1:1 Pitches, Speaker
Tanya Phegan is an Australian based Film and Television Producer and Senior Media Executive.
Tanya is the Co-Creator and Producer of OPERATION BUFFALO (Porchlight Films, 2020) a six-part drama series for ABC Australia. The series won Best Comedy Award at the Berlin TV Series Festival, 2020.
Tanya worked for over a decade in the UK and US in international development, production and acquisitions. In the UK she held roles at Universal Pictures, BBC Films and DNA Films/Fox Searchlight. She developed projects with the UK’s top creative talent, working on films including THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, 28 WEEKS LATER, DREDD, THE HISTORY BOYS, NEVER LET ME GO, SUNSHINE, NOTES ON A SCANDAL, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and 360°. In the US, Tanya curated ‘Your Film Festival’ with YouTube/Scott Free with the winner creating a new work produced by Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender.
Tanya is currently the Head of Scripted at Guesswork Television and is responsible for overseeing the development and production of Guesswork’s scripted slate.
1:1 PITCHES – WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Format: Features, Episodic and Documentary
Looking for comedy, not looking for straight drama
Mentor, Roundtables, Speaker
Kirsty Stark is a television producer based in Adelaide, South Australia, and the owner of independent production company Epic Films.
She has worked in the film industry since 2007, initially as a freelance camera assistant and cinematographer before moving into production in 2012.
Kirsty’s recent work includes producing the acclaimed children’s series First Day, winner of multiple international awards including a Kidscreen Award and aRose d’Or.She also co-produced the 13x AACTA award-winning Stateless with Matchbox Pictures, now screening internationally on Netflix. Her other credits as Producer include Goober, Unboxed and Wastelander Panda: Exile for ABC iview,First Day for ABC ME and the feature filmA Month of Sundays.
Kirsty has presented at SXSW and TEDxAdelaide, and received multiple awards for her work. Epic Films was named the Screen Producers Australia “Breakthrough Business of the Year” in 2016.
Aftertaste, Mentor, Speaker
Rebecca is a producer and is co-owner of the award-winning screen production company Closer Productions. Her feature film credits include break out low budget feature 52 TUESDAYS, which won the directing award for World Cinema at Sundance and the Crystal Bear at Berlinale, and feature documentary SAM KLEMKE’S TIME MACHINE which premiered at Sundance and in Official Selection at HotDocs and Rotterdam. Her most recent feature, ANIMALS, is an official Irish/Australian co-production based on the acclaimed novel, which premiered at Sundance 2019.
For television, Rebecca has made numerous documentaries including Dendy Award-winning I WANT TO DANCE BETTER AT PARTIES and 3-part Arts series HANNAH GADSBY’S OZ. Her television drama credits include the 6-part online series F*!#ING ADELAIDE, which premiered at Series Mania and was the most watched ABC iView Original in 2018. She also produced THE HUNTING, a 4 x 1 hour drama series which premiered on SBS Television in August 2019 and was SBS’ most successful commissioned drama ever. Rebecca recently completed AFTERTASTE a new 6 x 30 comedy drama for the ABC which premiered on ABC TV in February 2021. Rebecca also sits on the Board of the South Australian Film Corporation.
Aftertaste, Mentor, Speaker
Matt Vesely is a South Australian writer/director. He works with award winning creative collective Closer Productions. Often combining his love of science fiction with a sincere view of human relationships, Matt has directed a number of successful shorts and worked as a writer across TV & film.
Matt has worked in writers’ rooms with Closer Productions, Matchbox Pictures, Bunya Productions, the ABC and SBS. He was a part of the writing team for the ABC’s flagship iView series, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi WASTELANDER PANDA, and wrote an episode and was a staff writer across the entirety of Closer’s award-winning comic drama for ABC, FUCKING ADELAIDE. In 2014, Matt was the recipient of the Colin Thiele Scholarship for Creative Writing. In 2018, his feature script OVERHEATER – a dystopian romantic comedy – was shortlisted for the Australian Writer’s Guild’s John Hinde Award for best unproduced science fiction screenplay.
Matt works as Closer’s Development Manager under the mentorship of Sophie Hyde and Rebecca Summerton, and was the script producer for Closer’s 4 part series THE HUNTING (SBS), starring Asher Keddie and Richard Roxburgh. In 2021, he script produced and wrote for Closer’s comedy series AFTERTASTE (ABC), starring Erik Thomson.
Matt continues to lead Closer’s writers’ rooms and develop his own television projects, including a series based on OVERHEATER, supported by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation. SYSTEM ERROR, his new proof of concept short for OVERHEATER, was selected to have its world premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Aftertaste, Speaker
Matthew Bate is a multi-award winning writer, director and producer. His 2011 feature Shut Up Little Man! premiered in competition at the Sundance Film festival before screening theatrically across the U.S and being bought by Netflix. His follow up feature Sam Klemke’s Time Machine premiered at the 2015 Sundance New Frontiers Program, winning Doc Aviv’s Artistic Spirit Award and an AWGIE for best screenplay. In 2013 Mathew wrote and directed the Dendy Award winning film I Want to Dance Better At Parties. Matthew’s Virtual Reality work Summation of Force, made with Magnum Photographer Trent Parke, was selected for Sundance’s New Frontier Program and won the inaugural VR Award at the ‘Imagine Film Festival’ Amsterdam. In 2020 Matthew was a co-creator, co-writer and co-producer of the comedy TV Series Aftertaste, starring Rachel Griffiths and Erik Thomson. Matthew is the co-founder of the South Australian film company Closer Productions.
