Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Lisandro Alonso studied for three years at the Universidad del Cine. After co-directing his first short film Dos en la vereda in 1995, he worked as an assistant director and sound designer until 2000. His first feature film, La libertad, which focuses on the relationship between a lonely lumberjack and his environment, premiered in Un Certain Regard. After creating his own production company 4L, Alonso returned to Cannes in 2004 with Los muertos, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight. Two years later, he completed his trilogy with Fantasma. In 2008, the director decided to lean towards a more fictional approach with Liverpool, which follows a young sailor looking for his mother in the lost villages of Tierra del Fuego. Five years later, Jauja, set in 19th-century Denmark and Argentina and starring Danish actor Viggo Mortensen, won the FIPRESCI award in the section Un Certain Regard. Alonso has just finished filming his latest film, La libertad doble, which returns to the setting and character he chose 25 years ago for his first feature film, La libertad.

Beth de Araújo is a writer and director who was nominated for the 2022 Gotham Breakthrough Director Award for her debut film, Soft & Quiet. Premiering at SXSW in 2022, Soft & Quiet was acquired by Blumhouse and distributed by eOne. Her sophomore feature, Josephine, participated in the 2018 Sundance Directors Lab, and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2026. Josephine will have its theatrical release in the fall of 2026.

Ivan Aristeguieta is an award-winning comedian, writer and actor. Ivan moved to Australia from Venezuela in 2014, and has since gone on to become one of our most popular stand-up comedians. Ivan’s comedy specials include Chorizo Sizzle (ABC iView) and Happy Papi (Paramount+). Yesterday Island is his debut feature film.

Maryam Ataei’s directorial debut, The Friend’s House Is Here, won the Special Jury Award at Sundance this year. The film has since earned widespread praise, including a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. She also wrote and produced the Independent Spirit Award–nominated Dog Sweat. NPR called it “astonishingly gutsy”, and The New York Times described the film as “engaging, exalted by the particulars of its birth”. It won Jury Awards at the Rome International Film Festival and Austin Film Festival. She also associate-produced the Sundance Audience Award winner Circumstance. Maryam Ataei completed her Bachelor in Film Directing in Sooreh University and her MFA in Theater from Tehran Art University.

Miriam Bale is a critic and film programmer. She has written for The New York Times, the New York Daily News, W Magazine, Gagosian Quarterly, The New Republic, Film Comment, IndieWire, Sight and Sound and other publications. She was the artistic director of the Indie Memphis Film Festival in Tennessee and the founding director of the La Di Da Film Festival in New York City. She has organised repertory film programs for Anthology Film Archives, Film at Lincoln Center, Maysles Film Center, Maysles Documentary Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music and other institutions.

Oliver Birt is a director from Sydney, Australia. His films have screened at Encounters Film Festival and the British Film Institute in London. In 2019, his super-8 short Rumours was selected for Straight 8 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He has directed music videos for The Last Dinner Party, Jack Ladder and Kirin J. Callinan.

Crocodile is uniquely directed by the subjects of the film, The Critics, and filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly. Pietra Brettkelly is a three-time Oscar-selected, Sundance award-winning filmmaker; a member of AMPAS; and an Arts Laureate of New Zealand. Pietra’s film premieres include Venice, Toronto, Tribeca and MIFF (2018’s Yellow Is Forbidden; 2015’s A Flickering Truth; 2012’s Māori Boy Genius; 2008’s the art star and the sudanese twins). The Critics are a group of five: Raymond, Ronald and Richard Yusuff, and Godwin and Victor Josiah. With no formal film education since they were young children, The Critics have developed a cinematic language rooted in imagination, experimentation and community. Over the years, they have made 54 short films, from sci-fi to drama.

Adam C. Briggs was born in 1993 and works as an independent filmmaker in Australia. His films rest between docufiction, arthouse and genre cinema. His film A GRAND MOCKERY received best feature at SXSW Sydney 2024, Best Direction New Visions Sitges 2025 and is represented by Yellow Veil Pictures.

Maya S. Cade is the creator and curator of Black Film Archive and the inaugural CCDI scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress. She has been awarded special distinctions by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for the Archive. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Paris Review and Vulture, among other publications. In July 2023, Cade was listed on Fast Company’s annual Most Creative Person list. In March 2023, Cade was listed on ESSENCE magazine’s inaugural Young, Gifted and Black list highlighting 10 Black art leaders under 30. In February 2023, she became the first guest film curator to present a film series tied to a museum exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the world’s largest film museum. She was the fall 2022 programmer-in-residence at Indiana University Cinema and the fall 2021 research fellow at Indiana University’s Black Film Center & Archive.

Brisbane-born actor and filmmaker Oliver Cameron is known for award-winning independent cinema, with films screening at the Sitges Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival and SXSW Sydney. He also appears in an upcoming feature directed by Justin Chadwick alongside Jessica Alba, and has directed an award-winning short film in Paris.

Singing Chen is a multidisciplinary filmmaker working across fiction, documentary and VR. Her VR works explore memory, space and identity through immersive storytelling. The Man Who Couldn’t Leave won the Venice Immersive Best Immersive Experience Prize (2022), and The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up received the Venice Immersive Grand Prize (2025).

Sompot Chidgasornpongse has an MFA in Film/Video from CalArts. His short films have been screened at numerous international film festivals. He has also been working closely with Apichatpong Weerasethakul as assistant director on many films, including Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century, Cemetery of Splendour and Memoria.

Genevieve Clay-Smith is a writer, director and producer, and co-founder of Inclusively Made, Bus Stop Films and Taste Creative. Her work champions inclusive filmmaking and has screened at more than 200 festivals worldwide. Through storytelling that centres humanity, dignity and social inclusion, her work fosters empathy, understanding and social cohesion across communities.

Professor Juli Coffin is a Nyangumarta Aboriginal researcher, winner of Australia’s Mental Health Prize and producer of Guided by Horses. She founded Yawardani Jan-ga, a Kimberley-based charity creating culturally secure, equine-assisted learning experiences that connect Aboriginal young people with horses, healing, strength and belonging.

Camille Collins has built a life shaped by curiosity, resilience and a love of connecting with people. After leaving high school, she worked as a front office assistant with Hudson Global for more than 16 years, where she became a valued member of the team and enjoyed the variety and rhythm of working in the city. Today, Camille works across hospitality and retail, where she has developed a wide range of kitchen and customer service skills while contributing to community-focused projects and events. She also works at The Sewing Basket, a much-loved retail store where she enjoys assisting customers and sharing her passion for creativity in a welcoming environment. Beyond her work, Camille has become a familiar face through her appearances on Sean and Marley’s online cooking series Beautiful, Tasty, Beautiful, where her warmth, humour and infectious personality have endeared her to audiences. Camille is also the subject of the feature documentary Digby & Camille, which follows her relationship with acclaimed Australian artist Digby Webster as they navigate love, creativity, independence and the realities of living with disability. Her warmth, resilience and authenticity are at the heart of the film, offering audiences an intimate portrait of a life lived with courage, joy and optimism.

Arlo Dean Cook is an Australian writer, director, cinematographer and editor who has directed, edited and filmed more than 80 music videos for artists including Jebediah, Tim Rogers and more. Recently, Arlo edited his first narrative feature, Westgate, followed up by feature documentary Jebediah: Are We OK?

Tamra Davis is a director of film, television and music videos. She launched her career with over 100 music videos for artists ranging from NWA to Bette Midler, then moved into features with Guncrazy, which earned Drew Barrymore a Golden Globe nomination. Davis has directed nine feature films including Billy Madison, CB4, Half Baked and Crossroads. Her acclaimed documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child premiered at Sundance, and she went on to direct Netflix’s 13: The Musical and Paramount+’s Larger Than Life: The Boy Band Story. In television, she has directed episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Dead to Me, Empire, P-Valley, The Afterparty, and created the pilot for High School Musical: The Series. Her latest film, The Best Summer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2026.

Ella Demarchi grew up in regional Western Australia, performing in local plays and musicals before training at The Actors Pulse Sydney and graduating from WAAPA with a Diploma of Screen Performance. A filmmaker in her own right, Ella makes her feature film performance debut in Of Womb.

Isaac Elliott is a creator, director and writer who grew up in Alice Springs. He co-created ABC/Netflix's MaveriX, earning two ADG nominations, and was named an Inside Film Rising Star in 2022. Having directed short documentaries for VICE and SBS, his feature documentary debut Hard as Puck premieres at MIFF 2026. If you're looking for funny, quirky and heart-y, Isaac is your man.

Corrin Evans is a filmmaker exploring themes of shadow integration, eroticism, death and the supernatural. She began her career in Hollywood as an actor (La La Land, Jett) before moving into writing and directing for screen. Spanning the decade before Corpus, Corrin crafted numerous short films exploring dark and erotic themes, including award-winners Enough and Cousins. Alongside her filmmaking, she spent many years working as an intimacy coordinator on titles including: American Horror Stories, Maxxxine, Magazine Dreams and more.​ Her creative work also extends to live performance: she co-wrote the critically acclaimed dinner theatre experience Van Helsing’s Dracula, a sapphic reimagining of the classic tale, and performs regularly with Sweven, an erotic performance art troupe based in LA. Corpus is Corrin’s feature directorial debut.

Peter Firebrace is a gender non-conforming, autistic filmmaker based in Walyalup, Western Australia. Their work explores systems of belief, identity and control. Peter's independent debut feature, Of Womb, is currently on the festival circuit and making its world premiere at MIFF 2026.

Alex Huston Fischer writes and directs, often in collaboration with his wife, Eleanor Wilson. Their latest film, Wicker, starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, had its premiere at Sundance 2026. Their debut feature Save Yourselves! premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2020. Alex’s previous 40-minute dance comedy Snowy Bing Bongs, directed with Rachel Wolther, premiered at BAM CinemaFest 2017. He is an alum of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and appeared in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”.

Mirrah Foulkes is an Australian actor, writer and director who graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2003; she is also a member of the Australian filmmaking collective Blue-Tongue Films. Mirrah’s feature film credits as an actor include Animal Kingdom, The Turning, Dying Breed, Long Road to Heaven and Sleeping Beauty, directed by Julia Leigh. Mirrah’s debut feature film as writer and director was Judy and Punch, starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman.

Dean Francis is a twice-AACTA-nominated filmmaker whose work spans directing, producing, writing, cinematography and editing. His debut feature ROAD TRAIN (2009) secured worldwide distribution and DROWN (2015) became the top-selling film in Mardi Gras Film Festival history, winning seven festival awards. He produced/shot the AACTA-nominated LONESOME (2022) and produced/shot Georgina Haig’s ASHES (2023). His latest, BODY BLOW, is a neon-noir exploring sex, power and queer identity.

Matasila Freshwater (Solomon Islands/Pākehā) is a writer/director exploring Melanesian identity and dissonance by subverting genre and form. Her work has screened at Berlinale, SXSW and ImagineNATIVE. Her recent documentary Sukundimi Walks Before Me (2025) won Sydney Film Festival’s Sustainable Future Award and Best NZ Director at Doc Edge.

Josef Gatti is a filmmaker and artist based in Melbourne with a distinct visual style rooted in practical filmmaking techniques and experimentation. His work blurs the lines between art and science to create hypnotic motion imagery that explores our relationship with the natural world. Phenomena marks his feature debut.

Trevor Graham is a writer, producer and director of documentaries and factual programs with over 40 years’ experience in the business. Graham’s latest documentary production for the Melbourne International Film Festival, Digby & Camille, a love story, has its world premiere at MIFF in August 2026.

Belinda is the president of – as well as a player for – the Garden Island Pirates Para Ice Hockey Team, featured in the film Hard as Puck.

A versatile talent across stage, film and television, Olivia Hargroder originates the gritty lead role of Sonja, in Bus Stop Films’ Boss Cat. Blending her unique emotional artistry with sharp comedic timing, she delivers a performance designed to captivate audiences, shift perspectives and win hearts, one laugh at a time.

Andy Huang is an award-winning film and television producer based in Melbourne with a Master of Screen Producing from the University of Melbourne. His recent producing credits include More Than a Father (in production), Replica (2026), My AI Lover (2022) and If You’re a Dream, Don’t Wake Me Up (2021). Andy’s work has been recognised with numerous accolades including Best International Short Film at the 2023 Guangzhou International Documentary Festival. His films have been showcased at major international festivals such as ZINEBI, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Rhode Island International Film Festival. Andy is the founder and creative producer at Axel Rise Films and was previously an Artistic Manager at Grandshow Productions.

James Hunter is an award-winning Melbourne-based director specialising in bold, cinematic storytelling. Following the acclaim for his award-winning short film Nest, which was selected for Sitges, VIFF and MIFF, James recently completed his debut feature, the psychological chiller The Latcher, premiering at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Dan Jackson’s directorial debut, feature documentary In the Shadow of the Hill, was nominated for five and won two Australian Academy Awards. Now readying his sophomore feature Death of a Shaman, Dan’s broader slate includes both scripted and nonfiction projects that collectively seek to subvert the status quo.

It was almost 30 years ago that Jebediah first shambled onstage in their shorts, sneakers, blue hair, dimples and grins and started bouncing off the walls with roaring riffs and soaring hooks, tearing the lid off the Big Day Out and the Hottest 100 overnight. It's impossible to imagine those late 90s summers without those delirious early Jebs singles – ‘Jerks of Attention’, ‘Leaving Home’, ‘Teflon’, ‘Harpoon’, ‘Animal’ – blasting out of every car radio and festival PA from Summersault to The Falls to Homebake. Six studio albums and piles of awards and acclaim later, Jebediah continues to captivate their devout fan base with infectious energy and enthusiasm.

Fraser Johnston is an Emmy-nominated cinematographer and documentary producer from Hobart, Tasmania. Working across natural history, observational documentary, science and environmental storytelling, he has had work featured in productions for BBC, Netflix, Discovery, ABC, PBS and National Geographic. Credits include Super Nature and Sukundimi Walks Before Me, both screening at MIFF.

Tony is one of Australia’s most respected journalists. Over two decades, he hosted the national ABC TV programs Lateline and Q&A. As an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent, he won seven Walkley Awards. He covered the end of Soviet communism, the Balkan wars, the Gulf War, the rise of the mujahideen in Afghanistan and the end of South Africa’s apartheid. Tony wrote Revelation, the recent landmark ABC documentary series on the cover-up of child abuse in the Catholic Church, and produced Fox and the Big Lie, a two-part special on how Fox News and Trump destabilised democracy in the United States. 

Dr Lisa Jones-Engel is a primate scientist, Fulbright Scholar and former biomedical research leader whose work has shaped global understanding of zoonotic disease and primate conservation. During her decades-long career at the University of Washington, she led federally funded international research programs and published nearly 100 peer-reviewed papers spanning primatology, virology, epidemiology and global health. From fieldwork with orangutans, macaques and chimpanzees to years inside primate research facilities, her career has given her a rare perspective on both wildlife conservation and biomedical experimentation. Now chief science advisor at PETA, she draws on that firsthand scientific experience to examine what modern science reveals about primate sentience, cognition and the capacity to suffer, and what those discoveries demand of research, policy and society.

Claudia Karvan is one of Australia’s most respected actors and producers, working across film, television and theatre. She co-created, produced and starred in the Stan series Bump, earning AACTA and Silver Logie nominations for her performance as well as the 2026 AACTA Award for Best Narrative Comedy Series. She co-created and produced Doctor Doctor for the Nine Network, and co-created, produced and starred in the Foxtel series Spirited and Love My Way, winning two Silver Logies and two AFI Awards for the latter. In 2023, she received an Order of Australia for her service to the industry.

Hossein Keshavarz’s recent film The Friend’s House Is Here won the Special Jury Award at Sundance this year. The Hollywood Reporter called it a “stirring drama”, and Variety wrote that it was a “sophisticated and heroic celebration” and “a modern-day heir to virtuosos Panahi and Kiarostami”. His debut feature, Dog Sweat, was released to critical acclaim and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He also associate-produced the Sundance Audience Award winner Circumstance. Keshavarz graduated with an MFA in Filmmaking from Columbia University and a BA in History from Northwestern University.

Ken Kwapis has directed film and television for over forty years. He has directed 12 features, including He’s Just Not That Into You and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Kwapis helped launch seven television series, including The Larry Sanders Show and The Office. He is the author of the memoir But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct.

Dr Niraj Lal is an ANU Visiting Fellow and ABC presenter in Melbourne. He received a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar in 2012, and his awards include the 2021 Celestino Eureka Prize and the 2022 Piasecki Prize for Outstanding Writing on Social Change.

Gillian Leahy was part of the feminist filmmaking movement of the 70s and early 80s. She directed over 16 films but is best known for My Life Without Steve. She taught filmmaking for 40 years, mostly at the University of Technology Sydney. She teaches dog obedience training and manages a permaculture food forest.

Hyun Lee is a Korean-Australian writer and director based in Sydney. Her short film ASIAN GIRLS had its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival in 2018 and was a recipient of the ScreenNSW: Emerging Filmmakers’ Fund. The film was distributed exclusively online through Gunpowder and Sky’s horror platform Alter where it has amassed over a million views. Her recent TV writing credits include Paramount+ series FAKE starring Asher Keddie and David Wenham. The series broke subscription and streaming records and won the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Limited Series.

Oliver Lewin is a Los Angeles–based composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist working across film and videogames. He composed the score for a BAFTA Award–winning game, and his work has been performed by Grammy Award–winning musicians. His music blends traditional, electronic and experimental practices.

Chouwa Liang is a documentary filmmaker and a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Her works explore intimacy and contemporary relationships in China. Her award-winning debut feature, Replica, premiered internationally in 2026 and has screened at festivals including Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Hot Docs, Visions du Réel and Sydney Film Festival.

Lucy Lovegrove is a Melbourne-based screen and theatre actor. She stars as Alice, a midwife haunted by grief and a supernatural presence, in psychological horror feature The Latcher (MIFF 2026). Known for playing Sass Connelly on Shortland Street, Lucy has also appeared in WGN America’s Almost Paradise and Apple TV’s Playing for Keeps.

Alice Maio Mackay is a 21-year-old award-winning filmmaker. Her previous features are Shudder/AMC+ exclusives. Alice’s last feature film The Serpent’s Skin premiered at Frameline 2025, the largest and longest-running queer film festival. After a limited theatrical release, the film was certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Vea Mafile‘o is an award-winning Pasifika filmmaker, artist, and community leader from South Auckland. Her films include For My Father’s Kingdom, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and Lea Tupuʻanga: Mother Tongue, the first Tongan and New Zealand short selected for the Sundance Film Festival. She recently co-directed LOMU, exploring the life and legacy of rugby icon Jonah Lomu. Her work champions Pacific stories, culture and social impact.

Rakan Mayasi is a Palestinian filmmaker. He studied cinema in Lebanon and received film training with Abbas Kiarostami in Korea, and with Béla Tarr in Hungary. He made several short films that premiered in ‘A’ festivals. His first feature, Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

Maddelin McKenna is a writer/director from Naarm/Melbourne. Her debut feature film titled Mad Rush is having its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2026 as part of the MIFF Premiere Fund. Her 2022 short film Patterns of the Afternoon premiered at the 70th Melbourne International Film Festival as part of the Accelerator program, and won Best Short Film at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival in 2024. Maddelin’s passion for script development has also led to her work as executive assistant to renowned producers Tony Ayres and Andrea Denholm at Tony Ayres Productions, further expanding her knowledge and expertise of the film and television industry.

Martin is a graduate of the Swinburne Film School and began his career in commercial television, gaining experience as a writer and director on Australian series such as Neighbours, Blue Heelers, Mercury, SeaChange, Something in the Air, All Saints, Stingers, Correlli and Packed to the Rafters. His debut feature film as writer and director, Is This the Real World (starring Sean Keenan and Susie Porter), was released theatrically in Australia to critical acclaim. It screened widely at international festivals and received nominations and wins for multiple awards. Wilderness is Martin’s second feature film as writer/director.

Grace McKenzie is a Melbourne-based documentary filmmaker whose work is grounded in observational storytelling and long-form engagement with people and place. Her credits include Audrey of the Alps, filmed in the French Alps, and In the Land of Wolves, filmed in the mountain village of Argokhi, Georgia. Her latest film, Yumburra, follows writer and farmer Bruce Pascoe.

Lachlan McLeod is an award-winning director and editor. His most recent feature documentary, Clean, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW and selected as the Closing Night film at the 70th Melbourne International Film Festival. Lachlan is currently developing a feature documentary about Australia’s largest accessible choir.

David Michôd is the writer and director of the feature films Animal Kingdom, The Rover, War Machine, The King and Christy.

Selina Miles is an acclaimed Australian director with a global reach, having worked in over 20 countries. Her feature debut, Martha: A Picture Story, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 and won multiple awards, including the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival. Her second feature, Harley & Katya, produced by Stranger Than Fiction Films, premiered on ABC in 2022, became the highest-rated film on iView, and won the 2023 International Emmy Award for Best Sports Documentary. In 2026, Selina's third feature documentary, Silenced, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film examines the growing weaponisation of defamation laws against survivors, journalists and advocates in cases of gender-based violence. She recently completed a fourth feature documentary, titled Poster Boy that follows the life and tragic death of a young Sydney bodybuilder and influencer during the dawn of social media in the 2010s.

John wrote, directed and starred in the musical/film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for which he won two Tony Awards, Best Director at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. He directed the films Shortbus (2006), Rabbit Hole (2010; Best Actress Oscar nomination for Nicole Kidman) and How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017), starring Kidman and Elle Fanning. On Broadway, he’s also starred in Oh Mary!, The Secret Garden, Big River and Six Degrees of Separation. TV roles include Girls, Shrill, The Good Fight, The Sandman, Yellowjackets, City on Fire and as the “Tiger King” in Joe vs. Carole. His fictional podcast series are Anthem: Homunculus, starring Glenn Close and Cynthia Erivo, and Cancellation Island, starring Holly Hunter. He is developing a play about anti-Nazi artist Claude Cahun, feature films based on the lives of Allen Ginsberg and AIDS activist Peter Staley, and a memoir entitled A Heart Held Outside the Body.

Christopher Nelius is an Australian director, producer and writer working across documentary, drama and TVC. His documentary Storm Surfers 3D world-premiered at TIFF, and won the AACTA for Best Feature Documentary. His follow-up Girls Can’t Surf was released internationally and became the highest-grossing box office documentary in Australia in 2021.

Noora Niasari is a Tehran-born, Australia-raised filmmaker whose debut feature SHAYDA won the Sundance 2023 Audience Award and became Australia’s Oscar submission. She holds degrees in architecture and cinema and is a sessional tutor at the VCA School of Film & TV.

Cliff is the secretary and manager of the Garden Island Pirates Para Ice Hockey Club, who feature in the film Hard as Puck.

Ariāna Osborne (Ngāti Mutunga, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) is an actor from Aotearoa. Her work spans film, television and theatre, including leading roles in Mārama, Madam and Tangata Pai. She received imagineNATIVE’s 2026 Most Outstanding Performance in a Feature Award for Mārama and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the New Zealand Screen Awards for her portrayal of Tui in Madam.

Sean O’Reilly is an Australian director and producer drawn to stories about humans, the natural world and myths told with large-scale visual ambition. His credits include producing the award-winning short Mother, Child (2017), the travel show My Van Life (2022), and various short-film and conservation projects. He directed and produced the upcoming cinematic feature documentary Guided by Horses (2026), supported by Screen Australia and Documentary Australia and distributed by Maslow Entertainment.

Ani has performed with Kerikeri Theatre Company, The NZ National Youth Drama School, Script to Screen, Massive Theatre and The Actors Program. Also a musician and multi-creative, Ani is a gifted singer and songwriter, performing and writing with several bands, including Moberf. Big Girls Don’t Cry is Ani’s debut feature.

Graham Parkes is a writer and director from Los Angeles. His feature debut, Wishful Thinking, which stars Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke, premiered at this year’s SXSW, where it received the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature. He also works at Nice Dream Games, an indie videogame outfit he co-founded with childhood friends. Graham wrote and directed their first title, Before Your Eyes, a cinematic narrative experience that won multiple awards including a BAFTA for Game Beyond Entertainment in 2022. Their most recent title, Goodnight Universe, won the 2024 Tribeca Games Award and Best International Game at SXSW Sydney before its release in 2025. He is also the writer and director of multiple award-winning short films, including Where You Are (2016) and The Voice in Your Head (2020), both of which premiered at SXSW. 

Bruce Pascoe is a writer and farmer. He has published 36 books including Dark Emu, which won the NSW Premier’s Award for Literature in 2016, and Young Dark Emu, which won the Australian Booksellers Association Kids’ Reading Guide Children’s Book of the Year and the CBCA Eve Pownall Award in 2020. He is a board member of First Languages Australia, Black Duck Foods and Twofold Aboriginal Corporation.

Daniel Perrett is a Perth-based creative producer who draws inspiration from his experiences living with mild cerebral palsy and autism. He develops ideas for film, documentary and audio drama projects, bringing unique perspectives and storytelling approaches to his creative work.

A three-time Sundance Film Festival alum, Alexandre O. Philippe has developed his own brand of “cinema essay”, exploring the art of filmmaking and its practitioners. Most of his films take on the role of unpacking the most influential works of master filmmakers and dissecting seminal screen moments. Selected past works include: You Can Call Me Bill (SXSW 23), Lynch/Oz (Tribeca 22), Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (Venice 19, Sundance 20), Memory: The Origins of Alien (Sundance 19) and 78/52 (Sundance 17). Most recently, Chain Reactions (Telluride 24) won the prestigious Venice Classics Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and was released globally to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. His latest, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, also had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival and will be released by TCM and Kino Lorber in the US later this year. Alexandre is the recipient of the American Film Festival in Poland’s Indie Star Award and the Reykjavik International Film Festival’s Honorary Award for Creative Excellence in Cinema. He is currently working on multiple ambitious feature documentaries about cinema and pop culture.

Sophy Romvari is a Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since 2015, her critically acclaimed short films have screened at festivals internationally, earning her recognition as one of Canada’s most exciting emerging filmmakers. A collection of her short films, including her critically acclaimed thesis film Still Processing, is currently available on the Criterion Channel, along with select films on MUBI and The New Yorker. Her debut feature, Blue Heron, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2025, where it won the Swatch First Feature Award. It went on to make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Centrepiece section, where it received the Best Canadian Discovery Award, among other international honours. Blue Heron is distributed by Janus Films and has received widespread critical acclaim, including recognition from The New Yorker, Variety and The New York Times, which named it a Critics’ Pick. The Hollywood Reporter described it as “the most acclaimed film of the year so far”.

Dario Russo is an Australian writer/director known for the web series Italian Spiderman and the television show Danger 5. Dario’s debut feature, The Fox, which he wrote and directed, debuted internationally at SXSW in 2026. Dario is a co-creator/co-showrunner on the upcoming animated comedy series Dad’s House for Netflix.

Paloma Schneideman (PollyHill) is a filmmaker and musician based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand, working across film, music and storytelling. Her work often explores the female experience through a queer lens, focusing on beauty and the grotesque, dysfunctional families, and humour within tragedy, with an emphasis on intimate emotional detail. Her debut feature Big Girls Don’t Cry premiered in competition at Sundance 2026, with further selections at SXSW, BFI Flare and TIFF Next Wave. Developed with the New Zealand Film Commission and supported by Jane Campion’s ‘A Wave in the Ocean’ pop-up film school, it marks a key milestone in her practice. Her shorts include Faceless Hair Cry (Gil Omenn Art and Science Award, Ann Arbor 2026), Gate Crash (MIFF, NZIFF) and Memory Foam (NZIFF, Show Me Shorts). She received the NZFC Gender Scholarship in 2020. As a musician, she performs as PollyHill, releasing experimental work including AQUARIES, praised by Rolling Stone AU/NZ and charting in Aotearoa, and composes for theatre, dance and film, including sound design for Silo Theatre’s Playfight.

Abinash Bikram Shah is a Nepali filmmaker and screenwriter, whose debut feature Elephants in the Fog won the Cannes Jury Prize. His short Lori made history as Nepal’s first Palme d’Or contender. A Sundance, Locarno and Berlinale Talents alumnus, he crafts character-driven stories on identity and marginalisation while teaching and mentoring emerging voices in Nepal.

Vee Shi grew up in China and is now based in Melbourne. A recipient of both the Australian Directors’ Guild and Australian Writers’ Guild Awards. His debut feature, Time and Tide, world-premiered in competition at Visions du Réel and won the Documentary Australia Award at the 73rd Sydney Film Festival.

Daniella Shreir is the founder and co-editor of film journal Another Gaze and a translator and programmer. Her translation of Chantal Akerman’s My Mother Laughs (Silver Press) won a PEN prize in 2019. Together with Missouri Williams, she launched Another Gaze Editions, a new imprint dedicated to writing by women about film. These books include Lorenza Mazzetti’s The Sky Is Falling and Marguerite Duras’s My Cinema. She has programmed for festivals including Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes) and Locarno. She founded Another Screen, a streaming platform dedicated to exposing underseen 20th-century films by women. She has written for publications including the London Review of Books and Cahiers du cinéma.

Rhian is a writer, producer and director with a love of observational documentaries. Together with GoodThing, she created Off Country, following Indigenous scholarship students at Geelong Grammar. Also with GoodThing, she co-produced Volcano Man and co-directed Greenhouse by Joost. Directing highlights include Matilda & Me and Rock n Roll Nerd.

Mark Coles Smith is an Australian film, television and theatre actor, as well as a writer. He grew up in Broome, Australia and received a certificate in Aboriginal Theatre from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Mark has won numerous awards, including: the Yvonne Cohen Award from VCA Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts in 2007 and a Helpmann award for 'Best Actor in a Play' (The Drover's Wife). With a passion for storytelling, he works across several performing arts genres, as an actor, writer, producer and sound designer.

Yael is best known for her portrayal of Lorna Morello in Orange Is the New Black. Yael starred in all seven seasons of the show, which was honoured with three SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. At the 2026 AACTA Awards, Yael was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Film for her work in Kriv Stenders’s The Correspondent. Yael has also appeared in Blacklight with Liam Neeson, while she received both AACTA and FCCA Best Supporting Actress nominations in 2022 for her starring performance in Blaze with Simon Baker. 

Joe Swanberg is the director of over 20 features, including Hannah Takes the Stairs, Drinking Buddies and The Sun Never Sets. He co-starred in and co-directed Nights and Weekends with Greta Gerwig and Autoerotic with Adam Wingard, in addition to acting in and directing one of the segments of the original V/H/S film. He co-wrote and produced The Rental with Dave Franco, who directed. He has directed episodes of television for HBO, 20th Century Studios and Netflix, where he created the series Easy and wrote, directed, produced and edited all 25 episodes over three seasons. As an actor, he has appeared in lead roles for Josephine Decker, Ti West, Mickey Keating and Adam Wingard, and he has produced features for Lynn Shelton, Alex Ross Perry, Dustin Defa and Zach Clark, amongst many others. He lives in Chicago.

THUNDERLIPS is a writing and directing duo forged over a decade of creating music videos on tiny budgets in Auckland, New Zealand. Sean and Jordan now apply their doubled emotion and intellect to longform projects that feature unforgettable characters, striking visuals and joyfully bombastic climaxes, favouring in-camera trickery and practical effects. Their super power consists of reaching elbows deep into the horror and absurdity of contemporary life and bringing forth comedy. Their debut feature, Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant, premiered in the Midnight Section of Sundance Film Festival 2026.

Caillin Thompson is an emerging actor from regional Western Australia. She earned two Best Female Actor awards at the Titan International Film Festival and Gothamite Monthly Film Awards for Paradise Valley, with further roles in Radio Man and Stained Silver. She plays The Eldest in Of Womb, which is her feature debut lead performance.

Isabella Trimboli is a writer who has contributed to publications such as The Nation, Times Literary Supplement, n+1, New Left Review and Metrograph Journal, among others. She is a current MFA candidate at New York University.

Geoffrey is a Brisbane-based actor. He studied visual arts and acting at QCA, and went on to direct and act in award-winning films throughout the 90s and 2000s.

Sam’s second feature film, King of Peking, world-premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to play MIFF, BFI London, Warsaw and Stockholm international film festivals. That film was released worldwide by Netflix in 2018, receiving positive reviews in The New York Times and Rolling Stone.

Thomas graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2021. His first professional on-screen role was in the AACTA Award–winning ABC teenage drama series Deadlock (2018). He went on to appear in the Network Seven drama series RFDS (2021–2025) and the ABC crime series Troppo (2022).

Thomas is well known for the role of Malakai in the Netflix International Emmy–winning series Heartbreak High, a performance that won him the 2022 AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama and a later nomination for the AACTA International Award for Best Actor in a Series, as well as winning a TV WEEK Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor. Further television credits include the Disney+ Australian series The Last Days of the Space Age (2023), the Australian Stan mystery-thriller series Exposure (2024) and the Australian television screen adaptation of the acclaimed Richard Flanagan novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, directed by Justin Kurzel. 

Thomas has recently completed shooting the Australian drama series Careless, which will air later this year on Stan in Australia and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and the SBS series The Airport Chaplain, starring Hugo Weaving.

Hugo Weaving has had an expansive career across film, theatre and television, with film credits including Proof, Little Fish, The Interview and The Rooster, and beloved iconic roles in The Matrix and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Select TV credits include Love Me, 7 Types of Ambiguity, Patrick Melrose and Slow Horses, and he can be seen in the upcoming series Dalliance and The Airport Chaplain.

Digby Webster is a Sydney-based contemporary artist whose vibrant, joyful paintings are celebrated for their expressive use of colour, humour and emotional honesty. Drawing inspiration from everyday life, music, memory and the natural world, his work offers a distinctive perspective that has been exhibited across Australia and is held in public and private collections. Digby is attending the Melbourne International Film Festival for the world premiere of Digby & Camille, a feature documentary directed by Trevor Graham. The film follows Digby’s artistic practice and creative partnership with fellow artist Camille, offering an intimate portrait of art, friendship and the transformative power of creativity.

Eleanor Wilson is a writer/director from South Australia who often collaborates with her partner, Alex Fischer. Their most recent film, Wicker – starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki – had its premiere at Sundance 2026. Their debut feature Save Yourselves! premiered at Sundance 2020. Her solo work includes the award-winning short films Low Road, Everything All at Once and Possum, which have screened at St Kilda, MoMA, Nitehawk Shorts Fest and SundanceTV, among many others.

Hsin Hsuan Yeh is an animation director based in Taiwan and the founder of Joyful Beings Animation Studio. Working in 2D animation, TV series, stop motion, mixed media and immersive formats, she explores sensory experience and tactile visuality. Sense of Nowhere was in the Venice Film Festival 2025 (Immersive Competition).

Harvey Zielinski wrote, directed, produced and starred in his debut feature, Sweet Milk Lake (MIFF 2026). Harvey is developing his second feature, Thugs, with Screen Australia support. He’s been nominated for two AWGIEs and the Betty Rowland Prize. As an actor, Harvey’s credits include Deadloch, White Fever and Don’t Look Deeper.