We are thrilled to announce the members of the ReelOzInd! Jury for 2024. They include Australian and Indonesian filmmakers, actors, artists, musicians and creatives with a wealth of talent and experience in their fields.
Arian Pearson is director and head studio engineer at The Mulka Project where he works with a wide range of local artists across three generations. A crucial part of his job is to record song lines of the elders remotely and in the studio. He produces sound designs for many of The Mulka Projects exhibitions and films and works closely with school groups from Yirrkala as well as hosting workshops in the Mulka Studio. Arian has produced local artists and bands such as Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu and other up and coming artists. He is also a musician himself and is co-founder of the band East Journey. Arian works with film makers and videographers working with Yolŋu cultural content and supports them with linking people and place, mainly in East Arnhem Land. Arian is currently a member of MusicNT and is acting Chairman, Bawaka Corporation Vice Chair, and is the Co-founder and Director of Bush Music Fund.
Asmara Abigail is an emerging Indonesian actress. Her first feature film Setan Jawa (2016), was directed by the maestro of Indonesian cinema, Garin Nugroho. Asmara has since worked with directors including Indonesia’s multi-awarded, Joko Anwar and Yosep Anggi Noen. Asmara starred in Noen’s The Science of Fictions (2019) which received the Special Jury Prize in the International Competition Locarno Film Festival 2019. She was nominated for the first time in Best Supporting Actress category in the 2020 Indonesian Film Festival, for her portrayal of Santi in Adriyanto Dewo’s Mudik (Homecoming, 2019). Her works have been shown and competed in several prestigious international film festivals, such as Locarno, Toronto, Sundance, Venice, Palm Springs and Busan. Asmara’s portrayal of Zahara in Stone Turtle directed by Woo Ming Jin, saw her nominated for Best Actress at the 75th Locarno International Film Festival 2022. She won the Penjor Award for Southeast Asian Feature Best Actress at the Bali Makarya Film Festival 2022. In 2023, she was chosen to participate in Berlinale Talents 2023 – Acting Studio led by Jean-Louis Rodrigue and Kristof Konrad.
Caley Jowers is a Melbourne-based producer with experience creating content for TV, online, and radio. Caley has a combination of production-house and advertising agency experience, from working at a creative global agency to now directing and producing at a PR / Content agency in Melbourne, Enthral. Being a creative producer at heart, Caley has an eye for detail and design, producing work for a range of commercial clients.
Dery Prananda is a filmmaker and musician based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Alongside his work as a director and line producer on local independent film productions in Indonesia, he teaches film production at several colleges in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. In 2017, Dery graduated from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Surakarta. His short film, Amelis, was selected by various film festivals in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Germany, and Argentina. The film was awarded Best Film at the ReelOzInd! Australia Indonesia Short Film Festival in 2016. Dery’s characters often come to life on the big screen inspired by his everyday experiences. Dery’s filmmaking style is heavily influenced by the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Garin Nugroho.
Emmanuela Shinta is a Dayak leader, activist, environmentalist, filmmaker and writer with a reputation for leading and empowering young indigenous people. Her expertise is youth environmental activism and indigenous digital storytelling. She has trained over 180 indigenous young filmmakers and mobilized a youth movement to tackle forest fires in Kalimantan. Over the past eight years she has produced more than 20 films. Emmanuela is the founder of the Ranu Welum Foundation, the International Indigenous Film Festival Network and the Alive Global Ministry. She is a member of the board directors of the Indigenous Education Foundation. In her memoir Me, Modernism, and My Indigenous Roots (2019), Emmanuela tells her story as an indigenous woman in the midst of industrialization and environmental destruction and details her journey to activism. She is regularly invited to speak at high level fora internationally to bring the voices of indigenous communities in Indonesia to global audiences. She has worked with the UN as an advisor, expert and speaker. A documentary about her activism, Fire Beneath Her (2024), recently screened on Al Jazeera.
Juliet Burnett is Indonesian-Australian and one of Australia’s most recognised dancers after her years at The Australian Ballet (2002-2015). After 13 years there she left to pursue a freelance career, working with contemporary choreographers such as Melanie Lane and guesting with Chunky Move, Dutch National Ballet and West Australian Ballet. In 2016 she moved to Europe to dance with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Belgium. In 2022 she returned to Australia as a freelance artist and is based on Kombumerri-Yugambeh country (Gold Coast). In 2022, Juliet founded A__PART, a non-profit platform connecting Australian and Indonesian artists and communities. Juliet’s work in Indonesia includes performance, master classes and in 2015 founding a series of community workshops for underprivileged children in collaboration with Ballet.Id and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Juliet has trained in Javanese classical dance, and other traditional Indonesian dances and art forms including the martial art of Pencak Silat. Juliet has worked as an actor, in Indonesian director Garin Nugroho’s silent movie ‘Samsara’ (2024) and in a play adaptation of ‘Petroesjka’ for the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Her accolades include nomination as Most Outstanding Dancer by Dance Europe 2018, and Winner, Arts and Culture category of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards 2021.
Martin Wilson is an internationally awarded Australian film director and writer with a career in television, commercial and film spanning 25 years. His debut feature film Great White released in 2021 through Universal Pictures, was named on the New York Times top 5 streamed films in July that year. In 2022 he was nominated for a 2022 Australian Directors’ Guild Award for Best Direction in Narrative Feature Film (Budget under $1m) for his second feature, PIECES. Martin is co-founder of Perth-based film production company Third Storey Pictures and in 2024 will partner with Fremantle Indonesia to develop a horror feature as part of the Australia – Indonesia Fast Track Initiative.
Nurabdiansyah (Abi) is a lecturer, researcher, graphic designer, creative director, and curator in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Abi is a lecturer at the Department of Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Universitas Negeri Makassar (DKV FSD UNM). Abi has been involved in various art activities based on and visual storytelling development in Makassar, Indonesia, including the documentary project connecting Indigenous Australian and Macassan artists, Trading Cultures (2022), produced by the Australia-Indonesia Centre. In 2018 he founded the Macassan Arts, Research and Global Encounters (MAREGE) Institute. In collaboration with Global Encounters Monash University, Abi has focused on visual research related to historic maritime relations between seafarers from Makassar and indigenous Australians in the past, especially Macassan visual symbols in Aboriginal artwork. In 2023 he was awarded an Asialink Fellowship at the University of Melbourne.
