The Melbourne WebFest is an international web series festival based in Melbourne, Australia. It was the first of its kind in the country. It focuses on web series from around the world, with individual recognitions for genres including fantasy and science fiction, nonfiction, drama, comedy, and suspense. [1] Panels on the pitching, production and marketing of web series also take place at the festival. [2]
The Melbourne WebFest was founded in 2013 by Steinar Ellingsen, Ashlee Thomas, Max Retro, Alexander Hipwell and Ingvill Oddsen in response to the development of web series in Australia. It was inspired by and is supported by the Los Angeles Web Series Festival. It was initially a one-day event targeted toward series producers, but became a three-day festival aimed at the general public by its second year. [3]
In 2016, the awards introduced the Pitch Perfect event, a live pitching competition in partnership with ABC iview. [2]
Awards include the Grand Jury Award for which the winner receives paid trips and entry to other international web series festivals, and the People's Choice award which gives a cash prize. [2] The ABC has offered sponsored awards that give the winner direct licensing to the ABC iview platform. [4]
Michael Solomon Gudinski AM was an Australian record executive and promoter who was a leading figure in the Australian music industry. Born and raised in Melbourne, Gudinski formed the highly successful Australian record company Mushroom Records in 1972 through which he signed several generations of Australian musicians and performers ranging from MacKenzie Theory, the Skyhooks, The Choirboys, Kylie Minogue, and New Zealand's Split Enz to newer artists such as Eskimo Joe, Evermore and others.
The Adelaide Film Festival is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October. Subject to funding, the festival has staged full or briefer events in alternating years; some form of event has taken place every year since 2015. From 2022 it takes place annually. It has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) established to fund investment in Australian films.
Kitty Flanagan is an Australian comedian, writer and actress who works in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has also performed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Japan and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal Just For Laughs festival.
Leah Maree Purcell is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actress, playwright, film director, and novelist. She made her film debut in 1999, appearing in Paul Fenech's Somewhere in the Darkness, which led to roles in films, such as Lantana (2001), Somersault (2004), The Proposition (2005) and Jindabyne (2006).
Sheffield DocFest is an international documentary festival and industry marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
Osamah Sami is an Australian stage and screen actor, writer, and stand-up comedian, born in Iran of Iraqi origin. He is known for his book Good Muslim Boy, and the film Ali's Wedding.
ABC Entertains is an Australian English language general entertainment free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC Me. It rebranded once more on 3 June 2024 to ABC Entertains, now focusing on general entertainment programming.
Samuel Jonathan McMillan is an Australian musical comedian, satirist, writer and radio presenter who performs under the stage name Sammy J. He embraces a variety of media in his comedy, including the use of video and self-composed music, and frequently collaborates with fellow Australian puppet comedian Randy Feltface. He has released several CDs and DVD compilations of his work. He has performed at comedy festivals in Australia, Edinburgh and Montreal, and has appeared on various Australian television shows, including Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane, a sitcom based on the duo's touring show of the same name.
Dylan Martin Alcott, is an Australian former wheelchair tennis player, former wheelchair basketball player, radio host, actor, foundation founder, business owner and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, known colloquially as the Australian "Rollers". At the age of 17, he became the youngest Rollers gold medal winner, at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and was the youngest to compete in the wheelchair basketball competition. In 2014, he returned to wheelchair tennis with the aim of participating at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, at which he won gold medals in the Men's Quad Singles and Doubles. He was named the 2016 Australian Paralympian of the Year due to his outstanding achievements at Rio.
Hannah Gadsby is an Australian comedian, writer, and actor. They began their career in Australia after winning the national final of the Raw Comedy competition for new comedians in 2006. In 2018, their show Nanette on Netflix won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and a Peabody Award.
Georgie Robertson Stone is an Australian actress, writer and transgender rights advocate. At the age of 11, Stone was the youngest person to receive hormone blockers in Australia, which set a precedent that eventually changed the law that compelled transgender children and their families to apply to the Family Court of Australia to access stage one treatment. She continues to advocate for transgender children, and is one of the most visible transgender people in Australia. She is also known for her role as Mackenzie Hargreaves in Neighbours.
Heather Ann Croall is an international arts festival CEO and artistic director and documentary producer, best known for leading Sheffield Doc/Fest and Adelaide Fringe, and her work on live music / archive films including The Big Melt, From the Sea to the Land Beyond, Girt By Sea, From Scotland With Love, Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise
Randy Feltface, mostly referred to merely as Randy or, on occasion, Randy the Purple Puppet, is an Australian puppet comedian. Randy is a fixture on the international stand-up circuit and makes regular guest appearances on Australian television. He also performs as one half of the musical comedy duo "Sammy J and Randy", who made their television sitcom debut in 2015 with Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane on ABC in Australia, for which Randy is credited as co-writer and lead actor. In 2019, Randy competed in the American reality television comedy competition series Bring the Funny, making it to the second round.
Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou. Their work spans numerous live shows, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a studio album, the Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, the ABC Australia series Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and the picture book Always Room for Christmas Pud.
Tilda Cobham-Hervey is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in 52 Tuesdays, a critically-acclaimed independent film directed by Sophie Hyde, and has also appeared on stage. She appeared in the 2020 film Hotel Mumbai, and starred as feminist icon Helen Reddy in the 2019 biopic I Am Woman. In 2023 she starred in the Amazon Prime TV series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.
You Can't Ask That is an Australian TV series created by ABC Television that first went to air in August 2016. As of June 2022 its seventh season is on air in Australia.
Kate McLennan is an Australian comedian, writer and actor. McLennan has performed in Australia and internationally, including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is known in Australia for her work on television and web series such as The Katering Show, Get Krack!n, The Mansion, and Deadloch (2023). She produces most of her work with Kate McCartney, which has led to their being dubbed the Kates.
Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer, and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2022. Her upcoming film Jimpa stars Olivia Colman and John Lithgow.
Mike Nayna is an Australian writer, director, and filmmaker.
Wrong Kind of Black, originally titled Maybe Today, is an Australian four-part comedy drama series released as a telemovie, web series, and on streaming services. It was created, written and narrated by the Aboriginal Australian author, storyteller, and inaugural Australian Children's Laureate (2012–2013), Boori Monty Pryor, on whose life it is based. It is directed by Catriona McKenzie.
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