FilmLab 2009 Selection Panel
“It is fantastic to end up with four teams of filmmakers who are exciting, dynamic and daring in the projects they are developing. It was an interesting process for us to go through involving 95 ideas from 41 initial teams. It was wonderful to see such a broad range of ideas and we were impressed by the high quality of all the applications, but even more so by the genuine level of enthusiasm of the applicants to engage with the philosophy behind the scheme.“ FilmLab 2009 selection panel.
Stephen Cleary
Development expert Stephen Cleary is the lead industry consultant for the FilmLab program. Stephen runs the renowned Arista program, which was founded by him in the United Kingdom in 1996. Since this time, Arista has grown to become one of Europe’s leading story and script development agencies, running a series of popular and successful training courses throughout Europe, consulting on development issues to filmmakers and film agencies. Stephen was previously the Head of Development at British Screen and was producer and co-producer on features films New Year’s Day and Goodbye Charlie Bright respectively.
Lindy Davies
Lindy Davies is an AFI-winning actress and a prolific actor trainer, director and performance consultant. She has worked as performance consultant for many years with Academy Award® nominated actress Julie Christie, whose performance in Sarah Polley's Away From Her won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a SAG Award and a Critics Circle Award.
Lindy's work includes Sally Potter's The Tango Lesson; Alan Rudolph's Afterglow for which Julie Christie received a 1998 Academy Award® nomination; Dennis Potter's Karaoke; and Kenneth Branagh's production of Hamlet. She was one of the key contributors for the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab for emerging directors in 2006. From 1995 to 2007, Lindy was Head of Drama at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). At the IndiVision Project Lab 2008, Lindy was a performance consultant were she shared her thoughts on ways to approach working with actors to elicit compelling screen performances.
Scott Meek
Scott was previously evaluation manager at the Film Finance Corporation and was previously Head of Drama for the ABC. A former cinema manager and film archivist, Scott developed, raised finance for and was a creative producer on over 20 features through Zenith productions in the UK, 10 of which were in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, including: Prick Up Your Ears, Sid And Nancy, Trust, Simple Men and Velvet Goldmine.
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz is a producer, writer and film critic. Margaret began her career in film, writing for television, radio and film; working for the Special Broadcasting Service soon after it began in October 1980. She produced and wrote a number of programs for SBS before establishing The Movie Show with David Stratton in 1986, which they fronted until 2004. During that time Margaret was Executive Producer with SBS for such programs as Front Up, Subsonics, the AFI Awards and the IF Awards. In July 2004, Margaret and David moved to the ABC where they have been presenting At The Movies.
Margaret has served as a member of the Advertising Standards Board, is a past President of the Film Critics Circle of Australia, and is a past President, currently vice-President of Watch on Censorship. She is also a member of the inaugural board of the Australian Writers' Foundation.
FilmLab 2009 teams
Eddie White and Hugh Nguyen of the People’s Republic of Animation.
Julie Ryan of Cyan Films with Matt Bate of Plexus Films.
Ashlee Page and Sonya Humphrey of Sacred Cow.
Sophie Hyde, Bryan Mason and Matt Cormack of Closer Productions.