Talent

TONY AYRES — Director, Producer, Showrunner, Writer

Tony Ayres is an award-winning Australian showrunner, writer, and director. He was a founding member of internationally renowned production company Matchbox Pictures, but now runs his own production company Tony Ayres Productions.

Tony was the showrunner on International Emmy and BAFTA nominated series, The Slap and an EP on its US remake. He co-created multi-award-winning series Glitch; has worked as an EP on International Emmy nominated Wanted, The Devil’s Playground, Old School, and The Straits to name a few; and has produced miniseries Barracuda and multi-award-winning Seven Types of Ambiguity. He also created and executive produced the International Emmy and BAFTA award-winning Nowhere Boys, and directed the multi-award-winning TV movie, Saved.

In feature films, Tony directed Cut Snake (2015), award-winning The Home Song Stories (2007) and Walking on Water (2002), which premiered at the Berlinale. He was the EP on Ali’s Wedding and Lou. Most recently, Tony was the showrunner on US Netflix series Clickbait and co-created and EP’d refugee detention centre drama, Stateless.

NATALIE BAILEY — Director, Producer

Natalie Bailey is a director and producer who began her career as an actress, editor, and short filmmaker in Australia before emigrating to the UK.

In the UK, she worked with talent such as French and Saunders, Jo Brand and Armando Iannucci, for whom she also directed on The Thick of It (BBC) and Avenue 5 (HBO).

Natalie has been set-up, lead, and series director—and sometimes part of the script development process—for a number of shows.

Her work includes the Emmy Award-winning Hoff The Record; the critically-acclaimed Damned; comedy How To Stay Married; ABC’s Retrograde, and most recently, The Unusual Suspects (SBS).

In recent years she has also directed on Loaded for C4/AMC and C4/HULU’s Gap Year, and HBO’s Run.

Natalie is currently getting ready to direct her first film in Australia, Audrey, written by Lou Sanz and developing a slate of television projects.

ERIC BANA — Actor, Producer

Eric Bana is an accomplished Australian actor and producer. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biographical crime film Chopper.

After a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Bana gained Hollywood’s attention for his performance in the war film Black Hawk Down and lead role in the Ang Lee-directed Marvel Comics film, Hulk.

He has since played Hector in the movie Troy, the lead in Steven Spielberg’s historical drama and political thriller Munich, and the villain Nero in the science-fiction film Star Trek.

In 2013, he appeared in the war film Lone Survivor, followed by a role in the horror film Deliver Us from Evil. Eric received AFI Awards for his performances in Chopper and Romulus, My Father.

In 2020, he starred as the lead in crime/thriller film and Australian box office smash-hit, The Dry, directed by Robert Connolly.

IMOGEN BANKS — Producer, Writer

Imogen Banks is an award-winning producer, writer, and creator.

She is known best for co-creaing and producing the critically-acclaimed series Tangle and Sisters, alongside award-winning series Offspring.

In 2012, she produced the AACTA and Logie Award-winning Puberty Blues for Network Ten and Southern Star John Edwards, with a second series produced the following year.

Imogen and John Edwards together developed the mini-series Paper Giants and recently produced Party Tricks, as well as the eight-hour mini-series Gallipoli with Robert Connolly and the six-part mini-series, The Beautiful Lie. In 2019, she executive produced television drama series, Almost Family.

JILL BILCOCK — Editor

Jill Bilcock is one of the world’s leading editors, working with directing heavyweights such as Sam Mendes, Baz Luhrmann and Fred Schepisi.

Jill honed her skills in Australia before breaking through to the lucrative American market in the mid-’90s. She is now one of the most sought-after editors in the world.

Credits include The Dressmaker, Red Dog, Japanese Story, Road to Perdition, Moulin Rouge!, Elizabeth, Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, and How To Make An American Quilt among many others.

Jill has been nominated for multiple BAFTA Awards and is a four-time AACTA winner for Best Editing.

TONY BRIGGS — Actor, Director, Producer, Writer

Tony Briggs is an Australian stage and screen creative—actor, writer, director, and producer—based in Melbourne. He is the creator and writer of the hit feature film The Sapphires, adapted from the stage play The Sapphires, which he also wrote.

Briggs is co-originator, executive producer, and writer of the eight-part TV series The Warriors. As an actor of over 20 years, he holds many credits to his name including roles in Cleverman, The Slap, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Wentworth, The Broken Shore, and Nowhere Boys. He will also appear in the forthcoming drama series Fires by Tony Ayres Productions.

Briggs is the Artistic Director of the Birrarangga Film Festival, a celebration of Indigenous films from around the globe. His latest short film, Elders, premiered at Berlinale.

CORRIE CHEN — Director, Producer

Corrie Chen is an award-winning filmmaker and one of the most sought-after television directors in Australia. An alumni of Berlinale Talents, her diverse body of work has screened extensively at academy-accredited film festivals around the world. She is currently in post-production as the sole director on New Gold Mountain.

She directed and executive produced the SBS series Homecoming Queens, which has been nominated for multiple awards including the AACTAs and the Australian Director’s Guild. Corrie previously directed the Emmy nominated Mustangs FC–for which she received an ADG Award nomination for Best Direction in a Children’s TV Drama–as well as Five Bedrooms and Sisters. She recently directed episodes of the ratings-hit remake of beloved Australian drama SeaChange and the final season of the popular prison drama Wentworth.

She is currently in active development on several feature and TV projects. She has previously shadowed directors on Emmy-award winning Nowhere Boys, AACTA award-winning Peter Allen, and on the groundbreaking final season of HBO’s The Leftovers.

ROBERT CONNOLLY — Director, Producer, Writer

Robert Connolly is an award-winning Australian film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Victoria.

He is the writer and director of the feature films The Bank, Three Dollars, and Balibo. He produced award-winning films, The Boys and Romulus, My Father.

For over the last fifteen years, Robert has headed up the production company Arenafilm. Since then, Robert has garnered many awards for his work as a writer, producer, and director. As a director, he has screened his films in over thirty major international film festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and San Sebastian Film Festival.

Robert received a Centenary Medal for services to the Australian Film Industry in 2001 and was part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2020 ideas summit. He has also been appointed to the new board of Screen Australia and now resides in Melbourne.

His latest film, The Dry, was a critical and box office smash-hit.

KATE DENNIS — Director, Producer

Kate Dennis is an award-winning Australian director and producer.

She has set-up seven television dramas in the US, UK and Australia including HBO’s Run; CBS’s Tommy; NBC’s New Amsterdam; Network Ten’s Secrets & Lies; alongside Offspring, Party Tricks, and BBC1’s Rescue Me. Offspring ran for seven seasons, garnering over 40 awards and nominations.

Her episodic work in the US traverses comedy and drama and includes The Handmaid’s Tale, GLOW, The Tick, Heathers, Strange Angel, Krypton, Damnation, I’m Dying Up Here, The Mindy Project; Preacher, Turn: Washington’s Spies, Fear The Walking Dead, Sleepy Hollow and Suits.

Kate began her career as a camera assistant and later script supervisor on Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Babe, At Play in the Fields of the Lord and Cliffhanger. Her Australian directing work includes Rake, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The Time of Our Lives, Rush, The Secret Life of Us, and Love My Way.

ADAM ELLIOT — Director, Producer, Writer

Adam Elliot is an award-winning and critically-acclaimed Australian stop-motion animation writer, director, and producer based in Melbourne, Australia.

His animated films are what he calls “Clayographies”: clay animated biographies based on the bittersweet lives of his family and friends. He has created six animated films including Mary and Max, Harvie Krumpet, Ernie Biscuit, Brother, Cousin and Uncle.

They have been voiced by some of the world’s leading actors, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Geoffrey Rush, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Toni Collette. Viewed by millions of people around the world his works have participated in over nine hundred film festivals and won over 100 awards, including the 2004 Academy award for Harvie Krumpet. He is the Official Patron for The Film Critics Circle of Australia and is a voting member for the Annual Academy Awards.

In 2009, Adam’s full-length film Mary and Max was invited to open the Sundance Film Festival—the first Australian and first animated film to ever do so.

SHAUN GRANT — Screenwriter

Shaun Grant is an award-winning Australian screenwriter, known for his work on Snowtown, Penguin Bloom, Mindhunter and Berlin Syndrome.

His chilling debut feature film, Snowtown was released in 2011 and saw him win the AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2012, Audience Award at BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, and went on to Critics Week at Cannes in 2011 as well as the Toronto Film Festival, London Film Festival, San Sebastien and Marrakesh Film Festivals. The film won numerous awards, including the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Greg Teppar Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Victorian Screen Industry.

Shaun went on to write on several other Australian drama series, securing another AWGIE (collegiate) for his work on the critically acclaimed mini-series, Deadline Gallipoli. Shaun received multiple award nominations for his adaptions of the bestselling novels, Jasper Jones and Berlin Syndrome.

He has also written the screenplay for the True History of the Kelly Gang, alongside writing for Penguin Bloom, a Mindhunter teleplay, and Nitram.