Breaking Screen

We're joined on Breaking Screen by Vanilla Tupu, a director, writer and development manager who talks about takeaways from being in the development team at Wooden Horse; working across projects that bridge music, film and Pacific culture; and some crucial advice for any freelance creatives, but particularly emerging ones. In the music world, Vanilla has directed and produced acclaimed music videos for artists including BARKAA, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The DMAs, OneFour, and Egoism. Meanwhile in screen, she line-produced the Netflix documentary OneFour: Against All Odds, and directed the AACTA-nominated ABC series Bad Ancestors – which was the first Pacific-led project to be commissioned by a major Australian broadcaster.

We're joined by filmmaker Josh Sambono, a Jingili man who is known for his expertise in the action and horror genres, who talks about how his early training in sound recording influenced him as filmmaker, working as a director's attachment with Taika Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder, and how the years of effort, note-taking, small steps and seeming dead-ends all came together when he pitched to write his first episode of television on AMC+ series Firebite.  Josh has worked in writers' rooms with companies including Bunya Productions, Blackfella Films and See-Saw Films. His First Nations horror short Suspect premiered at BIFAN 2020, and won Best Australian Short at Sydney's A Night of Horror. He made his TV writing debut on the 2021 AMC+ vampire hunter series Firebite and was one of the six writers selected for the NCIS: SYDNEY S1 Script Department Program - he has since been working on season 2.

Award-winning screenwriter and director Yolanda Ramke joins this 'mini-break' episode of Breaking Screen - a shorter episode than usual - to talk about her methodical approach to writing Australian television and advice for writers and directors trying to get a foot in the industry.  Yolanda first found success when she wrote, and co-directed the 2013 viral short film Cargo with frequent collaborator Ben Howling. Yolanda and Ben then expanded Cargo into their feature film debut of the same name, which was produced by Causeway Films, starred Martin Freeman, and was the first Australian Netflix Original narrative feature film. The pair also co-directed two episodes of the Netflix series The Haunting Of Bly Manor, created by Mike Flanagan. And in recent years Yolanda was creator, executive producer, a writer and co-director on the ABC series Troppo (which also had a second season in 2024) and she has slate of feature film and TV projects in development.

We're joined on Breaking Screen by Monica Zanetti - an award-winning screenwriter and director, who talks about how she shifts between working on her own IP or being a gun for hire on film and television, her writing and directing process, how being a Catherine Hardwicke fan led her to filmmaking, and why the Notes app has become a crucial part of development. Monica is the co-creator of the SBS series While The Men Away, of which she directed the bottle episode. Monica also wrote and directed the film Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt) which was based on her stage play of the same name. The film won the 2021 AACTA award for Best Independent Film and is now playing on Netflix. She was nominated for an Australian Directors' Guild award for her work on the SBS series Iggy & Ace, and her earlier work includes writing on the Netflix series Sisters and the Acorn series My Life Is Murder.

We're joined on Breaking Screen by Charles Williams, an acclaimed Australian film director, writer, and producer, who talks about what winning the short film Palme d'Or in 2018 meant to him, how the films he grew up watching inspired his debut feature Inside, and how his work in short filmmaking prepared him when it came to directing a feature. Charles has won more than 60 international awards, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Short Film Palme d'Or for All These Creatures. Charles then made his feature debut with Inside, which had its world premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival, was selected for Tribeca Film Festival, released theatrically in February via Bonsai Films, and is available to rent or buy now through Apple TV. Charles won the AWGIE Award for Best Original Screenplay for Inside and the Betty Roland Prize for scriptwriting at the NSW Literary Awards. Inside follows a young man who's transferred from a juvenile to adult prison, where he's taken under the wing of both Australia's most despised criminal (played by Cosmo Jarvis), and a soon-to-be-paroled inmate (played by Guy Pearce).

We're joined on Breaking Screen by writer Melissa Lee Speyer, who talks about what her time as both a lawyer and development executive taught her about writing, how to interpret notes, her writing process, why her career path hasn't been a linear one, and much more. Melissa's credits include episodes of television series The Heights for Matchbox Pictures and season two of Random and Whacky and forREAL! for Ambience Entertainment. Her theatre credits include 2018's Ticktickboomwhich won the 2015 Silver Gull Play Award, as well as plays A Christmas Carol and Trade. As well as being a writer, Mel spent four years as a development executive, working at Screen Australia and within a production company. She is a graduate of both NIDA's Playwriting course, and AFTRS Master of Arts in Screenwriting and was the 2017 recipient of the Foxtel Diversity Scholarship.

We're joined on Breaking Screen by Sam Meikle, a writer and creator with hundreds of hours of produced credits that range from television comedies, dramas, animation, and web series. Sam was a co-creator, head writer, and Executive Producer of the 2022 ABC/Netflix series MaveriX and the previous year he was a writer, executive producer and co-showrunner of the series Wakefield for the ABC, BBC Studios and Showtime. Sam was also selected in 2023 to take part in The Creators, the inaugural showrunning program from Screen Australia and the Australian Writers' Guild. Throughout the episode, Sam talks to everything from the importance of knowing your writing strengths, his advice of taking ideas to markets, why Australian writers are like Swiss Army Knives and what some of the challenges and opportunities are for local screenwriters in 2025.

This episode of Breaking Screen features Maria Lewis, a best-selling author, screenwriter, and film curator who has an Encyclopaedic knowledge of pop culture and genre specifically. After starting out as a journalist, Maria has gone on to write eleven books (including novels for Marvel and Assassin's Creed), win an AWGIE for her podcast The Phantom Never Dies which was produced by Nova Entertainment, write and direct the short film The House That Hungers and is now in development writing her feature The Black Talons. Maria talks to everything from making the shift into screenwriting, submitting 101 applications, writing genre films, being strategic about social media, and much more.

The first episode of Breaking Screen features Yingna Lu of Spaceboy Studios, a creative producer who discusses everything from festival strategies for short films, to her advice when it comes to applying for grants and initiatives, and different takeaways from producing online series, short films, television and features. Yingna has worked across a variety of formats - on online projects including the Instagram and Tik Tok series Love Bug, short films such as Voice Activated which premiered at Tribeca, television series including the second season of ABC's The PM's Daughter and films like the currently-in-development feature Keep Walking, which is supported by Screen NSW's Short to Feature Fast Track initiative. Yingna and Steve Anthopoulos co-founded Spaceboy Studios, which was a recipient of Screen Australia Enterprise funding in 2023.