Home > Alumni > 2010
Alethea Jones directed and executive produced all 10 episodes of QUEEN AMERICA starring Catherine Zeta Jones in 2018. She has also directed episodes of LODGE 49, DOLLFACE, WRECKED, AMERICAN WOMAN and GORTIMER GIBBONS. Her first feature, FUN MOM DINNER, starring Toni Collette, Adam Scott and Molly Shannon, premiered at Sundance 2017. In 2012, she directed Tropfest winner LEMONADE STAND and premiered her documentary TISSUE (ABC). She is currently in development at Paramount Studios on a technicolour musical called BIG GAY JAMBOREE. Jones has had two shorts in MIFF: DAVE’S DEAD and WHEN THE WIND CHANGES.
Ariel Kleiman’s 2010 short DEEPER THAN YESTERDAY had its world premiere at Cannes Critics Week where it won the Discovery Award for a short film and Petit Rail d’Or. In the same year, it won the AFI award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film and 2011’s Sundance Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking. Kleiman returned to Sundance in 2015 with his first feature PARTISAN, winning a Special Jury Award for cinematography, and in 2016/17 directed several episodes of TOP OF THE LAKE.
Ashlee Page’s short THE KISS won 2010’s MIFF Emerging Australian Filmmaker Award, two AFI Awards, Best Short at Sydney and had screenings at Busan, Clermont-Ferrand and Tribeca. Page directed a chapter of MIFF Premiere Fund-supported THE TURNING (MIFF 2013). She received a Sundance Institute Global Filmmaker Award in 2014, and the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship.
Asuka Sylvie’s award-winning graduate film PINION travelled to various festivals including the Hamptons, Odense and Shanghai. Her next short LAKE, made with the assistance of the NZFC, premiered at 2014’s Palm Springs International ShortFest and won the Ingmar Bergman award at the Uppsala International Short Film Festival.
Christopher Dudman directed TVCs and wrote and directed six-hour police series HARRY. His short CHOICE NIGHT screened at London, Valladolid and Tours Ecrans Geneva, where it won Best International Short, and in competition at 2011’s Clermont-Ferrand. He since wrote and directed documentary THE DAY THAT CHANGED MY LIFE.
Eddie Martin’s short documentary JISOE (2005) won the Audience Award at the St Kilda Film Festival. His debut feature documentary LIONEL (MIFF 2008) was followed by ALL THIS MAYHEM (2014), which won Best Independent Film on iTunes UK and also won the Direction in a Documentary, Editing in a Documentary and Original Music Score prizes at 2015’s AACTA Awards. The MIFF Premiere Fund-supported HAVE YOU SEEN THE LISTERS world premiered at MIFF 2017.
Edward Housden’s short MUSCLES premiered in Official Selection at Cannes 2010 and then screened at numerous festivals including South By Southwest, London, Chicago, Stockholm and more. He has been directing music videos and is represented for commercials by the UK’s Independent Films.
Hannah Hilliard was the inaugural recipient of Screen Australia’s Acclaim Fund, a grant supporting career development of filmmakers with shorts that have won specific awards at high profile festivals. Hillard was eligible based on her wins at Berlin and MIFF 2010. She is represented by global transmedia company @radical.media as a TVC director.
Irina Goundortseva has credits on five short films, both live action and animation, which have screened at MIFF, Annecy, Hiroshima, Montreal, Palm Springs, Hawaii and more. She worked as Script Supervisor for short HAMMER OR CLAW, which premiered at St Kilda Film Festival 2015. Goundortseva works as a Script Supervisor and her credits include Upper Middle Bogan, Little Lunch, Open Slather, Hunters etc.
James Cunningham has made nine more short films since MIFF 2010. One is a zombie-romantic-comedy called ROTTING HILL, which has picked up several awards at various festivals. Another is 2012’s SHELVED, which went to SXSW among many other festivals. Cunningham completed work on animation short OVER THE MOON in 2013 and has since been teaching visual effects and directing films at Auckland’s Media Design School.
Kazik Radwanski’s short films screened at the Berlinale Shorts Competition for three consecutive years. His 2012 feature debut TOWER world premiered at the 65th Locarno International Film Festival and then screened at many festivals including Toronto, Viennale, New Directors/ New Films presented by MoMA and MIFF 2013. He also wrote and directed CUTAWAY (2014), which screened at Locarno, Vancouver, Hamptoms, Chicago, Dallas film festivals as well as France’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
Matthew Bate’s debut feature documentary SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE was selected in Competition at 2011’s Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Documentary program) and for the 40th New Directors / New Films Festival at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center. His short film THE MYSTERY OF FLYING KICKS won 2010’s MIFF Best Short Doc and Best Short Doc at New Zealand’s Documentary Edge Festival 2011. His next feature documentary SAM KLEMKE’S TIME MACHINE premiered at Sundance’s New Frontiers section and was selected for HotDocs and Rotterdam Film Festivals.
Olivia Peniston-Bird completed her first feature documentary GRACEFUL GIRLS (MIFF 2015).
Sam Peacocke shot a Volkswagen TVC and an online music promo that picked-up a Gold Axis award. His 2010 MIFF Accelerator film MANUREWA won a Best Short Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival Generation 14plus section. In 2012, he directed music documentary SHIHAD: BEAUTIFUL MACHINE. He moved to Europe finding TVC representation with the UK’s Rokkit and France’s Irene.
