Guests
2012 program detailed below. The 2013 Gold Coast Film Festival will be announced in October!
In 2012, we're pulling out the biggest Gold Coast Film Festival EVER! Running over ten full days - from April 19th to the 29th - this year's festival promises a veritable feast of film, art and industry seminars, all set against a colourful popculture backdrop!
While we are still working out the finer points of this year's phenomenal program, we can now announce a few very special guests...
Alan Dean Foster - Writing Master Class
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He’s adapted Star Wars and Alien, he wrote Star Trek, he’s producing a feature film of Spellsinger and his Commonwealth series is a cornerstone of science fiction literature. Now Alan Dean Foster will make a special guest appearance at the 2012 Gold Coast Film Festival, where he will hold a master class for emerging film talent. Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as Star Wars, the first three Alien films, Alien Nation, The Chronicles of Riddick, Star Trek, Terminator:Salvation, and both Transformers films. Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first Star Trek movie. His novel Shadowkeep was the first ever book adaptation of an original computer game. In addition to publication in English his work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so. He is the recipient of the Faust, the IAMTW Lifetime achievement award. Foster was also credited for the story of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and he will participate in a Q&A session at the end of a special screening of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on original 35mm print to be held during the film festival. Foster has also written the fantasy series Spellsinger, about a young musician who is transported into a land of talking creatures where his music allows him to cast magic. He is currently in pre production on a feature film adaptation of Spellsinger with Australian producer Trevor Howis. Foster will be discussing his plans for the new film during his appearances at the Gold Coast Film Festival and Gold Coast Supanova Pop Culture Expo, both in April 2012.
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Trevor Howis - Australian Producer
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Trevor Howis is an Australian writer and producer. He was the first Australian entrant in the Docfest pitching forum in New Zealand. He is currently the head of development for David Hannay, one of Australia's oldest and most respected producers, and is developing a number of projects including an 80's rock adventure with Actress/Producer Joanne Samuel (Mad Max), a revenge slasher with Brian Trenchard Smith (Turkey Shoot) and a noirish TV Drama with acclaimed director Tony Tilse (Underbelly). Trevor has been a strong supporter of The Gold Coast Film Festival since 2009.
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Shane Rangi - Actor
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Hailing from Ngati Porou in this north island of New Zealand, at a young age Shane had to make the tough decision to choose between his passion for rugby and acting. He chose the latter and was accepted into New Zealand Drama School (Toi Whakaari), which was followed by several years in theatre. It was not until The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that Shane made his breakthrough in film, but his career has seen him take part in some of the most popular movies of the last decade, including all three Lord of the Rings films and The Chronicles of Narnia series. Shane also has vast experience as a motion capture performer and stuntman, working on such productions as Tintin, Avatar, King Kong and X-Men: The Last Stand. His performance in the gritty and brilliant Spartacus: Gods of the Arena has become a fan favourite. Shane plays Dagan, a slave brought into the House of Batiatus along with Ashur and Crixus. A prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Gods of the Arena tells of the first champion of the gladiatorial pit.
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James Bridges - Head of Movies at FOXTEL on Demand
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James Bridges has been with FOXTEL’s On Demand movie service since it launched as FOXTEL Box Office in March, 2004. Mr. Bridges started his media career in 1994 as Programming Manager for TNT & Cartoon Network Hong Kong, editorialising their classic movie service, TNT, for Asia. Since then, he has developed his extensive knowledge of the international television industry at major networks such as STAR TV, MTV and Discovery Networks, in Asia, the UK and Australia. With a primary focus on acquisitions, programming, and IPTV strategy across TVOD and catch up movies, Mr. Bridges' experience has also spanned the arenas of marketing, development, production, interactivity and the oversight of some 5 service launches. Currently he serves as Head of Movies for FOXTEL On Demand, overseeing the programming and operations teams as well as the acquisition of VOD content for the PPV and IP delivered services. |
Richard Sheffield - Pinnacle Films
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Richard has spent all but four years of his working life in the motion picture industry. While he has spent a large part of this time in film distribution, he has also been involved extensively in buying rights to films, feature film production, home entertainment distribution and television sales. He has worked for 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Greater Union Organisation and for eight years in the 1970s was United Artists General Manager for New Zealand and the South Pacific. In 1987, he was instrumental in setting up a Film Distribution division within the Becker Organisation, a company who up until that time was involved solely in television production and sales. Highlights of his years with Becker’s include the successful launch of REP film distribution label, securing the rights to FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (grossing over A$23,000,000 at the Australian and New Zealand box office) and developing and producing GROSS MISCONDUCT starring Naomi Watts and Jimmy Smits. While at Becker’s, Richard was also involved in the development of several other productions from script stage. These included, HAWKS (England), BAD INFLUENCE (USA), APARTMENT ZERO (Argentina), SCORCHERS (USA) and REAL MACAW (Australia). Richard relocated to the Gold Coast in June 2010 to launch a new film distribution company, Pinnacle Films. Pinnacle Films is a division of All Interactive Distribution. |
Carlos Alperin - Producer - Galloping Films
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Carlos is a scriptwriter, editor, director and producer of documentaries, animation and feature films with extensive international experience. In the 1990’s he wrote, directed and produced episodes of the animated series “Cosmo Kids” (Monte Miller Award) and “The Pup Pups” developed with Scottish TV. In 2002 Carlos founded Galloping Films as a production and sales agency company. In 2005 he wrote and produced the multi-award winning documentary “Raul the Terrible” directed by David Bradbury. In 2009 he produced the thriller “ICU” directed by Aash Aaron (Gold Coast) and in 2010 the comedy “The Cost Of Living” directed by Veronica Craven (United States). In 2011 he acted as Co-Producer of the Aash Aaron’s psychological thriller 3:33 now in post production. Since 1994 Carlos participated at more than 60 international markets where he has been licensing his catalog of documentaries, feature films and TV programs from 70 international independent production companies. In 2010 Carlos joined forces with Roham Ghodsi and founded Galloping Illusions, a production and finance company. Carlos is one of the producers of the upcoming action/adventure films “Dances with Werewolves”, The Heart of a Spy and Thomas Edison Demon Hunter. In 2011 he signed for the provision of gap finance and cash flow for “The Treehouse” a €8.2m film with Jeremy Irons. |
Pam Collis - Producer - Silver Wings Films Pty Ltd
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Pam Collis's exploration into the film industry started in 1990, when she combined her analytical and scientific skills with the vision and artistry of producing and managing TVC's, corporates and documentaries nationally across Australia.
She followed this as line producer and post-production supervisor at the 2006 IF and AFi nominated films '48 Shades' and was associate producer of the chilling 2007 teen thriller 'Acolytes', another critically acclaimed Australian independent feature.
In 2007, Pam joined the Limelight team, line producing 'Goblin Shark Attack' (formerly Malibu Shark), 'Beauty and the Beast', Sinbad and the Minotaur and children's TV series 'K-9'. |
Jack McCoy - Australian Director and Surf Film Icon
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Jack McCoy is an internationally revered surfing cinematographer and director responsible for some of the most beloved and respected surf films ever made. Famous for films such as Storm Riders, The Green Iguana and Blue Horizon, McCoy will hold a conversational session discussing his career, his passion for the surf and cinema, and what those who wish to follow in his footsteps can to do achieve their goals on the morning of Saturday, the 28th of April. Later in the evening he will screen the Australian premiere of the director’s cut of his latest film, A Deeper Shade of Blue, and hold a Q&A for fans.
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