Jonathan Dawson

Jonathan is a highly respected film writer/director and broadcaster who has written and directed for many Australian television series, and is a regular book reviewer for The Hobart Mercury.

For the last 35 years he has been film reviewer for ABC Metropolitan (currently ABC Hobart with Tim Cox on Fridays) and regional radio networks and before that, was film critic for ABC TV.

Jonathon created and taught the Film and Media courses at Canberra University and the Screen Production courses at Griffith University. He was (2000-2007) Adjunct Associate Professor at Griffith University and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania.

Jonathan Dawson has been Tropfest judge since its inception, is on the National Panel for the AFI Awards as a professional Judge and acts as Script editor for the Wide Angle Raw Nerve short films, currently in production.

Dick Marks

Dick Marks began his career in television programme production in the late 60's, and went on to win many Australian and international awards for documentaries before establishing his own company.

Dick has worked intensively on cinema and T.V. commercial work, and is a member of the prestigious Directors Guild of America (DGA).

Some of the campaigns Dick has worked on include Hungry Jacks, Woolworths, Disney, Sprite, Big W, Weetbix Aussie Kids, Qantas "I still call Australia home", Lux Shampoo with Catherine Zeta-Jones for Japan, Sunsilk Shampoo with Laura Dern and Sugarine with Elle Macpherson.

Dick is highly regarded in the Australian film industry, and has been awarded lifetime achievement awards by two prestigious film organizations, and the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to the film industry, from the Australian Government.

David Edgar

David is a visual artist based in Hobart. He has a love for film and contemporary music, having studied film during his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Tasmania as well as managing a number of small, medium and large-scale music venues and events in Sydney and Hobart.

He has completed a Master of Fine Art (by research) in drawing at the University of Tasmania on an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship where he is currently employed as a casual tutor. He also works part-time as a Program Officer for Arts Tasmania and continues his own studio practice in drawing with upcoming exhibitions scheduled for Handmark in Hobart, Burnie Regional Art Gallery and Half Crown Design William Henry Furniture in Boston, USA.

He has completed a further eight years of fine art study at the National Art School in Sydney and the University of Tasmania (completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with 1st class honours).

George Underwood

George Underwood has worked as a producer/director in the media industry for over 20 years. He has worked for all three commercial networks in Australia producing primetime television series, such as My Restaurant Rules, Changing Rooms, Location Location, Sensing Murder, and RSPCA Animal Rescue. He started as a camera assistant in the news room at Channel 9 and worked his way up gaining experience as a sound recordist, cameraman, editor, director and writer. In the last 10 years as a producer George has gained experience in all aspects of television producing including directing, scheduling, budget management and concept development.

In 2008 George made the transition into Marketing, after re-training at Utas and has spent an invaluable year with Red Jelly, a full service advertising agency, as an Account Manager. He is now combining his knowledge from both industries into the development of a number of television projects.

George is also a current board member of Wide Angle Tasmania.

Graham Gates

Graham Gates is Tasmania’s most senior and respected educator in the field of media and film. He wrote the TCE Media Production C Syllabus, the TCE Pre-tertiary Media Production Industry Syllabus and courses in Television C and Video Performance A. Graham is the State Moderator in Media Studies with the Tasmanian Department of Education. He has served as a member on the Australian Community Television Standing Committee, is a Coordinator for Broadcast Television in Vocational Education Training and established the University of Tasmania's Television Studio for Journalism where he was a lecturer in Television Journalism. He has served as a Screen Tasmania Board Member, is the Chair of Wide Angle Tasmania, and has 38 years professional experience in the Television Industry, the last 32 years as Producer/Director.

Lucien Simon

Lucien directed the short films Muffled (Newfest, Palm Springs, Chicago Reeling, 2007), Stripped Bare (2010 Cannes Short Film Market, winner of the 2010 Canberra Short Film Festival, 2001 MUFF, 2011 Flickerfest and 2011 St. Kilda Film Festival), Produced, Wrote and Directed the documentary Conversations in Kingborough (winner of Tasmanian and National Local Government Awards, 2009) and Produced the Screen Australia funded documentary Daughter of San Domenico.

Lucien has a background in theatre having Directed numerous performances for companies such as Melbourne Workers Theatre, Vitalstatistix, Riverland Youth Theatre, the Australian Script Centre, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Come Out Festival etc. He has three feature films in development two of which went through ARISTA programs.

Magdalena Lane

Magdalena Lane's past positions include marketing and partnership roles for cultural organisations such as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

Previously, Magdalena worked at Tourism Tasmania in event marketing and partnerships. She was responsible for identifying, developing and delivering partnership and marketing strategies with Tasmanian events and tourism, to position Tasmania as a culturally vibrant destination.

Prior to this, Magdalena worked as the Producer for the Tasmanian Theatre Company, where she developed, managed and delivered Company partnerships, marketing and publicity strategies and developed the Community Enrichment Program.

She is currently the Director Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Tasmania.

Marcus Saunders

Marcus has been a commercial artist for more than 10 years and, as an Art Director at Hobart-based advertising agency Red Jelly, he works across all forms of creative communications, including web, print, television and press.

Marcus has directed many television commercials, and has co-written and directed two short 3D animations. His first-hand experience in directing, scriptwriting, budgeting, talent, lighting and set design on commercial projects means he has an in-depth understanding of the whole filmmaking process.

Nathan Spencer

Nathan graduated as an actor from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1996. Since then he has appeared in numerous plays such as Macbeth for the New England Theatre Company, The Mill on the Floss for Babylon Productions and the Sydney Theatre Company and Pan for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. He has also appeared in television shows such as JAG and Home & Away.

While working as an actor he developed a keen interest in the production side of filmmaking and in 2008 formed Sky Machine Productions with partners, and fellow Student Film Festival judges, Shaun Wilson and Tim Logan. As part of Sky Machine he produced the short films Henry Finn, Dish Communication and The Gardener which have toured both nationally and internationally.

He co-wrote the short thriller Stripped Bare which was funded by Screen Tasmania and which won best Short Film at the Canberra National Short Film Festival.

Rebecca Thomson

Rebecca Thomson is an award winning Tasmanian filmmaker who has made six short films to date, including Cupcake: A Zombie Lesbian Musical and Slashed, the latter of which was made through the 2010 Raw Nerve funding initiative of Screen Australia and Wideangle Tasmania.

Her films have screened at numerous festivals all over the world. At the recent Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Slashed received a special commendation from the festival jury as well as the audience choice award for favourite Australian short film, whilst Cupcake: A Zombie Lesbian Musical was voted audience favourite short film in the entire festival.

Rebecca is now working towards her first feature film which is likely to involve considerable amounts of blood and innards, a wardrobe of glamorous costumes and very possibly some song and dance!

Sara Cooper

A graduate of the John Bolton Theatre School (Victoria), Sara has worked consistently as a performer on stage and screen for the past 15 years.

Notable screen credits include performing the role of Will McInnes’ daughter in the AFI award-winning Channel Ten mini-series My Brother Jack (2001) and voicing multiple characters for 52 episodes of Channel Nine’s animation Pixel Pinkie. Sara has performed roles in numerous television commercials, corporate videos and TV series, shorts and films.

In 2010 Sara played the role of the meteorologist in the Canadian/Australian feature film Arctic Blast. This year she films the role of Lady Macbeth opposite John Xintavelonis’ Macbeth in the feature film Macbeth 1040AD and a pivotal role in the upcoming local feature film Breeding in Captivity directed by Lucien Simon.

Sara is the director of Cooper Screen Academy, providing quality training for Tasmanian actors.

Shaun Wilson

Shaun is a filmmaker who has been involved with the Tasmanian film industry for over eight years. He is a regular fixture in the local drama scene, constantly involved with productions as everything from script editor to gaffer to first assistant director. As part of the local production company and development team Sky Machine, he’s directed and produced multiple short films that have gone on to festivals around the world, while developing feature film scripts and TV series with funding from Screen Tasmania. He’s also a partner in local design firm Bluehat, through which he directs commercials and corporate video.

Tim Logan

Tim had his first short story published when he was 18.

In 2008, he joined fellow Student Film Festival judges Shaun Wilson and Nathan Spencer under the Sky Machine banner and their first production was a bitter sweet comedy, called Henry Finn. Funded by Wide Angle Tasmania; the Australian Film Commission, Henry Finn went on to tour around the state as part of Tasmania’s acclaimed 10 Days on the Island festival.

Sky Machine have since been shortlisted in the 2009 Tropfest competition for their second film Dish Communication, a sci-fi-rom-com selected in both the Dungog Film Festival and CSIRO Scinema 09 international touring film festival.

Tim is also a comedian, has performed around Australia and now Hosts fortnightly as part of Danger Academy, Hobart’s improvisational comedy show.

Kate Nash

Kate caught the documentary bug while a science student at uni. She started out as a radio producer on the ABC’s Science Show and Triple J before moving to ABC television where she made two documentaries and worked on Quantum.

Kate now spends most of her time studying and teaching documentary at the University of Tasmania, but she does like to keep her filmmaking hand in and is currently making a documentary about Tasmania’s first ‘complaints choir’.

 

Abi Binning

Abi is the General Manager of Wide Angle Tasmania and an independent producer and principal of the production company, Move Media. Abi has a number of credits in both broadcast documentary and short drama. Before entering the film industry, Abi worked extensively across the education sector as a teacher, researcher and curriculum writer.




 

Catherine Pettman

Catherine is an independent producer credited in broadcast documentaries, reality TV, commercials and short film and produced the award winning short film Stripped Bare in 2010.

John Kelly

A born and bred “North-Hobartian”, John has been a patron of The State Cinema since he was a young boy. He purchased the cinema in 2002 from The Australian Film Institute, and has since transformed this former fledgling one-screen picture house into a vibrant six screen arthouse complex. Utilising the latest digital technology and embarking on an ambitious building and restoration campaign, the historic State Cinema has been restored to its former glory days. The film-going public is now offered a smorgasbord of quality international, Australian and local films combined with festivals and community events. The MyState Student Film Festival was a concept suggested by John to the Financial Institution as they provided finance for the initial purchase of the cinema.