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.
