Academy Award nominated screenwriter Jan Sardi will be among a host of industry representatives who will attend next week’s CinéfestOZ Film Festival in the South West of Western Australia as a guest of ScreenWest.
Sardi, who received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Shine as well as BAFTA, Writers Guild of America and Golden Globe nominations, will bring his industry knowledge to the table during All About Audience, a day-long event at Wise Vineyard Restaurant in Eagle Bay.
Sardi, who is president of the Australian Writers’ Guild, will be joined on the panel by Roadshow Films head of Australian production Seph McKenna; Screen Australia head of production Sally Caplan; Tugg co-founder and CEO Nicolas Gonda; Quickflix managing director Stephen Langsford; producer and co-founder of Bunya Productions David Jowsey; head of television production at Bunya Productions Greer Simpkin; producer and co-founder of Porchlight Films Vincent Sheehan and Stan’s Head of Originals Development Rob Gibson.
The event will look at how today’s audience is impacting the creation, production and marketing of screen stories, what’s changing and how this world might look in a few years’ time. Guests will have the opportunity to discuss the challenges and opportunities being driven by the audiences’ rapidly growing desire for true on-demand consumption.
ScreenWest will also play host to screen practitioners at a special WA Screen Industry Lunch, a friendly and informal event designed to facilitate networking with leading national and international industry representatives, while Caplan will discuss the funding body’s role in the bigger picture during a special In Conversation event.
Film journalist Sandy George will host all three ScreenWest events. Managing director of Roadshow Films, Joel Pearlman, will also attend CinéfestOZ as a guest of ScreenWest.
Along with the three events taking place during CinéfestOZ, ScreenWest will also host a number of pre-festival events where visiting interstate guests will have the opportunity to network before journeying to the South West.
ScreenWest Chief Executive Ian Booth said CinéfestOZ was becoming an increasingly significant leveraging opportunity for Western Australia’s screen funding and development agency.
“ScreenWest has supported CinéfestOZ for more than seven years and over that time we have seen the festival grow into an important event on the screen industry calendar,” Mr Booth said.
“As an agency we recognise the opportunities that exist around CinéfestOZ for WA screen practitioners to meet others from the industry, share knowledge, ideas and network.
“These opportunities are absolutely priceless if we are to grow as a local and national industry and I encourage all local screen practitioners to attend these events.”
All ScreenWest events will be held at Wise Vineyard Restaurant in Eagle Bay. For full details visit: http://cinefestoz.com/screenwest-events-at-cinefestoz/