/French coproduction Adoration starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, gothic fantasy I, Frankenstein starring Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy, Disney production Saving Mr Banks with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson and Russell Crowe’s directorial debut The Water Diviner.

Jude Troy Producer

Jude Troy, EVP TV Development & Acquisitions, Jude is heading up the TV development and production arm for eOne Australia. Jude has 15 years’ experience in script stage TV acquisitions from Spooks and Life on Mars to Hannibal, The Missing, Indian Summers, The Slap, Catastrophe, Frankenstein Chronicles, Cleverman, Rush, Miranda Hart and The Inbetweeners. Jude has spent the last decade as Managing Director of eOne and Hopscotch Home Entertainment. A former partner in Hopscotch, Jude has grown the business dramatically using her acquisitions acumen and has since garnered executive producing credits including the AACTA award winning documentary, All This Mayhem. Jude currently has TV series in development with Foxtel and Netflix.

Fadia Abboud Writer / Executive Producer

Fadia Abboud is a filmmaker, film festival co-Director and community worker. Fadia directed a documentary funded by NSW FTO Young Filmmakers Fund Remember 1948, which was bought by SBS. Fadia’s final film at UTS while doing her BA Communication (Media Arts and Production) was In The Ladies Lounge, which won two awards in the 2007 My Queer Career. Fadia’s other film Big Trouble Little Fish was funded by Parramatta City Council and is set on the day of the Cronulla Race Riots in a shopping centre in Western Sydney – it was screened at Flickerfest. Fadia’s latest screen work is the web series dramedy, I Luv U But about a Lebanese lesbian and gay boy in a marriage of convenience. The first series of I Luv U But was nominated Most Engaging YouTube Channel in Beirut’s Social Media Awards and the second series of I Luv U But was funded by Screen Australia. Recently Fadia undertook a Writing and Directing Attachment funded through Screen Australia at Jungle TV on Here Come The Habibs and they will engage her on the next series. Fadia is currently the Co-Director of the Arab Film Festival Australia.

Amal Awad Writer

Amal Awad is a Sydney-based writer, journalist, radio producer and author. Amal frequently writes and speaks about issues of society, religion and popular culture, and has also traversed these areas in several short documentaries for radio. Amal is the author of three books. She published her debut novel Courting Samira, a tale of Muslim courtship and coming of age in the modern era, in 2010. In 2014, she published a collection of personal essays and columns, The Incidental Muslim – Undiluted Perspectives on Love, Life and Pop Culture, in which she reflected on the challenges of being a young Arab Muslim woman, and how her childhood shaped her. Amal also contributed to the anthology Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia in 2014 (Allen & Unwin), and her second novel, This Is How You Get Better, was published in March 2015. Amal is a graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), where she studied a graduate certificate in screenwriting.

Lina Kastoumis Writer

Lina Kastoumis is a writer and creative producer. Lina entered the arts as a comic writer/performer over 20 years ago. Her versatility of practice has led her to work with diverse artists to develop and deliver distinctive arts projects across mediums and platforms. Lina has a passion for collaboration that sparks fresh new ways of telling and making ‘story’. She has written for TV (Kick, SBSindependent), live and screen sketch comedy, theatre, critical cultural essays and has also worked as a dramaturge in non-script based forms for live and cross-art platforms. Currently working with the Artists Services team at the Australia Council for the Arts, in recent years Lina has also worked with or produced projects for the following organisations: Urban Theatre Projects (Artistic Associate 2008-2010), Information & Cultural Exchange (Artfiles Project Coordinator & Screenwriting trainer, Transfusions), Casula Powerhouse & Arts Centre (Creative Producer, Casulahahaha), Auburn Community Development Network (Creative Producer - HighRise), Bankstown Arts centre (Creative Producer, Deep End). Lina still believes that political comedy is the only art form that can change the world. But as her work history suggests, she’s consistently, fortunately and happily worked with a range of audacious storytellers in other genres.

Gillian Stein Writer

A writer by any other name, Gillian Stein has ‘waxed on and waxed off’ for two decades as a script supervisor whilst moonlighting as a ‘wanna be’ script writer. Gillian has had the privilege of working with some of the best International and Australian Director’s such as Wachowski Brothers, Johnathon Teplitzky and Greg McLean. Matrix 1, Hercules, Wolf Creek, Here Come the Habibs and Rake are just some of the highly successful shows she has worked on. Gillian’s experience as a script supervisor has been useful in providing insights in how words on a script page call up pictures. Naturally, she is drawn to writing as a career and has a reservoir of knowledge garnered from her experience. For example she possesses the rare ability to visualise from what’s written on the script page to the final cut. During the past decade Gillian has written short films and several synopses for feature films. Gillian has completed her certificate in Digital Analytics and produces both written and video content for corporate clients. Her desire to take her career to the next level as an accredited writer in the film and television arena is palpable and timely.

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