So, You Want to be a Writer?

With less than 40 feature films funded in Australia every year, Directors with stories to tell must be innovative and clever to get their stories to audiences and to survive between films.

Meet the Creators on 27 July features four Directors sharing their determination passion and creativity – along with tips on how to get features funded and how to explore platforms other than the cinema.

Adam Elliot is an Academy Award winning independent animator and visual artist. His animated films and imagery 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.

He is currently in pre-production of his new feature film, Memoir of a Snail, with his co-producer Liz Kearney and EP, Robert Connolly.

Finnish Australian Saara Lamberg is a director, actor, writer and producer. She has received several awards for her directorial work, including the Best Film at the IFF (Milan 2018), the Best Film at the FAFF (Los Angeles 2017), Cinema Australia Audience Award (Melbourne 2017), Bronze prize at the Beverly Hills screenplay contest (Hollywood 2013).

Innuendo was her first feature film, it opened theatrically in Melbourne 2017 and was broadcast nationally in Australian free to air television in 2019. It is currently screening on streaming services

Her second feature film Westermarck Effect was scheduled to World premiere at Cannes Cinephiles 2020 but due to the pandemic the film will launch in Cannes 2022. In the meantime she has other films in various stages of production, including the improvised features The Lies We Tell Ourselves and COMA.

Lamberg has self-financed all her films through sweat, equity and crowdfunding.

Logan Mucha is a director whose films have played at film festivals globally, on TV and major online platforms. He’s twice won Best Australian Short at the Human Rights Film Festival and his feature documentary, East Bloc Love, launched Amnesty International’s Pride Fund at the Hague.

His latest work Scattered is a vertical drama series he co-created, wrote and directed for TikTok in 2021. He’s now writing his first fiction feature, Divided We Fall, developed through Creative Victoria’s Creator’s Fund.

Aaron Wilson’s second feature LITTLE TORNADOES is about to open at the Melbourne International Film Festival. He was born in rural Australia and spent time living and working in and around his neighbouring South-East Asian region. He works as a director and writer across film, VR, multi-platform and commercials. He is drawn to narratives that explore human vulnerability and connection between peoples across neighbouring country divides.

In 2006, Aaron was selected to take part in a filmmaker residency programme with The Objectifs Centre for Filmmaking and Photography in Singapore where he developed the script for his debut feature, CANOPY. The film premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at festivals including Rotterdam, Busan, Taipei, Shanghai, Jerusalem, New Horizons and Seattle. CANOPY was released in UK, Canada, US, Taiwan and Australia, and VOD in China.