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John worked for 10 years in the UK series/exec producing a range of factual programming across a range of genres for Channel 4 and BBC2. His career in the UK included the ground breaking Channel 4 series Eurotrash. He has been in Australia for 10 years, and has produced everything from documentary, to popular culture series (SBS and Discovery).  Most recently, he worked at Becker Entertainment as Head of Development and Executive Producer. He has been SBS Commissioning Editor of Documentaries since July 2008, and commissions include Who Do You think You Are? (Series 3 and 4), The Tall Man and Immigration Nation – The Secret History of Us. Now Head of Documentaries, John is responsible for the whole documentary slate, and in particular looks after indigenous and contemporary documentaries including Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta and Go Back To Where You Came From.

Before moving to Australia to take up his role as commissioning editor for SBS, Joseph developed, directed and produced high end, prime time documentaries for most of the major broadcasters in Britain. He also set up his own production company. In Australia his credits as a commissioning editor include, “Dirty Business: How Mining Made Australia” and “Who Do You Think You Are.” He has a series of new international co pro’s in production, in both science and history. 

Dave Braithwaite is a digital-content specialist, with experience at some of Australia’s top publishers. 

He joined SBS in 2010 as Executive Producer, News & Current Affairs Online, before moving to SBS Online as Managing Editor. 

Dave previously worked as a cross-platform journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, and as Online News Editor for The Age. 

Sam Griffin is an investment manager at Screen Australia who works across the International (IDP) , General (GDP) and Signature Funds. She has worked in film and television for the past 15 years. With a background in print journalism she moved from Sydney to the U.S. in 1996 where she worked as a director/producer for a New York production company. Prior to leaving the U.S. she was the supervising producer for a suite of cable TV lifestyle series. Sam has also produced and directed documentaries and theatre productions, as well as documentary for public radio.

Alyssa Orvis is an Investment / Development Manager in the Documentary Unit at Screen Australia. Prior to that she divided her time between Sydney Film Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where she ran guest and industry teams for both events and advised on programming. She has also worked at Tribeca Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the Bicycle Film Festival.

Elena has worked in a variety of roles within Screen Australia since 2009. Her work has included, as part of the Marketing Department, building audiences and profiling Australian films within Australia and internationally. More recently Elena has joined the State and Industry Partnerships team, working with Senior Manager, Chris Oliver, on the Enterprise Program and on building an increased Australian film and TV presence in Asia and facilitating business opportunities in new Asian markets. These strands converged in 2013 with the staging of the inaugural two- day Australia-China Documentary Forum in Beijing, a part of the Enterprise Asia program. Elena has a broad knowledge of the screen industry in Asian countries and has attended various festivals and markets including Busan International Film Festival, FICCI Frames, Asian Side of the Doc and the Sichuan TV Festival. Elena is interested in talking with you if you want to learn more about the screen industry in Asia.

Pru recently joined Screen Australia as an Assessment Manager to assess provisional and final certificate applications in the Producer Offset and Co-Production Unit (POCU). Prior to joining Screen Australia she worked for five years with the POCU as an independent film production consultant. Pru has worked extensively as an independent production accountant, financial controller, production manager and line producer in the Australian film and television industry. Her more than 20 years' industry experience includes documentary and factual series - BrightSparks for Beyond Productions, A Current Affair - Summer Edition and Michael Willesee's Street Stories for Channel 9 and on one-off documentaries - Cenotaph for the ABC and Bull Sharks in the Backyard for Nat Geo Wild. She has also worked on numerous feature films and drama mini-series including Parer's War, A Heartbeat Away, The Wolverine and Remote Area Nurse.

Erica Glynn is the Head of the Indigenous Department at Screen Australia. The funding programs of Screen Australia's Indigenous Department support creatively ambitious projects and people, and imaginative, resonant stories authored by Indigenous Australians. We aim to assist the career development of talented writers, directors and producers who have the potential to make a significant contribution to screen culture and the national cultural life by actively engaging at all stages with key creatives in the development and production of their works.

Catherine Nebauer is the Investment and Business Development Executive for Screen Queensland, where she overseas investment across television, film and multi-platform for the State Agency.  Prior to joining Screen Queensland she set up TaleFinn Entertainment. Established in 2008 TaleFinn Entertainment offers Consultancy and Executive Production services. Clients include Movie Network Channels, Studio Ish, SBS Television, Fremantle Entertainment, Foxtel and Vision Plus Entertainment (Malaysia.) Catherine was previously General Manager, SVP for Nickelodeon Asia where she oversaw distribution, ad sales, marketing and programming. Catherine was responsible for launching new channels in Korea, New Zealand as well as an 8 hour block on Free TV network Global in Indonesia. Before moving to Asia, Catherine was the Managing Director for Nickelodeon Australia where she was responsible for launching Nick Jr. as well as delivering the # 1 Channel and on line portal for kids. 

Karena has a background as a writer, producer and script developer and has worked across film and television in Australia and the UK. She has successfully run her own production company Pagan Films, developing and producing drama and and documentaries including the award winning Orientations: Chris Doyle, Stirred Not Shaken. For the past ten years she has worked as a development and production executive for various funding agencies including the former FFC and Screen NSW. She is currently the Director of Screen Tasmania, positioning the local industry for growth in online content creation, championing the voice of regional Australia and driving increased production activity to underpin long term industry sustainability.

Andrew joined the Screen Tasmania team with over 25 years experience in the industry as an Executive Producer, Producer and Writer.

Andrew produced some of the most acclaimed music videos of the 1980s and Alex Proyas' debut cult feature film Spirits of The Air - Gremlins of the Clouds. In 2001 Andrew co-produced the award winning feature film He Died With a Felafel in his Hand.

Andrew has also developed a variety of projects, writing several film treatments and screenplays including co-writing the feature film adaptation of the book Leftovers, which was selected for the prestigious scriptwriting workshop Aurora 2005 working with Gus van Sant and John Sayles.

Always passionate about the screen industry, Andrew continues to relish the opportunities for innovation in this exciting and ever changing field.

Ryan has worked in the Australian screen industry for 18 years.  His drama producing credits include the feature films BLAME (Melbourne, Toronto and Chicago international film festivals and Cannes Cinephiles) and JUSTICE (Marcus Graham, Kerry Armstrong, Simon Westaway).  He has also produced over 80 advertising campaigns totalling over 170 commercials.  His commercial work has been a finalist and winner at the Campaign Brief Awards (Best TV Advertisement, Best TV Campaign) and Perth Advertising and Design Club Awards (Gold, Silver, Bronze Awards), a finalist at the AWARD Awards and featured on www.bestadsontv.com.

Ryan has previously worked as a Project Officer at ScreenWest (twice managing the agency's Screen Industry Partnership Fund) and was the Western Australian Chapter Head of Screen Producers Australia (SPA) for a three and a half year period between 2008-2011.  Ryan has been in his current role at ScreenWest for 18 months.

Jodie De Barros began her career in documentary filmmaking in 2007 when she established Sea Dog TV International based in Perth, WA with partner Leighton De Barros. Jodie has over 24 years experience in accounting, business and finance and is responsible for the financial and business affairs side of the business, along with executive producing, line producing and production accounting. Jodie has gone on to produce several wildlife/natural history documentaries, including Whale Patrol for ABC TV and National Geographic TV International, On a Wing and a Prayer for ABC TV, The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator for ABC TV, Al Rayyan TV, Smithsonian Channel, NHK and National Geographic Channel. With the most recent being factual entertainment series Hello Birdy for ABC TV with presenter William McInnes.

Four-time Emmy Award nominee Leighton De Barros has over 25 experience in the television industry, specialising in documentary filmmaking, as a producer, director, writer and cinematographer. He has won more than 15 industry awards and worked on many films broadcast by Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and National Geographic, and has international clients including Survivor (CBS America) and the BBC Natural History Unit. In 2007 Leighton established Sea Dog TV International with partner Jodie De Barros and has gone on to produce, direct, write and shoot several documentaries, including the well rated The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator for ABC TV, Al Rayyan TV, NHK, Smithsonian Channel and National Geographic Channel, Hello Birdy a factual entertainment series for ABC TV with actor William McInnes, Shark Bay, Whale Patrol, and On a Wing and a Prayer for ABC TV and National Geographic.

Michael Byers is Managing Director of Showbrands. An expert in cross platform media, Michael draws on over two decades of professional industry experience with blue chip clients including: McDonalds, Optus, Caltex and Nokia. His knowledge brings a unique approach and unrivalled insight to branded content and product placement.

His skills and position as an industry leader have been recognised internationally, with affiliations in the US and UK.  A regular contributor and blogger for the Marketing Magazine, Michael is also author of the ‘Australian Product Placement Handbook.’

David is the CEO of the Adcorp communications group which includes Showrunner Productions. He is the Executive Producer of the format program Wimp 2 Warrior which is currently in production.

Ray is currently Executive Producer at Showrunner productions one of Australia's most exciting production companies. Current projects include the format 'Wimp 2 Warrior', the factual series '72 Dangerous Animals Australia', 'GT Hunters' and '72 Dangerous Places to Live'. Previous credits as EP include the serie 'Can We help' (ABCTV), Aristos (Nine), 'Just Add Water (Nine) and 'Lily's View' (GZTV China). Ray has produced hundreds of hours of broadcast TV. Please see us in the P2P lounge.

Roger is a Development Producer at Showrunner Productions and has 15 years television production experience. Previous positions have included Commercial Production Manager and Producer/Director at Channel Nine. Projects completed include Just Add Water, Tom Hoad Cup International Water Polo program for International broadcast & Bon Scott documentary for Channel Nine.

Sarah’s role at the SAFC is to deliver the Seed and Production Attraction Grant programs for IDP.  

Previously Sarah spent several years at the Sydney Film Festival covering countless miles as the Travelling Film Festival Manager.  In 2013 she was Conference Manager for AIDC’s inaugural DocWeek and in 2012 produced the Industry Conference at Hot Docs in Toronto. In other lives she has worked at TIFF, the Adelaide Film Festival, Worldwide Short Film Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Sandy’s role is to deliver the SAFC's development investment programs and programs delivered through Screen Culture organisations. Sandy Lepore is a passionate industry professional with over twenty years’ experience in screen content creation. Seven of those years have been with the SAFC where she has worked across many programs including Drama Development, Documentary Development and Production, the Short Film Fund, the IDEA fund and the Attachment Scheme.  Previous to the SAFC Sandy worked as a freelance writer and director whose award winning films screened at international film festivals including Berlin, Aspen, Palm Springs and Sydney.  Her projects have been broadcast on SBS and ABC as well internationally in the USA, Italy, Israel and the Czech Republic.  She also worked as a university lecturer teaching screen writing, directing and acting for screen.  She is a Directing graduate of the AFTRS and has an honours degree from Flinders University

As Special Projects Executive, Andrada delivers special projects for the SAFC including all Special Initiatives, the Indigenous Initiative, Short Film Fund, FilmLab, Digital360Lab and projects focused on the continual systems improvement of IDP. 

After completing a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Flinders University she worked at the Australian International Documentary Conference, in freelance video production work, and on a number of emerging short film productions and a low budget feature. Following that, within the SAFC Andrada has mostly worked within IDP as a project officer, managing professional development, travel and attendance grants and workshops. She has also worked in Communications and Marketing, and with IT as the Information Systems Analyst, and has been involved in two program reviews, the relocation to the Adelaide Studios, two FilmLab workshops, and many funding initiatives, giving her a strong knowledge of the organisation, local industry activity, and stakeholders.

Melissa’s role is to deliver the SAFC production investment programs across what was previously divided amongst documentary, digital media and drama projects. 

Melissa is an award winning filmmaker who has worked in the film and arts industries for over twenty years.  Melissa has managed various SAFC programs and overseen SAFC investment interests in hundreds of Documentary, Drama & Digital Media projects as well as numerous special development and production initiatives. Prior to working at the SAFC Melissa’s work as a filmmaker includes award winning short films and broadcast documentaries as producer, director and editor. Melissa is a graduate of Swinburne film school in Melbourne (now VCA) and her films have screened at  film festivals internationally including Venice, Oberhausen, Cork, Melbourne, Sydney, Clermont-Ferrand International and Edinburgh. She has taught film production and theory at the University of Melbourne and Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.

CONTENT SEEKER

Jenny Neighbour studied arts in London, working in the arts sector before relocating to Australia. She worked on a variety of Bicentennial art exhibitions, before joining the Sydney Film Festival in 1989. Since then has viewed, programmed, negotiated, judged many hundreds of films, with a particular emphasis on documentary and short films, and curated a number of retrospective programs.