RISING TALENT 2023 - DIRECTORS

DIRECTORS

So impressed are we with the industry’s up-and-comers, we have decided to make our Rising Talent list an annual fixture. These are the people we think the industry needs to sit up and take notice of; the names you’ll need to know and want to work with in the years ahead. Some faces are relatively new, while others have recently moved up the chain into leadership positions where they are making change.

Thank you again to everyone who helped us put this list together, including the hundreds of submissions we received through our public call out. We know this list is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the talent in this industry, but we hope it hints towards its future.

IMOGEN MCCLUSKEY

Imogen McCluskey is a writer and director based between Sydney and Los Angeles, with dual UK/ Australian citizenship.

In 2022, she was series director for all 10 episodes of ABC ME series Soundtrack to Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse.

McCluskey made her feature debut in 2019 with the micro budget Suburban Wildlife, which was runner up for the Audience Award at Sydney Film Festival and screened internationally, including Taormina, Cinequest, and the London Australian Film Festival, where she was honoured as debut director.

Her web series Love Bug, funded by Screen Australia, has more than 2.5 million views on TikTok and earned her both an ADG and AWGIE Award nomination. She also directed a season of TikTok series Love Songs.

McCluskey’s AFTRS graduating short film GEM won the EU Film Award in 2018, and her short Atomic Love screened the 2020 BFI Flare Festival, Edmonton IFF, Encounters FF, OUTFEST LA, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and Short of the Week.

She is the recipient of Screen Australia Enterprise funding, a Sloan/AFI Scholarship and the American Australian Association scholarship to study a Masters of Directing at the American Film Institute.

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NEIL SHARMA

Neil Sharma is a Sydney-based director whose directing credits include Netflix’s Heartbreak High, upcoming SBS Digital Original Appetite, and ABC children’s series The Unlisted and Born to Spy This year, Sharma will set up and direct the dramedy series Mother and Son for Wooden Horse and the ABC, starring Matt Okine and Denise Scott. Sharma graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Arts, Media and Cultural Studies, before furthering his studies at AFTRS. With high profile mentors such as Taika Waititi and Jeffrey Walker, he cut his teeth as an assistant director on productions such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Furiosa, Mortal Kombat, and The Dressmaker.

Sharma’s other credits include assistant to Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as AD roles on Lost Flowers on Alice Hart, Lion, The Cry, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Whistleblower, Love Child and Dance Academy. Sharma is repped by HLA Management.

MATT VESELY

(Photo credit: Jonathan VDK)

Matt Vesely is a South Australian writer/director, often combining his love of science fiction with a sincere view of human relationships.

Vesely’s debut feature film Monolith, backed by the South Australian Film Corporation’s Film Lab: New Voices initiative, premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival 2022 and will have its international premiere in March at SXSW.

His 2020 short film System Error was selected for Tribeca Film Festival and has more than 500,000 views on sci-fi social platform DUST. In 2015, his short My Best Friend Is Stuck on the Ceiling premiered at Adelaide, and was nominated for the Dendy Award for Best Australian Short at the Sydney Film Festival, where it received a special mention for the Short Screenplay Award.

Vesely has written for television series Aftertaste, Wastelander Panda, Fucking Adelaide, and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, and script produced The Hunting and Aftertaste.

He is currently in development on his own television and feature film projects. These include Immersion, a television series with Garth Davis, which has received Screen Australia development funding.

Vesely is repped by HLA Management.

STEF SMITH

Stef Smith is creator and director of short-form series It’s Fine, I’m Fine, which premiered at Canneseries in 2022, before screening at MIFF and being picked up by SBS. The Sydney Morning Herald dubbed It’s Fine, I’m Fine “the best Australian drama series of the year” and it earned Smith an ADG Award nomination. Smith was also nominated for two further ADG Awards in 2022, for the immersive Moving Portrait Series and TVC Baroque In Bloom – Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

This year, Smith will direct No Stupid Questions for the ABC, a comedy series from Mercury Scout.

Smith’s Joy Boy, funded via Create NSW’s Generator Emerging Filmmakers Fund, screened internationally including Palm Springs, Iris Prize and in the American Pavilion Emerging Directors Showcase in Cannes 2020.

Smith directed the ABC iview Fresh Blood series The Lost Tapes, is a recipient of the Create NSW #SheDirects initiative, and was shortlisted for Sundance New Voices Lab 2019. She is also a recipient of the ADG 2018 Commercial and Content Mentorship Program, a MIFF Accelerator Lab alumni and directs commercials with Photoplay, winning the ADG Award for Best Direction in Commercial Content 2021.

Smith is represented by Casarotto Ramsay.

KANE SENES AND HANNAH BARLOW

Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes are a writing/directing duo from Sydney. Their sophomore feature Sissy opened the SXSW Midnighters section in 2022 to rave review, and quickly sold to streaming service Shudder for North America, the UK, Ireland and ANZ. The film would go on to be nominated for three AACTA Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction for both Senes and Barlow. On the festival circuit, it won multiple awards, including the Audience Award at BiFan.

The pair’s debut feature was 2019’s For Now, a semi-autobiographical mumblecore road film which they also starred in and made for just $20,000.

Barlow and Senes are represented by WME and Grandview Management.

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