Sue Maslin AO - Summit Director

Sue Maslin is one of Australia's most successful screen producers with a track record of producing award winning feature and documentary films including the smash hit The Dressmaker, one of Australia’s all time highest grossing films. Other feature film credits include Road to Nhill and Japanese Story, Best Film at 2003 AACTA Awards and Hunt Angels, Best Feature Documentary Film at 2006 AACTA Awards. Sue served as President of the Natalie Miller Fellowship (2011-2021), Patron of WIFT Victoria and is currently Director of Documentary Australia.

Sue’s outstanding 35-year contribution to the Australian screen industry has been recognised in numerous ways, most recently when she received the 2021 Chauvel Award. Reflecting her commitment to advocacy for women, Sue was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2018.

In 2019 Sue was appointed as an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the Australian film industry.

Gino Munari - Summit Convenor

Former COO and General Manager of Programming with Village Cinemas with 28 years’ experience in the cinema industry across content licensing and programming, operations and marketing. Now providing consulting services to the entertainment, film and cinema industry including the Mushroom Pictures Group, providing Buying & Booking services for independent cinemas and consulting to cinema companies abroad.

Patrick May - Moderator: Capturing the Audience

As Manager, Strategic Policy and Insights at Screen Australia, Patrick works across policy, strategy and research projects for the agency, including the annual Drama Report. Patrick’s previous experience includes script and story analysis, and research for factual projects and historical books.

Matthew Liebmann - Panelist: Capturing the Audience

Matthew has more than 20 years working in senior positions within the film industry, including at Village Cinemas, Hoyts and Skycity Cinemas (now Event New Zealand). As a Director of Entertainment and Media at PwC, he provided strategic and operational advice to many of the sector’s leading organisations, and was also the founder and editor of PwC’s annual Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook publication. Matthew has been with Movio for the past 8 years, first based in Los Angeles overseeing Movio’s original cinema exhibition product as well as the Americas region. For the past 3 years he has been based in New Zealand as Movio’s Chief Operating Officer and since January, has been Movio’s co-lead. Matthew also served two terms on the inaugural board of Screen Australia. Finally, you can hear Matthew break down cinema box office and audience profiles with Numero’s CEO Simon Burton, on their weekly podcast, Behind the Screens.

Nick Palmer - Panelist: Capturing the Audience

Nick Palmer is Managing Director at Screen Audience Research Australia (SARA), who work with independent producers, distributors and studios to market film/TV and screen test content at rough cut. Nick has over 20 years of research industry experience, spanning both the UK and Australia, and in his role at SARA brings his extensive marketing and commercial insights experience to the world of content creation and distribution. As well as audience testing over 30 Australian films and TV programs to date, SARA also works with industry bodies such as the MPDAA, ICA and Creative Content Australia to help understand the views, behaviours and intentions of Australian content consumers and has worked with the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) to help understand industry career paths and skills gaps. More recently SARA has begun working with Hollywood based agencies to provide Australian audiences for virtual screenings.

Sue Maslin AO - Panelist: Capturing the Audience

Sue is committed to engaging and empowering audiences with ideas that matter. Her innovative rights management company, Film Art Media established in 2008 with Daryl Dellora, develops and distributes screen content across many platforms with a focus on blue chip documentaries including Jill Bilcock – Dancing The Invisible and The Show Must Go On and Wellness Roadshow which addressed mental wellbeing in the arts and entertainment sector. Her latest releases include Anonymous Club, Why Did She Have To Tell The World? and the highly successful theatrical documentary, Brazen Hussies.

Sasha Close - Moderator: Building Audience

Sasha has worked extensively in the Australian cinema and screen industry, starting in distribution before moving into exhibition and programming. A highly regarded programmer of independent cinema and film, Sasha led the programming team at Wallis Cinemas until 2019, sat on the Board of the Independent Cinemas Association (2016-19), and has been a regular contributor at conferences and festivals and judged AACTA film categories. 

In 2016, Sasha was the recipient of the Natalie Miller Fellowship recognising female leadership in the screen industry. From 2017-19, Sasha was a member of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce. Sasha is currently program manager for the Gold Coast Film Festival and Brisbane International Film Festival along with consulting to screen, cinema, and content businesses across the Australian screen sector.

Michael Matrenza - Panelist: Building Audience

Michael is a senior marketer with over twelve years of experience working in distribution in Australia. Having previously worked at Roadshow Films and on Melbourne International Film Festival, Michael has worked in the theatrical marketing team at Madman Entertainment since 2011. 

With a particular passion for collaborating with local filmmaking teams to define audience strategies, some of Michael’s favourite campaigns include High Ground, Nitram, Ali’s Wedding, Jasper Jones, That Sugar Film & Gurrumul as well as international releases that have overperformed in this territory such as The Death of Stalin and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Fiona Nix - Panelist: Building Audience

Fiona Nix has over 25 years’ experience in the entertainment and arts industry as a consultant, publicist and company director of NIXCo, which she established in 1998. She is a passionate supporter of the Australian film industry, devoting her time to providing strategic guidance to international and local film productions, emerging and established filmmakers, screen businesses and not-for-profit organisations.

Fiona is a committee member of The Natalie Miller Fellowship, a not-for-profit organisation that was established to recognise, nurture and inspire the next generation of female leaders in the Australian screen community and was on the Board of Directors of TROPFEST, the world’s largest short film festival.

Anthony Grundy - Panelist: Building Audience

As Distribution Manager at Screen Australia, Anthony draws upon his extensive experience in film distribution, public relations, strategy development and domestic marketing to support local distributors and filmmakers. Previously, he served as Communications Manager for Animal Logic, working with their studio partners Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Roadshow Films. Prior to this, Anthony was National Publicity and Promotions Executive at Universal Pictures and United International Pictures where he managed relationships with media, exhibitors, government agencies, filmmakers and talent across a number of high profile Australian and international titles.

Mitu Bhowmick Lange - Panelist: Building Audience

Mitu Bhowmick Lange is one of the most renowned names contributing to the global outreach of Indian cinema in the past decade.

She is the Festival Director of the much loved, multi award winning Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and the Indian Film Festival - Bollywood and Beyond.

She is the Director & Founder of Mind Blowing Films, a leading distribution company specialising in the theatrical distribution of Indian films in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, and Mind-Blowing World, which specialises in the distribution of quality Australian content to Australian, New Zealand and Fiji audiences.

Lange was awarded Jill Robb Screen Leadership Award for 2017 from Film Victoria. Mitu was appointed to the Board of Film Victoria in 2018, Natalie Miller Foundation in 2019 and WIFT (Women in Film and Television) Australia in Feb 2022.

She is a passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and sits on various boards pushing for meaningful, impactful change.

Sandy George - Moderator: Incentivising Success

Sandy George is a journalist who specializes in the business behind film and television. She has been long-time correspondent for Screen International and www.screendaily.com, an editor of film and TV trade magazines, film writer for The Australian, the presenter of the Saturday night movie on SBS TV, and the wordsmith behind many newsletters and reports. She regularly works with producers on their materials and has dug into data and deals for the benefit of practitioners at Screen Australia.

Craig Rossiter - Panelist: Incentivising Success

Craig Rossiter is a PhD candidate at Central Queensland University in the School of Education and the Arts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Australian National University, and a Master of Business (Research) in customer orientation and innovation from Queensland University of Technology. As part of his undergraduate degree, Craig attended Film School at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Craig's industry experience includes spans almost a decade in distribution and exhibition working for Ronin Films, Roadshow Film Distributors, and Dendy Cinemas. Before pursuing a career in government policy across education and infrastructure,Craig promoted Queensland film and television in Europe for the Queensland Government and was a Senior Analyst at Screen Australia. He is the co-author of a book chapter on the history of the financing in the Australian film industry and published a journal article on the effectiveness of screen policy with Associate Professor Jordi McKenzie, Department of Economics, Macquarie University. Craig was lead researcher and author of the Emerging Visions: Career Pathways in the Australian screen production industry report for Metro Screen.

Cailah Scobie - Panelist: Incentivising Success

Cailah Scobie is the chief content officer at Stan. She was previously commercial director of content at Stan, after joining the streamer at launch as general counsel.

Deanne Weir - Panelist: Incentivising Success

Deanne Weir is a former media lawyer and executive turned producer, investor and company director.  She is passionate about storytelling, change-making and gender equality.  Deanne invests in entrepreneurs and storytellers to help them change the world. Deanne is Chair of Ai-Media, an ASX listed technology company, and Seer Data & Analytics, a civic tech start-up, and board member of Verve Super.

Film investments include I Used to Be Normal, Babyteeth, Miss Fisher & The Crypt of Tears, I Am Woman and upcoming project Blaze.

A board member of Screen Australia until 2016, Deanne was instrumental in the development of its Gender Matters program and remains a member of the Gender Matters Taskforce. Deanne is also Chair of the Sydney Film Festival and For Film’s Sake, an advocacy organisation that runs the Attagirl global film lab.

In January 2022 Deanne launched Storyd Group with her business partner Olivia Humphrey, founder of streaming platform Kanopy.  Storyd invests in Australian female creatives making feature films for international audiences, as well as technology start-ups that enhance the story-telling experience. Film projects coming soon include Seriously Red, Run Rabbit Run, and How to Please a Woman.

Emma Madison - Panelist: Incentivising Success

Emma Madison is a screen industry executive with deep experience in rights management and royalty distribution. She works at the intersection between screen business and technology. Emma is developing a range of new solutions for the industry to help navigate recoupment of investment and understand the financial performance of content in an increasingly fragmented market.

Emma has an MBA(x) in Tech and is a recipient of The Anita Prabhu Women Leaders in Business Award by the AGSM, Australia’s leading business school.

Claire Gandy - Panelist: Incentivising Success

Claire is the General Manager for Film and Content for Event Cinemas Australia and oversees all content that screens at all Event cinema locations across the country. She has been in this role for four years where key focuses have been reinvigorating the local film industry and its relationship with exhibition with a view to ensuring there are more feature films produced that are suited to the theatrical landscape to ensure the longevity of the local industry, creating dynamic and successful screening programs, nurturing, and expanding local film festivals, launching a VOD service, leveraging distribution relationships for increased overall box office success, and aligning film and business strategies with studios and distributors.

Prior to her role at Event, she was Development and Film Acquisitions Manager for Icon Film, in tandem with the Programming and Content Manager Dendy Cinemas, working across all aspects of content, acquisitions, finance, incorporating evaluation of material at any point on its development pathway, forecasting against market trends and financial modelling for acquired content in the Australian market. Claire also began working with producer Bruce Davey assessing varied material for development opportunities.

Sandy George - Case Study: The Drover’s Wife

Sandy George is a journalist who specializes in the business behind film and television. She has been long-time correspondent for Screen International and www.screendaily.com, an editor of film and TV trade magazines, film writer for The Australian, the presenter of the Saturday night movie on SBS TV, and the wordsmith behind many newsletters and reports. She regularly works with producers on their materials and has dug into data and deals for the benefit of practitioners at Screen Australia.

LEAH PURCELL AM - Case Study: The Drover’s Wife

Leah Purcell is a proud Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka woman born and bred in Murgon, Queensland. Leah is a multi-award-winning director, actor, writer, producer and showrunner. She has written and directed landmark film, TV and theatrical works such as; Box the Pony, Redfern Now, Cleverman, The Secret Daughter, My Life is Murder, The Twelve and The Drover’s Wife. 

She is an AACTA, Helpmann, The Deadly’s, Australian Directors Guild, AWGIE, IF, AFI, Matilda and Logie award winning and nominated artist for her outstanding work on iconic feature film, TV and theatre such as Lantana, Jindabyne and The Proposition; Police Rescue, Janet King and Wentworth; Box the Pony, The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table and The Drover’s Wife.

Her writing has been recognised with NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, and the Victorian Prize for Literature.  In 2017, she received the Sydney UNESCO City of Film Award and in 2021 was made a member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the Performing Arts, to First Nations Youth and Culture, and to Women.

Most recently, she was the 2021 Winner Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize for her multifaceted role in her directorial debut, writer, producer and lead actor of the feature film, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson.   

Currently she is starring opposite Sigourney Weaver in Amazon Originals, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart produced by Bruna Papandrea and Made Up Stories and in-development on the premium limited series based on The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson novel and film. 

Bain Stewart - Case Study: The Drover’s Wife

Bain Stewart is a Ngugi-Goenpul-Noonuccal man and a Traditional Owner of Quandamooka, that includes Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) Queensland.  Bain Stewart is the Executive Producer of Oombarra Productions and a leading producer of creative content across film, TV, events and a mentor to First Nation artists across the creative industries.

His producing credits include the IF Award winning documentary Black Chicks Talking, the Helpmann Award winning play The Drover’s Wife, the play Box the Pony, and the short films She. Say as well as Aunty Maggie and the Womba Wakgun.  Most recently he was Executive Producer for the AACTA award winning comedy, All My Friends Are Racist and Producer for the award winning feature film The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson.

Bain is currently a Producer with Oombarra Taxi, a new strategic alliance between Oombarra Productions and Taxi Film Production, created to bridge the gap in narratives and content for the inclusion of First Nation talent, especially in commercial production.

David Court - Moderator: Road Test Pitch

David Court is the founder of Compton School, Australia’s first business school for creative people. He is also Chair of Screen Canberra and a Director of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation. David was formerly Head of Screen Business at the Australian Film Television & Radio School where he developed Australia’s first screen business qualification. David has been involved in the financing of more than a dozen film and television productions including John Weiley’s Antarctica, Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, Dean Cavell’s The Wiggles Movie, Jerzy Domaradski’s Lilian’s Story, Robert Connolly’s The Bank, Guy Gross's Old Tom, Andrew Horne's The Animated Leunig and Don Featherstone’s The One Percenters. David was founding editor of the highly regarded business newsletter Entertainment Business Review. As author of Film Assistance: Future Options (Allen & Unwin, 1986), he was the policy architect of the Film Finance Corporation, established by the Australian Government in 1988. In 2010, with Sir Peter Jackson, he undertook a review of the New Zealand Film Commission for the NZ Government. David holds a PhD from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Ingrid van den Berghe - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Ingrid van den Berghe started the Luna Cinemas in Leederville 26 years ago and then quickly expanded the operations to include the Luna Outdoor, Windsor Cinemas, Luna on SX and Camelot Outdoor, collectively knows as Luna Palace Cinemas. Luna Palace Cinemas is now one of the most successful arthouse cinema chains in Australia and have a reputation for being innovative in their approach to showcasing films.

Claire Gandy - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Claire is the General Manager for Film and Content for Event Cinemas Australia and oversees all content that screens at all Event cinema locations across the country. She has been in this role for four years where key focuses have been reinvigorating the local film industry and its relationship with exhibition with a view to ensuring there are more feature films produced that are suited to the theatrical landscape to ensure the longevity of the local industry, creating dynamic and successful screening programs, nurturing, and expanding local film festivals, launching a VOD service, leveraging distribution relationships for increased overall box office success, and aligning film and business strategies with studios and distributors.

Prior to her role at Event, she was Development and Film Acquisitions Manager for Icon Film, in tandem with the Programming and Content Manager Dendy Cinemas, working across all aspects of content, acquisitions, finance, incorporating evaluation of material at any point on its development pathway, forecasting against market trends and financial modelling for acquired content in the Australian market. Claire also began working with producer Bruce Davey assessing varied material for development opportunities.

Kieren Dell - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Kieren Dell has over 35 years of experience in superannuation and financial services, having worked in a variety of corporate roles from 1986 to 2000, then as an independent consultant to the industry from 2000 to the present day. He is a partner in Praxis Partners, a small consulting firm in financial services.

Kieren is the CEO and part-owner of Majestic Cinemas, an independent Cinema group which he established in 2002 and which currently operates 8 Cinema sites in Northern NSW and SE Queensland, and is planning further expansion over the next few years. Kieren is responsible for programming on top of his CEO duties.

Kieren has a particular interest in industry bodies, having been involved in the establishment of the Australian Retirement Income Streams Association in the 1990s, becoming its Chairman in 1999 and its first CEO (on a part-time basis) in early 2000, a role which he fulfilled until mid- 2001 prior to its eventual merger with IFSA (now the FSC). Kieren was appointed in May 2005 as the Executive Director of the Senior Australians Equity Release Association of Lenders (SEQUAL), a body representing lenders of reverse mortgages to seniors and continued in this role part-time until mid-2010 when he handed over to a new full-time CEO.

Kieren continued this interest in the Cinema industry, where he is currently the Vice- President of Independent Cinemas Australia (ICA), a position he has held for 6 years following a 7 year stint as President during a period of complete technological change for the cinema industry.

Kieren was appointed as the Chair of Regional Development Australia for the Mid North Coast of NSW and Norfolk Island in January 2021, and is also a Board Member of the Port Macquarie Chamber of Commerce.

Kieren holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sydney University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Sasha Close - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Sasha has worked extensively in the Australian cinema and screen industry, starting in distribution before moving into exhibition and programming. A highly regarded programmer of independent cinema and film, Sasha led the programming team at Wallis Cinemas until 2019, sat on the Board of the Independent Cinemas Association (2016-19), and has been a regular contributor at conferences and festivals and judged AACTA film categories. 

In 2016, Sasha was the recipient of the Natalie Miller Fellowship recognising female leadership in the screen industry. From 2017-19, Sasha was a member of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce. Sasha is currently program manager for the Gold Coast Film Festival and Brisbane International Film Festival along with consulting to screen, cinema, and content businesses across the Australian screen sector.

Michelle Gater - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Michelle is the General Manager of Programming & Content at The HOYTS Corporation. In 2009 she started her journey with HOYTS in the Cinema Technology Group and shifted into the Programming department in 2013, becoming General Manager shortly after in 2014. Prior to HOYTS Michelle spent 6 years at the Val Morgan Cinema Network including as Operations Manager and vital to her success throughout her career has been her outstanding ability to remain agile in a business where consumer expectations and demands constantly shift.

Alex Moir - Panelist: Road Test Pitch

Alex Moir is the Head of Marketing for Australia’s largest independent cinema group, Palace Cinemas, with experience in both exhibition and production. Alex is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategies & campaigns across the Palace Cinemas circuit, reaching millions of attendees annually. An avid cinema devotee, Alex is passionate about the films on-screen and the audiences watching them, with a firm belief in the power of collective viewing.