Sue Maslin (Moderator)

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.

Sue is committed to engaging and empowering audiences with ideas that matter. Her innovative 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 which addressed mental wellbeing in the arts and entertainment sector. Her  latest releases include Why Did She Have To tell The World? and the highly successful theatrical documentary, Brazen Hussies. Feature film credits include Road to Nhill and Japanese Story, Best Film at 2003 AACTA Awards.

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 (Moderator)

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.

Lori Flekser (Moderator)

Lori worked on the production of films, docos and TV shows for thirty years for local and international companies: from PA to producer. She headed up the development division of the AFC (later Screen Australia) before becoming Executive Director of the distributors association representing the major film distributors in Australia.

 In 2012 she took on an additional executive role at Creative Content Australia, raising awareness about the impact of content piracy on the thousands of professionals who bring great stories to screen. She is a passionate advocate of promoting the role of strong copyright legislation and increasing consumer awareness of piracy.

Frank Perikleous

Frank is a veteran of the theatrical business for more than 30 years, with previous senior executive roles in exhibition before joining Rentrak in 2015. He works closely with many of the region’s exhibition and distribution clients to assist in their analysis of the industry, both from a local and international viewpoint.

He presents at most territory level conferences, in the APAC region, to give an overview from a national perspective that allows exhibitors and distributors who may not have insights to the happenings outside of their market gain valuable information on where the business is heading and how it has been performing. This is even more crucial during the past 18 months, where the future is clouded with some uncertainty, but having the global view that Comscore has allows perspectives from different markets who have moved through the different stages of this pandemic.

Nic Robin

Over 10 years of experience in the film, retail, and entertainment industry, Nic is an energetic and passionate leader driven by commercial outcomes and the personal development of people. Driving growth for Village Entertainment through a cross-functional role connecting marketing, sales, and film content.

Stacey Kwijas

Following the completion of a Graduate Diploma of Screen Business at AFTRS, Stacey worked as a freelance producer across film, television and commercials for six years. Transitioning into exhibition in 2015, Stacey now heads up the Marketing and Insights team at Village Entertainment, delivering strategic innovations to derive more value from customer data, and encourage more people into cinemas.

Claire Gandy

Claire has worked in the entertainment industry for over 16 years. After completing drama and arts studies, she worked her way to the film department of Event/Greater Union becoming a film programmer, where she gained the knowledge, skills and contacts in the distribution, exhibition and film making community. With that experience she moved to Dendy Cinemas where she was the National Film, Content and Programming Manager, gaining more industry knowledge and perspective from the independent landscape.

During this time, she became involved in the acquisitions process at Icon Films, learning about the creative and business aspects of film distribution and how to acquire strong and engaging films for Icon, becoming Development and Film Acquisitions Manager in tandem with the Content Management for the cinema side of the business, working across all aspects of content, acquisitions, finance, incorporating evaluation of material at any point in 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.

In 2017 she was offered the role of General Manager of Content for Event Cinemas, the largest and most successful cinema chain in Australia and New Zealand, where she is focusing on supporting and nurturing Australian and local content, and expanding the film palettes of the Event audiences with interesting and engaging film and content outside of the broader commercial content offerings.

Adrianne Pecotic

Adrianne is an advisor and industry advocate with a range of experience across film and TV production, distribution, broadcast, exhibition, online and rental/retail platforms. Known for her work as a strong advocate for the Australian film and television industry and she has a deep understanding of the inherent opportunities and risks involved in media production and distribution gleaned during a significant career at Grundy Television (Fremantle Media Group). Adrianne was previously Executive Director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft. Committed to helping build and sustain a globally competitive and commercially successful industry in Australia.

Kristian Connelly

An industry professional since 2002, Kristian Connelly has worked across the industry in cinema exhibition, film distribution and content production. Possessing an innate ability to anticipate audience taste, Kristian has spearheaded the release of countless film titles, overseeing campaigns to achieve high-visibility, industry-best results at a low-cost. He regularly works with filmmakers to finesse marketing campaigns to improve theatrical prospects.

Sandy George (Moderator)

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. 

Joel Pearlman

Joel Pearlman is CEO of Roadshow Films and is responsible for the distribution of Roadshow’s film and television content as well as Roadshow’s investments and distribution of Australian film and television productions. Additionally, Joel was an Executive Producer on the recent Australian box offices success THE DRY and PENGUIN BLOOM. Joel has also served on the boards of The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Motion Picture Distributor’s Association of Australia (MPDAA). Joel is a graduate of The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AIDC). Roadshow Films has also partnered with John and Dan Edwards to form Roadshow Rough Diamond. RRDs television credits include ROMPER STOMPER and BUMP and they are currently in production of BUMP Season 2. Roadshow Films upcoming Australian slate includes THE DROVERS WIFE THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON directed by Leah Purcell, SERIOUSLY RED directed by Gracie Otto and BLUEBACK directed by Robert Connolly.

Elizabeth Trotman

Elizabeth Trotman has over twenty-five years experience in the entertainment industry. After completing her BCOM/BA, she started her career working for The Walt Disney Company in New Zealand and then across Asia. During her tenure with Disney, she worked on THE LION KING, TOY STORY and the global re-branding for WINNIE THE POOH. This led to a position working for Warner Bros in London where she worked with industry giants such as William Friedkin on the re-release of THE EXORCIST and Will Smith on WILD WILD WEST.

She moved to Australia to take up a role for BBC Worldwide overseeing the launch of Teletubbies across Asia, including China. In 2002, she returned to New Zealand to oversee the marketing of both the Hoyts cinema chain along with Hoyts Distribution theatrical films.

Over the past 10 years she has distributed more than 400 films covering all genres and scale, including PADDINGTON, THE QUEEN and PASSION OF THE CHRIST. For the past six years Elizabeth has been the CEO for STUDIOCANAL in Australia and NZ

Stephen Basil-Jones

Stephen Basil-Jones is currently the Managing Director and Executive Vice-President of Sony Pictures Releasing  Australia and through to 2021, Supervisor for Japan, South Korea & New Zealand.   After a ten year career in the Advertising and Marketing fields, he joined the film industry in 1992, starting as the National Marketing Manager for Hoyts Fox Columbia TriStar Films in Australia.  He was appointed Managing Director of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1996 .

In 2001, he was promoted to the Studio Head Office in Los Angeles as Senior Vice-President of International Distribution – supervising Mexico, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia and N.Z. Stephen then became Senior Vice-President of Marketing and oversaw Advertising/Media for all the International territories in 2003. The following year Stephen moved to London as Head of International Distribution and Marketing for DreamWorks, and, in 2006, returned with his family to Australia to head Sony Pictures Releasing where he currently continues in his role.

He has held numerous industry positions over the years including:

-        Chairman of the Motion Pictures Distributor’s Association. (MPDAA) in 2001, 2009 & 2015.

-        Executive Board Director – N.S.W. Film & TV Office (2001)

-        Board Director – Sydney Film Festival (2008/9) 

-        Board Director - Australians in Film (Los Angeles 2003/4)

-        Member of British Academy of Film & Television (BAFTA-UK).

Antony Ginnane

Melbourne born Antony I. Ginnane has produced or executive produced 71 feature films, MOW's, miniseries and TV series over 51 years including award winning classics like “Patrick”, “High Tide”, “The Lighthorsemen”, “Screamers” and “Last Dance” and recently (in partnership with Kris Wyld) the TV series “Pulse” for ABC-TV. His Australian production company F G Film Productions (Australia) Pty. Ltd. completed the feature film “Never Too Late” starring James Cromwell and Jacki Weaver in 2020 and his next film is “The Girl At The Window” with Radha Mitchell and Ella Newton. He was President of SPAA from 2008 - 2011, attends the major world markets and is based in Los Angeles and Melbourne. “The Unusual Suspects – 104 Films That Made World Cinema” his first book was published by Currency Press in November 2015.

Jodi Matterson

 Jodi Matterson serves as Managing Director of Australia, partner and producer of Made Up Stories.

Jodi recently produced NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy for Hulu & Amazon, THE DRY, from director Robert Connolly and starring Eric Bana which has broken records at the Australian box office, as well as the film adaptation of the international best-seller, PENGUIN BLOOM, starring Naomi Watts, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.

 In 2018, Jodi produced Abe Forsythe’s LITTLE MONSTERS starring Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. 

 Upcoming projects include: WOLF LIKE ME starring Isla Fisher and Josh Gad for Peacock & Stan, ROAR starring Nicole Kidman and Judy Davis for Apple and THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART starring Sigourney Weaver for Amazon.

Prior to Made Up Stories, Jodi started her film career assisting Australian producers Al Clark (THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA – QUEEN OF THE DESERT) and Andrena Finlay and then worked in development in London for various UK producers. She produced her first film THUNDERSTRUCK with director, Darren Ashton, starring Sam Worthington. Her second film RAZZLE DAZZLE screened at more than 20 international film festivals including Berlin. Jodi went on to produce NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN directed by Peter Templeman and starring Sarah Snook, DOWN UNDER from Abe Forsythe and 2:22 starring Teresa Palmer and Michel Huisman.

On the TV side, Jodi produced the miniseries POWER GAMES: THE MURDOCH-PACKER STORY with John Edwards / Endemol for the Nine Network. Jodi had also previously been one of the top producers for commercials in Australia with over sixty commercials with renowned Australian and International directors.

David Jowsey

David Jowsey has had an extensive career as a film and television producer.  In 2009 David formed BUNYA Productions with award winning filmmaker Ivan Sen. Bunya is a boutique feature production company based out of Sydney and Brisbane. David is producer of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema selected feature film Mad Bastards directed by Brendan Fletcher. The same year David produced Toomelah by Ivan Sen. The film was selected for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival – in Un Certain Regard. David also produced the Toronto Film Festival 2012 selection, Satellite Boy, directed by Catriona McKenzie. Satellite Boy received a Special Mention at its European Premiere in the Generation section of the 2013 Berlin Film Festival.

In 2013, David produced and self-distributed Mystery Road by Ivan Sen. The film had its premiere with a Special Presentation at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. This was followed by Ivan Sen’s Goldstone, a sequel to the film Mystery Road, which premiered In Competition in Platform at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and in 2015 David produced Jasper Jones based on the best-selling novel, directed by Rachel Perkins and starring Toni Collette and Hugo Weaving which premiered at the 2017 Shanghai Film Festival.

In 2016 David Jowsey produced the period western Sweet Country directed by Warwick Thornton which received its world premiere In Competition at the 2017 Venice Film Festival winning the Special Jury Prize and its North American premiere In Competition as the Closing Night Film of Platform at the Toronto Film Festival where it won the Platform Prize.

David more recently produced both series of the television drama Mystery Road as well as the feature film High Ground, starring Simon Baker, which screened in a Gala Presentation at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival. He is currently producing Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife and Ivan Sen’s Loveland, starring Ryan Kwanten, Hugo Weaving and Jillian Nguyen.

David Court

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.

Ian Sutherland (Moderator)

Ian has worked in the Film Business for over 30 years in Sydney, London and Los Angeles.

He has worked in all facets of the business from Distribution, Marketing, Production, Financing and Exhibition, working with Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks, MGM and EVENT Hospitality and Entertainment.

Ian has been on the Boards for AACTA, Australians in Film ( Los Angeles ), lectured at University of Southern California, an advisor with the Australian International Screen Forum in New York and was on the Motion Picture Authority Anti Piracy committee in LA.

He is now settled in Sydney, producing several film and TV projects.