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Even though the focus of this website is the independent filmmakers that exist in Melbourne, I think it is only fair to try and at least acknowledge some of the indie filmmakers in other Australian cities.
This page here is a listing of Adelaide filmmakers.
As with the Melbourne page, this is a list of indie / experimental / avantgarde filmmakers, not mainstream ones.
A special Thank You to Mike Retter for compiling the info on this page, on original release, Dec 2017
(all the ones marked "Note by Mike Retter")
The entries marked NEW have been added in 2023/2024.
If you'd like someone listed here, please email
me.
Bill
Mousoulis
See also the Sydney page
See also the Other Australian page
Kay Azadegan - One of the most generous figures in the South Australian film landscape, Kay has worked in every facet of production and mentored many of the up-and-coming filmmakers for several generations. A veteran of community TV production with thousands of completed programs under his belt. Kay has starred in Academy-Award nominated short Azadi and the most recent 16mm work by Jeremy Nicholas. But most of all, he has a motivating spirit and has been an important mentor for many young filmmakers. (Note by Mike Retter)
Stephen Banham - Banham's film Adelaide (2009) is the cockiest and most youthful of debut features. It captures youthfulness as well as such energy being inherent to the production. Written and starring the director, Adelaide is a un-selfconscious middle-class meditation and a rare digital feature from its generation. Stephen has since made short films and a web series for SBS. (Note by Mike Retter)
Matthew Bate - One of the team at Closer Productions (along with Sophie Hyde, see her entry below), Bate has made a number of short films and documentaries since 2000. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Gabriel Bath NEW - Flinders Uni student who has made a number of short films already. Specialising in off-the-wall humour, has also made a great (mini) feature called Ships That Bear (2023). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Sue Brown/Ursula Dabrowsky - Sue Brown is a Canadian born screenwriter, director and producer based in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, whose focus is on creating elevated genre films for a worldwide audience. To date, she has produced two award-winning feature films: the psychological horror film, Family Demons (2009), and the abduction horror film, Inner Demon (2015). Written and directed under the pseudonym, Ursula Dabrowsky, both features have garnered accolades from film critics, won awards on the film festival circuit, screened at prestigious genre film festivals including London’s Frightfest and Spain’s Sitges International Film Festival, and are currently being distributed worldwide by IFM Films and Terror Films respectively. (Note supplied by Sue Brown)
Susan Bruce - Long-standing artist, working in collage and drawings, she has made a number of experimental short films/installations since 2000. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Tim Carlier NEW - Flinders Uni graduate whose youthful debut feature Paco (2023) has landed with a splash at festivals in 2024 (Rotterdam World Premiere, followed by Australian festivals). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Allison Chhorn - Filmmaker with a visual arts and musical background. She has premiered short experimental work such as Close-ups in Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) 9:16 (2015) and the feature film Youth On The March in AFF (2017). Feature films Stanley's Mouth and Youth On The March were shot vertically and made in collaboration with Mike Retter. Allison's work usually has strong emphasis on sound, either through pure silence in Close-ups, or dense sound-design in Youth On the March. (Note by Mike Retter)
More recently, Allison's mini feature The Plastic House (2020) had success in festivals internationally, and she has also made more short films and done installation work. (Update by Bill Mousoulis)
Dick Dale - Dick has been making short trashy horrors and black comedies since 1993. Dick created Trasharama-agogo in 1997 and showcases a lot of underground splatter-films. It's an event with a cult following that crosses over into the punk scene. (Note by Mike Retter)
Dick's major feature film project, Ribspreader, was released in 2022. (Update by Bill Mousoulis)
Lara Damiani - Committed and enthusiastic politically and community-driven documentary filmmaker who has made various films since 2005, shooting in countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bougainville and all around Australia. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Kyle Davis - Flinders Uni graduate in 2018, he directed, in collaboration with other Flinders Uni students, the low-budget narrative feature Dry Winter (2019). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Paul Dangerfield - Originally from Brisbane, where he made his first feature film Performance Anxiety (2008), Paul and long-time producer Colin Pierce, have set up production in Adelaide where they produced and premiered Hand Grenade at the Feast Festival 2016. Their films mostly concern human relationships and sexuality. (Note by Mike Retter)
Rolf de Heer - Rolf is now based in Tasmania but his continued involvement and legacy in Adelaide is still felt every day. The artistic break-out feature Bad Boy Bubby (1993) was a ten year writing process that became one of Australia's most classic and distinctive films. Both a mainstream classic with sincere heart and a highly experimental film in terms of sound and picture. Highly controversial for its content but greatly loved for its humour and redemption, a classic of world cinema with European cult following. Rolf is also notable for a long and successful career as an auteur with prizes in Venice, Cannes and the silver medallion at Teluride Film Festival. The Tracker (2002) and Ten Canoes (2006) have quickly become classic films. But he's still sought out by micro-budget filmmakers as a mentor because of his experience, pragmatic methodologies and honest approach to filmmaking. (Note by Mike Retter)
Sebastien Deverson NEW - Young indie filmmaker based in the Adelaide Hills, he has made a number of short films around psychological and philosophical themes, including God is Dead (2022). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Juniper Dew NEW - Flinders Uni student who has made a number of formally inventive short films. Dew shows great promise, as evinced by her hallucinatory short film Therefore, Mort (2023). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Toby Feakin NEW - Young indie filmmaker who has made a number of short films, he recently completed his first (mini) feature, the inventive sci-fi/horror film Duplicity Strife (2022). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Alex Frayne - Flinders Uni graduate in the '90s, who directed a number of short films from 1993 to 2003, and then directed his debut feature in 2006, the acclaimed genre film Modern Love. Since then, he has shifted his attention to the art of photography, with great productivity and recognition. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Slavi Gaitt - Flinders Uni graduate, he has directed a great short film in 2020 called Gammon. Has worked with Kyle Davis (see above) on the feature Dry Winter. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Ian Gibbins NEW - Experienced scientist who has turned his skill to video art in his retirement, since 2015. He has made numerous award-winning short poetry films and experimental films in this time. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Nicholas Godfrey - Director of Adelaide no-budget feature film World Of Things (2013, unfinished). Though incredibly raw and rough, World Of Things is one of the most distinctive and minimalist debut features from Adelaide. Godfrey has also made the punk-rock short documentary Hooray For Anything (2008). He is a Lecturer at Flinders University. (Note by Mike Retter)
Wayne Groom - Writer/Director/Producer of the noted indie feature Maslin Beach in 1996, Groom has either written or produced or directed various films from 1979 until today, including the features Centrespread (1981) and The Dreaming (1988), and the TV documentaries Tomorrow's Sun (1999) and Runnning on Sunshine (2004). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Max Hammerstein NEW - One of the exciting young filmmakers championed by the new indie film collective, Moviejuice, at their inaugural screening in March 2023. The moody half-hour Crossways (2023) is an impressive film. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Peter Hanlon - Film student from the 1980s, it has been only just recently that Hanlon has been actively directing films, including the interesting doco-fiction hybrid feature Atlantis, Iceland (2017, shot in Iceland). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Margaret Haselgrove - Adelaide-based writer/director and producer since the 1980s. Independent films include the partly-dramatized feature documentary Patterns (1986), and self-funded experimental film Replay (1998). Also several political and community docos & dramas while resident filmmaker at Co Media (community media production house) in the late ‘80s to early ‘90s. Currently (2023) developing an arthouse feature. (Note supplied by Margaret Haselgrove)
Emma Hough Hobbs NEW - A Flinders graduate, Hobbs is a young animator with a number of shorts behind her, such as the charming On Film (2022). Her debut feature (co-directed with Leela Varghese) Lesbian Space Princess was released in 2024. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Sophie Hyde - One of Adelaide's most visible indie cum mainstream directors currently, Hyde started making short films and documentaries in 2005, and has made a couple of features in recent years such as 52 Tuesdays (2013) and Animals (2019). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Laura Kennedy - Flinders University graduate in 2019 who made the brilliant music clip "Crippling Depression". One to watch. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Saara Lamberg -
Finnish-Australian actress since 2005, has made her own short films since 2013, and also two features Innuendo (2017) and Westermarck Effect (2022). Based between Adelaide and Melbourne. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Cole Larsen - Now deceased (2019), Larsen was a Flinders Uni lecturer, and worked with Peter Hanlon (see above), he directed the one feature Double Happiness Uranium (2003). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Alice Maio Mackay - Young (born in 2004) and dynamic trans horror filmmaker, Mackay has already made a handful of short films and two features: So Vam (2021) and Bad Girl Boogey (2022). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Dušan Marek - Migrant who arrived in Adelaide from Czechoslavakia in 1948, and who made a number of short films and a couple of features up until the early '70s, in roughly an experimental / animation / surrealist mode, with some of those films made in Adelaide (others were made in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart). Was also an accompished artist. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Shane McNeil - Shane has directed several features including the low-budget sci-fi thriller The 13th House (2003) and the TAFE acting school project Meanwhile akin to the work of Mike Leigh. As a former Media Resource Centre head of production and Flinders lecturer, Shane has been a large figure in Adelaide screen education and mentoring. But to this point, he has had his greatest artistic success as a co-producer of one of the best Australian films of its its decade - Boxing Day (2007) . A career breakthrough for director Kriv Stenders, Boxing Day is a touchstone for Australian digital cinema. Shane is working on a new ambitious project based on a critically acclaimed novel. (Note by Mike Retter)
Jeremy Nicholas - Graduate of Flinders University, Jeremy Nicholas works predominately with 16mm film and non-traditional narratives. His work is strikingly European and echoes the alienation of Antonioni and early Haneke. (Note by Mike Retter)
Emma Northey - Known as part of the collaboration Northey-Roedel with her partner Stephen Roedel, Emma is an experimental filmmaker with festival credits such as best work at AFF 9:16 (2015) with Code-breaker. Emma uses lo-fi in-camera techniques to achieve certain visual effects, used in conjunction with her partner Stephen's glitchy sound-design. (Note by Mike Retter)
The Philippou Brothers - Hailing from Salisbury in the Adelaide Northern suburbs and Graduates from MAPS film school, Michael and Danny are perhaps the most successful Adelaide independent filmmakers of their generation. They have incorporated impressive CGI into hand-held home-movie style footage to bring super heroes and their super-powers into the real world. An international You Tube phenomenon with their Versus series and barely out of their teens. (Note by Mike Retter)
The brothers released their debut feature Talk to Me in 2023. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Jordy Pollock NEW - Flinders Uni graduate who has made his first feature film Wabi Sabi Rendezvous in 2024. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Mike Retter - Creator of Adelaide's 9:16 Film Festival (vertical cinema), Mike is a passionate advocate of indie cinema, encouraging filmmakers to make films with their spirit, rather than worry about funding bodies. He himself has has made 2 striking features (in the 9:16 format, in collaboration with Allison Chorn) with minimal funds: Stanley's Mouth (2015) and Youth on the March (2017). He is currently (2023) in post-production of a 3rd feature, Clair de Lune. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Murali K. Thalluri - Adelaide's most controversial filmmaker. His debut feature 2:37 (2006) was made entirely independently and made him one of the youngest directors to be selected for Cannes Film Festival. But controversy quickly arose regarding the authenticity of the alleged true events that inspired the film and its similarity to Gus Van Sandt's Elephant. So in the small town of Adelaide, he has become a divisive figure. But whatever the separation of fact from fiction, Murali proved himself to be a force of nature to achieve what he did with his first film 2:37. A big budget sci-fi called ONE has been in the works for almost ten years but is yet to materialise. (Note by Mike Retter)
Anne Tsoulis - Long-time writer and script editor, Tsoulis has directed two notable feature-length documentaries in the 2010s, These Heathen Dreams (2014) and From Under the Rubble (2017). (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Daniel Tune NEW - Flinders Uni student who is part of the film collective moviejuice, and also a critic and filmmaker himself. Strong debut feature Malls released in 2025. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
Pete Williams - Born in Adelaide, he has made TV commercials for over 10 years in London and Los Angeles, but recently has branched out into short films and one independent political feature documentary The New Breed (2020). Now based back in Adelaide, and released narrative feature Emotion is Dead in 2023. (Note by Bill Mousoulis)
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