Acting/Directing
"To successfully direct actors we first need an intuitive and intellectual awareness of our own emotions and what triggers them. Then we have to explore what we want to say through the story and communicate that clearly to the actors, who have to translate this into the performance, which reveals what we want to say to the audience. It’s all about communicating effectively." Says Werner Meyer - Director
Ben Ferris
Ben Ferris studied Latin and Classical Greek at the University of Sydney, winning both the Salting Exhibition and Coopers Scholarship. In 1998 he graduated with First Class Honours after reconstructing the surviving fragments of the “Alexandros”, a play by the Athenian tragedian, Euripides.
Ben was the Director of the UBS Film School at the University of Sydney from 2000 – 2004, and in 2004 he was one of the founding partners of the Sydney Film School where he is currently Director.
Ben is a film writer / director / producer with Australian production company Artemis Projects. A pioneer of the global resurgence in “one take” cinema, Ben’s film “The Kitchen” screened alongside “Russian Ark” at the Inaugural One Take Film Festival held in Zagreb, Croatia in 2003. In 2004 he went on to win the Grand Prix at the same festival for his film “Ascension”. In 2006 he was invited back as an international jury member.
His film “The Kitchen”, which also screened at the prestigious L’Etrange Film Festival in Paris in 2004, attracted international critical acclaim by winning the Grand Prix at the Inaugural Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Festival held in Tokyo in 2005. It was selected for the 20th Singapore International Film Festival in April 2007. In 2007 “The Kitchen” had a theatrical release in Tokyo and worldwide DVD distribution.
Ben’s feature film “Penelope”, the first Australia-Croatia co-production, was released in Croatia in 2009 and in Australia in 2010, and in 2011 has received worldwide release on DVD. “Penelope” screened at the One Take Film Festival and 56th Pula Film Festival in Croatia, the Sydney Underground Film Festival and Australian Film Festival in Australia, and won the Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival in 2010.
In his capacity as Director of Sydney Film School he has also Executive Produced a host of award-winning student short films and documentaries, and in 2009 the multi-award winning Australian feature film “Three Blind Mice”
Kim Mordaunt
Kim Mordaunt is represented as a director/writer by RGM, widely regarded as Australia’s top director agent. He is a graduate of the film and video production degree at UTS, and a diploma in acting/drama at one of the UK’s top drama schools, LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).
He has made highly acclaimed award-winning dramas and long-form documentaries for theatrical release and for ABC TV, SBS TV and Discovery, funded by Screen Australia, NSW Film & TV Office, Film Finance Corporation and the Sundance Fund. They have all received Pick of the Day of Thumbs Up from the Herald/Australian when screened on Australian TV. Kim has either been nominated or won awards from AFI, Directors Guild, IF Awards, Critics Circle, Atom, Activist (Hollywood – Best Feature, Children’s Rights) and numerous other local and international awards.
After directing Mongrel’s Ghost (15min drama, FTO, YFF) which won numerous awards and screened at prestiges international festivals, he directed Jammin’ in the Middle E, (1 hour drama, AFC, FTO and SBSI) which was called “priceless” by the Sydney Morning Herald, and “revealing, delightful, beguiling, brilliant” by The Australian. His first feature length film, Bomb Harvest (88 min) screened theatrically around Australia after a standing ovation at Sydney Film Festival. It received 4 stars by David Stratton - At The Movies, Empire and The Movie Show and screened on ABC (55 min version), to great critical acclaim. It has screened at festivals around the world and sold to TV in over 20 countries.
He has three feature dramas in development: Pink Mist, inspired by Bomb Harvest, as director and co-writer (producers Tristram Miall and Sylvia Wilczynski); Mount Warning as writer/director, which has received 2 rounds of development from Screen NSW; and The Rocket, as writer/director, producer Sylvia Wilczynski (E.P, Bridget Ikin) with assistance from Screen Australia which will be shot end of 2011.
Leslie Oliver
Leslie Oliver attained a BA in Art from Alexander Mackie College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales and a BA in Film & Television Directing (with recognition in Editing) from the Australian Film Television and Radio School.
In 1986 Leslie was a student, Academy Award nominee as writer/director of the graduation film Tennis Court Opera. The film was also commended at the St Kilda Film Festival and played at Melbourne International Film Festival.
Leslie was writer/director on You Can’t Push The River, an Australian Film Commission funded feature. The film was a finalist at Mannheim/Heidelberg International Film Festival – Germany, and screened at numerous other international film festivals to critical acclaim.
Leslie worked in the industry as a director, editor and consultant and went on to establish filmmaking at St Aloysius College where his students won national film awards. As a sculptor, Leslie has attracted numerous corporate and private commissions, had 16 solo exhibitions, been included in over 40 group shows in Australia and abroad and lectured at the Australian Catholic University. He also lectured in writing and directing for Screen in the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney. Leslie was part of the team that established the UBS Film School (1994-2004) at the University of Sydney.
