Festival Guests – Shorts Filmmakers
For this year's MIFF Shorts program, we're not only screening an impressive array of short films – we're also hosting a number of local and international directors and actors who are in attendance for the screenings of their films. Come meet the makers!
 Jackie van Beek works as an actress, writer and director in theatre and film. With a background in theatre, she's devoted most of her time to devising and touring shows in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Her first short film grew out of a clown workshop she ran on a town camp in Alice Springs. Enjoying the challenge of filmmaking she's continued to make shorts in Australia, London and New Zealand. Her films have played in many festivals including London and Berlin and have picked up awards in both New Zealand and Australia. Van Beek is at MIFF to present her short film Go the Dogs. |
 Jeremy Bliss is a Melbourne filmmaker, actor and student. Born to British-Australian parents, Jeremy has lived and studied in Europe and the Middle East and has a background as a theatre and film actor. Jeremy obtained a Bachelor of Arts will complete his Bachelor of Laws this year. This year at MIFF Bliss presents Toy Soldier, his first short film, which he made in French and Hebrew with a cinematographer who he met at a buffet in Stockholm, an actor he befriended in Cannes and another who an Aussie pro-skier friend of his met and said would be right for the role… and she was. |
 Callum Cooper is an Australian emerging artist and filmmaker currently residing in London. In 2004, with the assistance of a Robert Fine Memorial Scholarship, he undertook a Postgraduate Diploma in Film and Television (Animation) at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. His graduation film 2.41 Upfield, based on interviews conducted with visually impaired writer Steve Tara was screened widely and received a number of awards and nominations. Cooper’s 2010 film Victoria, George, Edward and Thatcher had it’s world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2010. Little Brother (2010) had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2011. For this year’s MIFF program, Callum Cooper presents his short Little Brother. |
 Born in Wanganui and brought up in Raetihi, Davis moved to Auckland at the age of twelve. After leaving high school, he studied acting at Northland Polytech for two years. Davis has appeared as an actor in many film and television productions including Jacksons Wharf, Whale Rider, Fracture and Outrageous Fortune. More recently, Davis has worked with Hone Kouka as an Assistant Director in the theatre productions And What Remains and The Prophet. Davis presents for this year’s MIFF Shorts program his film Ebony Society. |
 David Easteal is a Melbourne based writer/director. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, also studying Arts, majoring in literature. His films have screened at numerous festivals and been nominated for an Australian Director’s Guild Award. For this year’s MIFF program Easteal presents his short film The Father. |
 Kevan Funk was born in Vancouver, BC, and raised in Banff, Alberta. Being brought up in and around his parents’ grassroots theatre company, Funk was introduced to the arts at the earliest age. After an early interest in acting, his focus shifted to photography, where his work was shown in both solo and group exhibitions, as well as appearing in Photo Life magazine. It was this combination of these two passions, photography and the performing arts, that led Funk into filmmaking. From 2002 to 2008 Funk has been involved with the Banff World Television Festival, both in an administrative role and as a jury member. He is currently studying Film, Video and Integrated Media at Emily Carr University of Art & Design in Vancouver, BC. Funk is in town to present his short film A Fine Young Man. |
 Amy Gebhardt has written and directed 6 short films, winning various international awards including Best Direction at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival for Look Sharp. She was awarded Kodak Australia’s new director of 2008 and won a Silver Lion (for advertising) at Cannes in 2009 for her Anzac Memories commercial. She was nominated for the Rising Talent award at the Inside Film Awards in 2008 after graduating from her Masters in Directing at AFTRS. Further to her directorial skills, Gebhardt is an accomplished Cinematographer shooting over 15 short films, and multiple documentaries. By combining her love of cinematography, performance and documentary, Gebhardt is committed to telling stories that visually inspire and push notions of the human spirit. She is currently developing her first feature with support from Screen Australia and working as a resident director at Exit Films. For this year’s MIFF program she presents her short We Were Here. |
 After spending his early childhood scribbling illegible drawings onto almost every possible surface within his reach, Michael Greaney (or just ‘Greaney’ to everyone who knows him), developed a passion for animation through a steady and not so nutritious diet of all the weird and wonderful things that Saturday morning cartoons had to offer. He went onto study Animation and Interactive Media at RMIT where he completed his graduate film, a religion themed, clay animated sitcom called Aww Jeez, which he presents for this year’s MIFF program. He is currently working as a freelance animator for the company Oh Yeah Wow under director Darcy Prendergast. |
 Sam Holst graduated from RMIT University, Melbourne. While studying he wrote and directed the short film Swing, which screened at various festivals around the world including the Young Director Award at the Cannes Lions Festival. Holst is currently developing several projects and directing international commercials for The Sweet Shop. He is at MIFF presenting his latest short film Meathead, which was funded by the New Zealand Film Commission, and selected In Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. |
 In 2007 Andrew completed a Bachelor of Communications at the University of Newcastle. In 2008 he began the Bachelor of Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts. At the end of his first year in 2008, he was the recipient of the friends of the VCA award. In 2010, he was one of two students from the school nominated for the International Kodak scholarship award for student cinematography. Andrew has written and directed seven films, six at the VCA, and filled various crew roles on countless others. For this year’s MIFF Shorts program, Kavanagh presents his film At the Formal. |
 Daniel Koerner is a Melbourne-based director. He is a co-founder of digital media collective PLOT Media, an associate of Adelaide experimental performance company The Border Project, a seasonal lecturer in performance at the University of Woolongong. Koerner has a strong passion for inter-disciplinary arts with a focus on integrating digital and interactive media in film and performance. For this year’s program he presents his short film, If I Dance Will It Keep Me Warm? |
 Alisa Lapidus & Natasha Subramanian Alisa Lapidus is a multimedia artist and projection designer for the Los Angeles Opera, who has worked for directors including William Friedken and Woody Allen. She has created large-scale animation and media art for operas including Il Trittico and The Ring Cycle. Recently, she spearheaded the projection designs for thte 2011 production of Lohengrin. Formerly an animator at Space Bass Studio, her animation work has been featured on MTV, MadTV, and VH1. In 2006, she received her BFA in Experimental Animation from Calfornia Institute of the Arts. Natasha Subramanian is a creative and multimedia director who has lead award-winning independent films as well as video and graphic campaigns for fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands. She is also a film writer who contributes film analysis to journals including The Huffington Post and Senses of Cinema. Natasha’s film and video collaborations have been featured in New York Fashion Week, VOGUE UK online, Sundance, the Berlinale, New York MOMA, and other venues. In 2008, she received her MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of Arts Both directors attend MIFF to present their short film Zergüt. |
 Nathan Lewis has been fascinated by moving images since childhood, and made his first video at the age of seven. After pursuing a career in commercial film and video, he graduated from Sydney Film School in 2008, going on to work on several short film projects and video clips of his own. Lewis was the winner of the Insight 51 international Film festival in 2004 and 2006, chosen as part of the Destination Film Festival curated by Megan Spencer in 2008, and received the audience choice, best cinematography and best sound design prizes for his film Life Wasn’t Meant to be Easy at the 2009 Sydney 24 Hour Film Festival. Lewis is committed to telling stories through non-traditional narrative structures and unique visual representation. He is currently working on a short screenplay set in the Flinders Ranges of Australia, Two Punks, based around the relationship between three young people exploring the hazy boundaries between friendship, lust and love. Nathan Lewis presents his new short Attach Boat to Motor, his first government-funded short film. It represents many aspects of his own experience, not least of all his time delivering milk as a teenager. |
 Nathan Lewis has been fascinated by moving images since childhood, and made his first video at the age of seven. After pursuing a career in commercial film and video, he graduated from Sydney Film School in 2008, going on to work on several short film projects and video clips of his own. Alister Lockhart is an Australian filmmaker and animator. He has previously worked as an art director with games companies Tantalus Media and Infinite Interactive, working on such titles as Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and Puzzle Quest 2. Alister Lockhart is at MIFF to present Nullarbor, his first short film. |
 Dahci Ma is a South Korean filmmaker born in 1987. She started filmmaking after dropping out of junior high school at the age of 14. She won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Dance on Camera Festival in New York with her short film The Mysteries of Nature. She was the youngest director ever to win the prize. Ma is in town to present her fifth short Ghost, which was selected for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. |
 Anthony is an AFI Award winning Australian filmmaker whose latest film The Palace, an Australian-Cyprus co-production, was shot on location in Lefkosia, Cyprus. Anthony also worked as an associate producer on Last Ride, the debut feature of Palm D’Or winning director Glendyn Ivin and starring Hugo Weaving. Anthony has served as a funding consultant to the South Australian Film Corporation, as an AFI Awards juror, and served as President of the University of California SB Filmmakers Cooperative, and on the boards of the Media Resource Centre and Shorts Film Festival. |
 Nick Matthews is an AFI award winning filmmaker who trained in Europe on productions including the Steven Spielberg HBO series Band of Brothers, Working Title’s About A Boy, and many BBC and Channel 4 documentaries. Since returning to Australia, he has co-produced, co-edited, and photographed Murali Thalluriʼs feature film 2:37 that was officially selected for the Cannes film festival. He also photographed US feature Broken Hill starring Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, and the 2nd units of international productions including Like Minds, Beautiful Kate, and Oranges and Sunshine. Matthews was also the cinematographer of two AFI best short films: Spike Up (2007), and The Kiss (2010); a film that also won him the 2010 AFI for best short film screen craft. For this year’s MIFF program Matthews presents his SAFC funded short Collision. |
 Miranda Nation is an actor, writer and filmmaker. From 2002 to 2004 she studied physical theatre and performance making at the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. In 2010 Miranda completed the Graduate Diploma in Directing at The Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Eli the Invincible, Miranda’s fifth short film, was completed working with young non-actors from Melbourne’s northern suburbs. |
 A graduate of the Australian National University School of Art and of the Centre for Animation and Interactive Media at RMIT, Jonathan Nix has also been a double bass, banjo, guitar player and singer with bands including The Gadflys, King Curly and Machine Translations. Nix’s first short animated film Hello won many awards including the Fipresci Film Critics prize at the Annecy Animation Festival in France, an Australian Film Institute award for Best Sound in a Non Feature and other prizes from numerous international festivals. His second film The Twelve Months won awards from festivals including Les Nuits Magiques, France, FICCI BAF Awards, India and the Miami International Film Festival. Nix’s third animated short Gustavo screened at more than thirty international festivals and won an AGSC Award for Best Music in a Short Film. Nix lives in a beach suburb of Sydney with his wife, Kathryn, a musician and composer, and their two children. For this year’s MIFF program he presents his latest short, The Missing Key. |
 Jani Peltonen studied film and television at Lahti University’s Institute of Design, and since that time has been working in various branches of the Finnish film industry. His debut The Great Mill (Suuri mylly, 2008) was part of his diploma work, and he presented the film at the international film festivals in Helsinki, Bratislava, Lahti, Pristina, and Pärnu. Peltonen attends MIFF to present his latest film, A Tall Man, his professional directorial debut. |
 Since graduating from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), where he studied directing, Damien has mostly focused on writing. He is currently developing several projects as writer/director, including a feature (now financing) and a children’s television series. He’s just got enthused about shorts all over again and is in pre-production on A Burning Thing along with another no-budget short. In 2010, he wrote an Interactive Shared Learning program about cyberbullying and a short educational drama for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). He has been working with producer Joe Weatherstone on various projects since attending the inaugural IndiVision Project Lab with her in 2005. For this year’s MIFF program Power presents his short Peekaboo. |
 Originally trained as a photographer, SJ Ramir later moved to digital video – shooting scenes of lone figures moving across remote and isolated geographical landscapes. His work is primarily concerned with exploring the concept of journeys – both physical and metaphysical. His video art and films have been exhibited at public and commercial galleries internationally. For two consecutive years (2008 and 2009) he was a recipient of the Screen Innovation Production Fund, New Zealand. His moving image work has also been screened at some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, including the Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Ramir’s latest short, Disquiet, screens in this year’s MIFF Shorts program. |
 Rodd Rathjen recently completed a bachelor of Film and Television with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts. His graduating film Thirst won best direction at the VCA in 2009 and also earnt him the prestigious Grace Marion Wilson Writers scholarship. With his latest film, The Stranger, Rathjen has forayed into the deeper facets of life’s physicality, morality and the attitude of society. His first feature Season of Liberty is in development. |
 Having collaborated with Spike Jonze on Where the Wild Things Are, featured in the AFI Award winning film The King and the TV series Wilfred and Thank God You’re Here, to name a few, his experience in the industry is vast. Sampson has an extensive body of creative work spanning film, theatre, television, photography, broadcasting, journalism and copywriting. Displaying a natural flair for comedy and performance, and a keen visual eye, Sampson brings an actor’s sensibility to directing. With such a strong and vast background in the creative arts, Angus brings a fresh approach to creative collaboration on projects. Sampson attends MIFF to present his latest short film, It’s Him… Terry Lim. |
 Patrick Sarell was working as a solutions architect (whatever that is) at a sign company in Noble Park when the idea for his first short film, Nullarbor, popped into his head. Sarell and his co-director Alister Lockhart are currently working on a script for an animated feature, based on the Nullarbor.
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 Niels Schneider is a young theater actor. Born in Paris in 1987, Schneider was born into a family of actors. It was his first contact with the theater, accompanying his father on the sidelines of shows directed by him. In 1996 he arrived in Quebec, where he gained his first experiences in dubbing. At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Schneider was awarded the prestigious Chopard Trophy for emerging talent for his role in Heartbeats. Schneider attends MIFF for the screening of the short Toy Soldier. |
 David Short is a Melbourne based artist and filmmaker whose practice explores various mediums and concepts that revolve around the domestic environment, from inside the home to the backyard. After finishing a bachelor of Fine Art (media arts) at RMIT University In Australia, Short has combined his two practices of installation/sculpture and film to venture into experimental film and video art works. Short’s previous work has screened at MIFF, including Dissection (2008) and Kitchen Horror (2010). For this year’s program David Short presents his new film, Carpet Burn. |
 Heng Tang was born in Malaysia in 1970 and graduated from The Australian Film & Television School, Sydney, Australia in 2001. His first film Boy-Serpentine (Se-Tong) won a special mention prize at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. His second film The Other Son was again in competition at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. His latest film The Last Chip won the Special Jury Prize at 2006 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. He is a recipient of a La Residence du Festival Cannes feature film development fellowship. Heng Tang attends MIFF to present his new short film, Mooncake and Crab. |
 Richard quit his job in educational video to become a full time Super 8 filmmaker in 1990. He was only young. After making a number of longish self-funded narrative films on Super 8 and 16mm, he quit his non-job as a filmmaker and went to university for seven years, studying philosophy. After quitting philosophy, Richard moved to Daylesford and built a house and lived in a garden and worked in a bookshop and played clarinet. He also did some occasional work as a cinematographer. There in Daylesford he discovered the Daylesford Super 8 Group, which was a surprise. He began making Super 8 films again in 2004. In 2006 he and his partner began Nano Lab (a Super 8 processing lab) and he has had no free time since. Tuohy presents his new short film, Tasmanian Splintering. |
 Dennis Tupicoff has made many award-winning films, ranging from animation to documentary, fiction to biography and autobiography. Televised documentaries include His Mother’s Voice, Taringa 4068: Our Place and Time (SBS), and Silly and Serious: William Robinson and Self-Portraits (ABC TV). Tupicoff attends this year’s MIFF to present his new short, The First Interview. |