FIRST NATIONS ADVISORY GROUP
Travis Akbar
Travis Akbar is a Wongutha man raised in South Australia, and has been mentored by leading industry figures including writers Stuart Beattie, Steph Lady, Alexis West, and Nathan Maynard; directors Phillip Noyce and Julius Avery; and producers Judd Tilyard and Sandy Cameron.
He was selected for AFTRS State Talent Camp (2019) and National Talent Camp (2020), and was a finalist for Screen Australia’s Writer’s Incubator Initiative (2021). Since then, his work has been recognised through the AACTA Regional Landscapes competition (The Track), Australians in Film’s Untapped Initiative, Broad Horizons (Netflix x Screen Producers Australia), and the SAFC Film Lab: New Voices—where he was part of the program’s first all‑First Nations team. In 2024, he received the Best Emerging First Nations Practitioner Award at the South Australian Screen Awards (SASA).
Travis has completed writing assignments for producers all over the world, but as a local SA based writer, director, and producer, Travis created the award‑winning short Tambo, which premiered at SXSW Sydney, screened at the Adelaide Film Festival, and collected multiple international awards. In 2024, his black‑comedy short The Mysterious Maiden of Montefiores was funded and selected for CinefestOz and the Adelaide Film Festival. His thriller‑horror False Narrative is currently preparing for its festival run, and he is currently in post‑production on his fourth narrative short film, the horror-thriller Vermin.