A panel discussion moderated by Queensland-based Director Mairi Cameron (The Second) around building your career as a director.

Featured panellists:

Chantelle Murray
Proud Bardi woman, Chantelle Murray began her career as a performer in Queensland but found her true passion off-screen as a writer and director – developing her own content with a focus on Aboriginal History. Chantelle’s passion for storytelling and unique artistic perspectives have earnt her credits on a range of projects. Chantelle’s debut directing piece My Name Is Mudju, was released this year and was selected to screen at the prestigious Bronze Lens Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, CinefestOZ and Rotorua Indigenous Film Festival.

Hayley Macfarlane
Hayley’s graduate film Hummingbirds and its follow up Growing Young screened at film festivals around the world setting her on a strong career directory early on. Moving to London in 2014 Hayley began directing Big Brother UK at just 23. Since then she has carved a name for herself in the reality TV world directing shows such as Love Island UK, Survival of the Fittest and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Hayley has also directed commercials for big names such as Discovery Kids Network, MTV, Village Roadshow and Tourism QLD, and is currently working on developing a TV Drama titles Tumbling.

Mairi Cameron (moderator)
Queensland-based director Mairi Cameron has over a decade of experience directing short films, music videos and television commercials, and released her first feature film The Second in cinemas nationally and on streaming platform STAN in 2018.
Her short film Milk was selected for official competition at Cannes, won prizes at Palm Springs and Bilbao and was pre-selected for an Academy Award. She’s directed clips for some of Australiaʼs premier music artists and won Triple Jʼs ʻMusic Video of the Yearʼ for Washingtonʼs Sunday Best. Mairi is also passionate about education and is currently the Film Department Coordinator at SAE Creative Media Institute in Brisbane.

Priscilla Cameron
Priscilla is an Australian director and writer. Her debut feature film, The Butterfly Tree was one of the final 10 feature projects to be selected for the 2014 Berlinale Project Talent Market. Her short films have won awards and screened internationally at a range of festivals. Priscilla has a full slate of projects including The Breathing Sea as co-writer/ director, Man-Shy and Dust as writer, Croak and Thunderbolt and I as co-writer, and TV series Hell, West and Crooked as writer.

A panel discussion delving into the production of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.

Featuring panellists:

Wayne Blair
Wayne Blair is an acclaimed film, television and theatre director, writer, actor and producer. He has directed a number of acclaimed and award-winning films include Top End Wedding, The Sapphires, Septembers of Shiraz and Redfern Now.  He directed the first and second series’ of Clever Man, season six of Love Child, and the US remake of Dirty Dancing (2017).

Jimi Bani
Award-winning actor Jimi Bani is a proud Wadagadum man from the Torres Strait Islands. Graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2007, Jimi has since held many leading roles across theatre and TV including in ABC’s The Straits and Rachel Perkins telefeature Mabo for which he received an AACTA nomination for Best Lead Actor (TV series). He has also appeared in Blue Water Empire, Black Comedy (series 2), Ready for This and Redfern Now.

Please note due to unforeseen circumstances Aaron Fa’Aoso will no longer in attendance.

Our keynote address for 2019 is Internationally-acclaimed and sought-after speaker, Karni Liddell whose TED speech has been watched by thousands of people around the world and was the only TED speaker on the day to receive a standing ovation.

The screen world is now more mobile than ever before – this panel discussion brings together some of the key creatives in this emerging space to discuss their processes.

Featured panellists:

Meg O’Connell
Meg O’Connell is an International Emmy® Award-winning producer. In the past year, she has produced two digital series: Robbie Hood for SBS On Demand and Content for ABC iview; both series have been nominated for AACTA® Awards. Content is a digital series set entirely on a mobile phone and is the first of its kind to be made in Australia. Meg also produced the International Emmy® Award, SPA Award-winning and AACTA® nominated ABC ME show Doodles for Ludo Studio and was the development manager on Ludo’s series Bluey.

Farhad Meher-Homji
Farhad is the founder of Changer Studios, which is shaping the future of short-form video content. Through its work with leading brands like Google and YouTube as well as top Creators and video experts from around the world, Changer has developed unique insights into what it takes to succeed on the world’s biggest video platforms.

Laura Clelland
Laura Clelland is a Producer and Director, passionate about creating entertaining and engaging content.  Laura has been freelancing in production for nearly two decades on TVC’s, series and features.  Her passion for crew and production is evident in her ownership of Queensland’s crew booking agency, Essential Crew, and guest lecturing at Universities and Film Schools, speaking engagements, panels and moderating Q & A’s. Laura’s work as Director, Co-Producer & Co-Writer on the Screen Australia funded teen dramedy series Life of Jess has received awards including Best Dramedy at the Asia Web Awards and an Award of Excellence from Indie Film Fest. 

Jordana Johnson
At 16, Jordana Johnson, lied about her age and coerced her principal into agreeing that it was a good idea that she be allowed to fly interstate to work as a producer’s assistant at Australian fashion week. In the decade since, she has made it her life’s mission to not only ‘Create Moments™’ that matter for clients including Adobe, Nike, Tourism NSW, Lucas Films, triple J, ABC, Stan and West Coast Tasmania, but to collaborate and produce genuinely memorable experiences (both online and offline), that speak directly to an audience as likely to lie about their age as they are to stand by their principles. Currently a freelance Creative Director and Producer, Jordana is now based in Sydney Australia.

Anna Barnes
Anna is an award-winning playwright and author.  Anna is the Writer of Content – Australia’s first-ever vertical video comedy series, streaming now on ABC ‘s social media channels and on iview. Anna won a 2017 AWGIE Award for Ghosts of Bileola, in the interactive category and has written a number of notable productions for stage including Lethal Indifference and Minus One Sister. Her Book Girl! The Ultimate Guide to being you was published by Penguin and named one of the Eva Pownall Notable Books.

Stuart Page has more than a decade of experience writing for Australian TV and is behind titles such as the second series of the popular series The Secret Daughter (Channel 7), the acclaimed ABC/Sundance TV sci-fi drama Cleverman and the third season of the Foxtel cult prison series Wentworth.

Stuart’s most recent project Total Control premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and goes to air on ABC this October.

SQ acting CEO Jo Dillon will conduct an insightful in conversation – with a focus on why Australian characters are gaining popularity overseas.

It’s the question we’re all dying to know the answer to! This expert panel will discuss the challenges of achieving diversity on both sides of the camera and growing audience desire for diverse content!

Featured panellists:

Tracey Corbin-Matchett | Bus Stop Films
Tracey is an inclusion and diversity champion, making groundbreaking change in the film industry in her new role as CEO not-for-profit Bus Stop Films which aims to raise the profile of people with disability on both sides of the camera. Tracey’s career spans diverse sectors, including social housing and domestic violence, Tracey has led many projects seeking social justice and greater inclusion and diversity, especially in the screen industry. She launched Women in Film and TV’s Raising Films Australia strategy, and previously worked with Screen NSW on strategic initiatives including Screenability, to foster employment opportunities for people with disability in the screen sector and She Shoots which focused on opening pathways for women in camera and sound roles.

Greer Simpkin | Bunya Productions
Greer joined Bunya Productions as Producer and Head of Television in March 2015 after many years working in editorial and production roles in broadcasting – ABC (Australia) and Channel 4 (UK). Since joining Bunya, Greer has produced the television drama series Mystery Road and the award-winning feature films Sweet Country and Goldstone. Greer was an Executive Producer on the feature film Jasper Jones. She has also produced the documentary The Troublesome Priest for the ABC, the VR film Every King Tide for SBS and is currently producing the 3 x 1 hr drama/doc series Blue Water Empire for the ABC and the feature documentaries Sanctuary and Beautiful Minds.

Muthila Gupta
Mithila started her screenwriting career in the story room at Neighbours in 2010 – where she introduced an Indian family to the regular cast of Ramsay Street. She went on to script edit and write for the show.  Mithila most recently wrote on Five Bedrooms (Ten), as well as several episodes, including the pilot, of Aquarius Films’ The Unlisted (ABC & Netflix). Both series feature Indian leads and a strong focus and celebration of diversity and inclusion. She’s also written on Doctor Doctor (Nine), The Heights (ABC), Playing For Keeps (Ten), Winners and Losers (Seven), Home and Away (Seven), Trip for Biscuits (ABC), and Toybox (Seven). She was the assistant script editor on Cleverman (ABC). 

Rosemary Blight
Rosemary Blight is one of Australia’s most experienced producers, known for making distinctive film and television including Top End Wedding, co-written and starring Miranda Tapsell and directed by Wayne Blair; The Sapphires, which premiered at Cannes; the internationally acclaimed drama series Cleverman;  Felony, directed by Matthew Saville and starring Joel Edgerton & Tom Wilkinson; Clubland, starring Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn; and the Julien Temple-directed The Eternity Man. Most recently Rosemary produced I Am Woman, the story of Australian international singing superstar Helen Reddy, directed by Unjoo Moon which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.