THE JURY

Having always been a rabid fan of music, television and cinema, Lucia has worked for the biggest music companies in the world.  

She started her working career in London for Music Week and Polydor Records. In 1998, she relocated back to Italy and started her MTV adventure in Milan. Lucia’s assignment was Programming Assistant to the then only MTV channel in Italy. She then went on to become Programming and Acquisition Manager of the newly launched satellite channels MTV Brand:new and MTV Hits.

In 2005, Lucia was assigned an unusual project... to create a new television platform that would go beyond the usual TV box as we know it: a mix of films, music, docs, animation, motion design and a stepping stone for a new production model, based on collaborations within a creative community, in a very futuristic digital way. It was here at Qoob was created.

Over the past two years through Qoob, Lucia has had the pleasure of investing in, and also screening a number of quality Australian short films including most recently Crossbow and Spider.

Since 2006, Lisa has worked as Creative Executive for Seed Productions Australia.  She is also an independent producer with production company, Chaotic Pictures, sister company of Chaotic Post, an equipment rental and post-production company specialising in Red One digital technology. She is currently developing a slate of feature films and television programs.

Previously Lisa was Marketing Officer, Industry Development at the Australian Film Commission. Prior to that she held many roles in production on big budget American features filmed in Australia, including Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith; The Great Raid; Scooby Doo; Stealth and Superman Returns.

Louise Smith has been working in the production of television commercials and feature films for over ten years and established Film Depot Pty Ltd in 2003.

She has gained an international reputation for her collaborations with stellar directing talents including Nash and Joel Edgerton (The Square, The Pitch), renowned actor Rachel Griffiths (Tulip, Roundabout), and internationally recognised commercials director Derin Seale (Static).

Her feature film debut was The Rage In Lake Placid, which she co-produced with Marian Macgowan and she recently completed the thriller, The Square directed by Nash Edgerton.

She has produced many international TV commercial productions shooting in Australia and has a strong connection to the Japanese market.

Her awards for her various drama productions include: Best of the Festival Palm Springs, Best Short Drama Toronto, Best Short Melbourne, Audience Award Aspen and an Australian Film Critic Award.

THE SQUARE was nominated for 7 AFI Awards including Best Film in 2008.

Marc Fennell is a professional film expert, presenter, producer and writer who brings his love of movies across all platforms including ABC Radio, SBS Television, Movie Network, Telstra Bigpond, Fairfax, The Canberra Times, Dazed & Confused Magazine, MySpace, Popcorn Taxi, Yen Magazine, Popcorn Taxi, The Sydney Film Festival and many more.

Primarily though, Marc Fennell is the film critic for Australia’s National Youth Broadcaster triple j. Each week he dishes up reviews of new films, DVDs on triple j radio. Marc also presents ‘Film Ed 101’, a radio segment that looks into the history and future of cinema.  On triple j tv Marc presents a weekly movie culture segment ‘Flicked’. And for the monthly magazine j mag he writes the column 'Unclipped' on the world of music videos.

Marc began his torrid love affair with movies back in high school when he won the Australian Film Institute’s inaugural Young Film Critic Competition. He spent almost 4 years as the resident film critic and reporter of Sydney youth broadcaster FBi 94.5 There he reviewed over 400 films, filed stories on everything from Punk cinema to Porn Flicks and interviewed some of the most interesting people in popular culture including filmmakers Kevin Smith, Richard Linklater, J.J Abrams, Phillip Noyce, Danny Boyle, Will Ferrell, opinionated Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, punk icon Malcolm McLaren and Buffy creator Joss Whedon. In 2004 Marc joined SBS Television’s The Movie Show where each week he dug up cult DVD’s for 2 years.

Peta joined National Geographic Channel in 2004 as the On-Air Scheduler and was promoted to Program and Acquisitions Manager in July 2005.

Bringing 20 years presentation and scheduling experience, Peta has worked at free-to-air networks’ Seven, Nine and Ten. Her roles have included Unit Manager for Network Ten Promotions and Network Presentation Manager, Network Ten.

Peta is responsible for strategic short and long-term program planning and oversees all aspects of programming, presentation, on-air promo placement, and ratings data and analysis.

As the programming manager for NGC in this region, Peta will also work with local Australian and New Zealand production companies and independent producers, continuing to boost NGC’s local offering while scouting for Australian content for global distribution.

Sascha Ettinger Epstein is a documentary filmmaker and magazine feature writer with a taste for edgy stories. Her first documentary Painting with Light in a Dark World about eccentric visionary Kings Cross street photographer Peter Darren Moyle won 2 AFIs and best short at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2003.

Thereafter she completed a Masters in Documentary Direction at AFTRS where she made Sentences, about an art program within maximum security at Long Bay Gaol which won an IF Award and played at Flickerfest 2005, and Change of Heart about the mystique of the human heart and heart transplantation.

Sascha then spent three years making The Oasis, a feature-length longitudinal observational film about a youth refuge in inner city Sydney which won 2 AFIs, and Midnight Children, about an after-dark basketball competition for kids living in a notorious public housing estate in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo.

Shascha is currently working on a TV series about police recruits.

Marcus is a principal partner in Firelight Productions, which he established in 1998. The company has produced more than 30 hours of international television and its communications production arm has produced more than 100 programs, music videos and new media projects.

Marcus began his film career 20 years ago as a drama editor but was soon drawn to producing. The past five years have seen a focus on writing and directing and he continues to also shoot many of his films. Most recently he completed Scorched, an all media drama for Nine and nineMSN.  Credits for the last two years cross several genres and include the four part series In the Line of Fire (Ch 9), Rock Eisteddfod Challenge (Ch 9), My Home, Your War (SBS), The Artist, The QC and The Refugee (ABC), Snap Off the Lip (Fuel TV) and Storm Surfers (Discovery).

He was the Executive Producer on the multi award winning documentary Painting with Light in a Dark World (SBS) and directed Little Dove - Big Voyage (Network 7), Australia’s first fully convergent, multi-platform documentary project. In 1998 he produced and co-wrote the adventure series Afrika - Cape Town to Cairo (ABC TV and National Geographic) which has subsequently sold in 32 countries. He is co-producer of the cross-platform telemovie Scorched (Ch9).

He is a specialist in digital production technologies, writing the highly successful book Hands On - A guide to production and technologies for film, TV and new media and has been a principal in Firelight Productions with partner Ellenor Cox for the past ten years. Marcus is President of Metro Screen and is NSW Chapter Head for the Screen Producers Association of Australia. He has lectured at numerous institutions including AFTRS and VCA.