SANDRA SCIBERRAS, Writer/ Director

Filmmaker Sandra Sciberras is a graduate of the Victorian College of The Arts School of Film and Television. Her award-winning graduate film Frail Mary played at various Film Festivals. After graduating, Sandra wrote and directed the short feature Deeper Than Blue as a means of making a film that was shootable on a stringent budget and within three weeks. It went on to premiere as part of the ‘new directors' showcase at the 50th Sydney International Film Festival, and at international festivals including the Female Eye International film festival in Toronto and Cinema des Antipodes, France.

Following her success, she was selected to participate in the Australian Film Commission's Indivision program, writing and directing the feature film The Caterpillar Wish (2006) as part of this initiative. The film, which starred Susie Porter and Wendy Hughes, received several award nominations, including the Film Critics Circle of Australia for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, and the IF Awards for Best Sound. It won an IF award for Best Art Direction, and an AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress (Susie Porter).

Sandra is currently lecturing at Melbourne University VCA School of Film and Television and is focused on writing several other screenplays, for herself as well as for other directors and producers.

BRIDGET CALLOW, Producer

With ten years experience in film and television in Australia, Bridget Callow has worked as producer and production manager on long and short form drama including international feature films and documentaries before her award-winning debut feature, Bitter & Twisted, premiered to become a sleeper hit at Tribeca Film Festival, New York in 2008. Currently on a global festival circuit (including Sarajevo, Torino, Lisbon, London Australia, LA, Montreal, Goteburg, Lisbon, Dublin, Glasgow, Seoul), the film is finding critical success both internationally and at home. Most recently, after its Australian theatrical release, it was nominated for the IF Independent Spirit award as well as two AFI and two Film Critics Circle Awards (Noni Hazlehurst for Best Actress, Leeanna Walsman for Best Supporting Actress), winning Best Actress at the FCC awards.

She also has a second feature in the pipeline, which in 2008 was awarded the prestigious AWG Monte Miller award, supported for development by the Australian Film Commission, and was one of eight projects nationally to be invited to participate in the AFC's premiere development lab, SP*RK. She also has a number of documentaries in development.

As well as developing an independent producing slate, she continues to freelance as a producer, production manager and documentary researcher. Most recently she production-managed a feature for Cascade Films, working along side veteran producer, David Parker, followed by working with the Oscar-winning team of Melanie Coombs and Adam Elliot on the $8 million animated feature Mary & Max, which was the opening film at Sundance this year.

She also participates regularly on script assessment and other panels for organizations such as IF awards, Film Victoria and Open Channel.

RAY MOONEY, Writer

Ray Mooney is a playwright, novelist and screenwriter, renowned for examining controversial topics with a social conscience. A graduate of VCA Drama School and AFTRS (writers' attachment course), Ray has had 22 different plays produced by companies such as Playbox, La Mama and The Melbourne Writer's Theatre. He established two theatre companies (ZAP Community Youth Theatre and Governors Pleasure) and lectures in creative writing and performance at Holmesglen TAFE and the VCA Film and Television School. 

He adapted his internationally award-winning play Everynight, Everynight into a film, which was nominated for the AFI award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1994. Penguin published his first novel, A Green Light in 1998, which went on to become their second-biggest seller in dramatic fiction that year.
 

More judges announced soon...