RISING TALENT 2024: PRODUCERS

RISING TALENT 2024

The IF Rising Talent list for 2024 is made up of people we think will shift and lead our industry into the future. Some are newer faces, others have recently stepped into senior roles where they’re now making waves. We think you’ll want to work with all of them. We put this list together through a public call out and extensive insdustry outreach. This year, we had a staggering 692 names put forward. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent that’s out there in Australia.

PRODUCERS

BETTINA HAMILTON

Bettina Hamilton has worked as production manager and line producer in South Australia for several years, and in 2022, produced her first narrative feature, Monolith.

Directed by Matt Vesely and written by Lucy Campbell, Monolith was funded via the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Film Festival’s Film Lab: New Voices program, made its international debut at SXSW, and is nominated for the 2024 AACTA Award for Best Indie Film.

At the end of 2023, Hamilton produced Tim Piper’s dramedy Kangaroo Island with Peter Hanlon, Piper and Daniel Rosenberg. Starring Rebecca Breeds and Erik Thomson, it will premiere later this year at Adelaide Film Festival. Hamilton is also in development on a new film with the creative team behind Monolith, which she hopes to have in production next year.

As the production and development manager at Timothy White and Anna Vincent’s production company Southern Light Alliance, Hamilton co-produced 2016 documentary Embrace. Through the Screen Australia Brilliant Careers initiative, she also worked closely with producer Rebecca Summerton from Closer Productions on several of its projects.

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TESSA MANSFIELD-HUNG

At Exile Entertainment, Tessa MansfieldHung has produced three features since 2020 alongside Alexandros Ouzas. These include Sam Odlum’s Time Addicts, winner of won Best Australian Feature Film at Monsterfest 2023, Jason Raftopoulos’ Voices in Deep, which premiered at the 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival, and James Vinson’s 2022 film Slant, starring Sigrid Thornton.

She is one of Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch for 2023, and is currently being mentored by Arcadia’s Lisa Shaunessy Mansfield-Hung’s credits also include ARIA-nominated music videos for artists such as Sampa the Great and Amy Shark, short films and multimedia projects, including contributing to the video projection design for David Bowie’s Lazarus musical with director Natasha Pincus.

In long-form, Mansfield-Hung was associate producer of Raftopoulos’ AACTA-nominated West of Sunshine, which premiered at Venice Film Festival, producer manager of Screen Australia-supported horror anthology Dark Place, and camera operator on documentary The Art of Incarceration.

Mansfield-Hung holds a Bachelor of Film and Digital Media from Deakin University and a Graduate Certificate in Creative Business from the University of Canberra.

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MAHVEEN SHAHRAKI

Originally from Iran, MahVeen Shahraki discovered her film family in Australia and co-founded Thousand Mile Productions, dedicated to captivating and socially conscious projects.

Her credits include Ellie & Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt), winner of the 2021 AACTA Award Best Indie Film, and the first Australian film to open Mardi Gras Film Festival.

As an executive producer, Shahkari collaborated with the French company Georges Films on The Translator starring Miranda Tapsell and David Field. Her most recent project, Mark Leonard Winter’s The Rooster, starring Hugo Weaving and Phoenix Raei, received four AACTA nominations at the 2024 awards and will be released theatrically in late February.

Shahraki was named among Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch in 2020, and was mentored by Tracey Vieira, chief content officer of Hoodlum Entertainment.

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ALICE WILLISON

Producer Alice Willison is the founder of production company Rhapsody Films, specialising in scripted live-action drama. Prior to establishing the business, Willison worked as an in-house producer for Aquarius Films and Revolver Films.

Willison recently produced Stan/ Sundance Now’s Totally Completely Fine with Fremantle. Her other credits as producer include season 2 of Stan’s The Other Guy with Aquarius Films and Wooden Horse, which sold to Hulu in the US and was nominated for Best Comedy Series at the 2020 AACTA Awards, and season 1 of the ABC’s The PM’s Daughter with Fremantle, nominated for Best Children’s Program at the 2022 AACTA Awards.

Willison’s other screen credits include production executive on Dirt Music, associate producer on The Unlisted, co-producer on Season 1 of The Other Guy, and producer’s assistant on Berlin Syndrome.

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YINGNA LU

Yingna Lu is a creative producer with a background in advertising. She co-founded Spaceboy Studios with Steve Anthopoulos, which received Screen Australia Enterprise funding in 2023.

Lu’s first gig was with Bill Leimbach, working in feature development and music management for Lime Cordiale. From there, Lu produced scripted digital shows for ABC and Foxtel with Matilda and Bryan Brown and numerous Vimeo Staff Pick videos, including music clips for Rüfüs Du Sol, SBCR and short film We’re All Going to Die. Lu was among Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch in 2016, winning Screen Australia’s $20,000 screen Internship.

Her 2017 short Tangles and Knots, directed by Renée Petropoulos, was selected for Berlinale, SXSW, Melbourne and Sydney Film Festival. Her 2022 short Voice Activated, written and directed by Anthopoulos, premiered internationally in Tribeca, was nominated for an AACTA and won Short Film Production of the Year at the 2023 SPA Awards. Her other short-form credits include My Summer in the Human Resistance, Science+, Love Bug and Atomic Love, and she was an assistant producer on SBS’s New Gold Mountain.

Lu produced the ABC’s AACTA-nominated second season of The PM’s Daughter with Fremantle, and is now in development on the Spaceboy slate including feature Keep Walking (w/d Petropoulos, EP Liz Watts), supported by Screen NSW’s Short to Feature Fast Track initiative.