Team

Bronwyn Kidd, Flickerfest Director

Bronwyn has been at the helm of Flickerfest for 28 years since 1997 and has extensive experience in festival programming, tour programming, tour implementation and marketing and distribution of short films across the festival and other broadcast and non broadcast platforms.

Bronwyn executive produced four series Of Flickerfest On Extra for the Movie Network Channel, produced a series of short film programmes and workshops across the ASEAN region in 2020 in partnership with the Australian government and also the Australian Shorts programme for the 2022 World Expo Dubai. Bronwyn also curated a collection of 49 films celebrating Flickerfest’s 30th birthday that streamed on SBS On Demand in 2021.

She was on the board for over 15 years of the International Short film conference (ISFC) from 2000 to 2015. Bronwyn has been a member of many respected international juries such as the Drama Short Film Festival in Greece, World Wide Short Film Festival in Toronto and Grimstad in Norway.

A documentary filmmaker passionate about social justice issues Bronwyn’s writer/director credits include one hour documentaries ‘Walking With My Sisters’ and ‘Beachballs’, both of which broadcast on SBS TV.

Shane Rennie, Flickerfest Production & Tour Manager

Shane Rennie headshot

Shane has been the production manager of Flickerfest since 2000 and is now involved in all areas of festival production, web population, technical presentation and festival photography.

Shane has also been on the Flickerfest programming team since the early 2000s.

He has attended many short film festivals & markets around the world screening films for Flickerfest consideration, including Palm Springs Short Film Festival & Market, Toronto Short Film Festival & Market, Hiroshima Animation Festival, Drama Film Festival Greece, Norwegian Film Festival Grimstad, Cork Film Festival Ireland, Cinema Jove Valencia Spain.

He has also been on panels & juries at festivals in Byron Bay, New Zealand & Vanuatu.

He has been coordinating the National Tour since 2005, working directly with tour venues to establish dates, programme suggestions, media and online strategies and logistics that assist with all areas of tour presentation.

Elie Zaragoza, Flickerfest Coordinator

Elie, who now calls the beautiful Northern Rivers of NSW home, has always had a deep passion for the arts and the way they bring people together. Growing up in the dynamic community of St Kilda, Elie had the wonderful opportunity to work as the Festivals Administrator for both the St Kilda Film Festival and the St Kilda Festival. These roles really highlighted the transformative power of cinema and the importance of creating connections through shared artistic experiences.

Elie’s background in festival administration has provided a solid foundation in event coordination, stakeholder communication, marketing, and logistical planning. Elie truly thrives in creative, collaborative environments where every voice is heard and valued.

Inspired by Flickerfest’s mission to celebrate storytelling and champion diverse voices, Elie finds being a part of such a mission-driven organisation to be a dream come true.

Leigh Russell, FlickerUp Coordinator / Flickerfest Industry & Jury Liaison

Leigh Russell headshot

Leigh joined us at Flickerfest in 2015 as coordinator of the Jury, and Programmer of the SAE FlickerUp National Youth competition, and returns for 2023.

She is the co-founder of Film in Revolt, a platform for youth in Australia to explore film.

Leigh was on the jury for the 2017/2018/2019 SAE ATOM Awards and has been on the selection committee for Flickerfest, the 2018/2019/2020 Scout Film Festival and the 21st WOW Film Festival.

Leigh has a background in arts administration and a passion for producing community initiatives and graduated with a Bachelor of Communication – Media Major from Griffith University.

Leigh has a background in arts administration and a passion for producing community initiatives.

Amy Hoogenboom, Flickerfest International Programming Team

Amy Hoogenboom headshot

Amy completed a Bachelor of Media with a Screen major at Southern Cross University and followed it up with a Certificate IV in Screen & Media at TAFE.  From there she developed a love for making documentaries, often as a one woman show and also for photography.

She was Production Secretary on the ABC TV Series 8MMM Aboriginal Radio and has made a bunch of short films & documentaries and is always on the lookout for great documentary ideas!

Amy joined us 2016 as Administration Coordinator till 2022 and returns again this year on our International programming team for our 2023 Festival.

Lies Bruines, Flickerfest International Programming Team

Lies Bruines - headshot

Lies is back at Flickerfest this year as programme consultant, making sure you’ll have a wonderful selection of shorts to see in January!

She first fell in love with short films when she started working at Go Short – International Short Film Festival in the Netherlands in 2009 and made sure all future jobs kept her close to the art form.

Lies has programmed shorts for InScience – Dutch International Science Film Festival, has been on the jury of the Drone Film Festival of Australia and New Zealand and been part of the selection committees of Go Short International Short Film Festival and the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Film.

Liz Harkman, Flickerfest International Programming Team

Liz Harkman - headshot

Liz returns to the International programming team. Liz has worked in the UK film industry for over 15 years starting out with roles in national institutions such as the British Film Institute and the UK Film Council. Her love of film festivals started with a voluntary position at the London Film Festival.

She then travelled to Australia to work at Flickerfest Short Film Festival where her passion for short film was born. Since then she has worked on Edinburgh International Film Festival, Animated Exeter and was the Managing Director for Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival for 5 years.

In 2013, Liz moved back to Australia to work again for Flickerfest Short Film Festival, and although returned to the UK in 2014 to have a child she still supports the Flickerfest Festival Director with the International programme selection. In 2016 Liz joined the selection committee for the Pardi di domani at the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland.

Rich Warren, Flickerfest International Programming Team

Rich Warren leads the team at Artswork Media, part of the Creative Media degree at Bath Spa University, UK. Until recently he was the CEO at Encounters Film Festival, the UK’s leading new and emerging talent festival, with more than 15 years of experience in the international talent development and moving image exhibition sector.

He harbours a healthy curiosity with innovation and creative technology and the new opportunities these platforms offer moving image story tellers. Rich’s lived experience as a CODA provides a natural affinity to underrepresented voices and a desire to create equal opportunities for them within the cultural sector. He currently also sits on the board of trustees for the learning-disabled charity, Carousel..

Linda O. Olszewski, Flickerfest International Programming Team

Linda Campos Olszewski is one of the most passionate and knowledgeable people in the short film industry. A member of AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), she has overseen acquisitions of the Oscar Shorts Theatrical/VOD/iTunes releases since 2006 and has served as an Associate Producer.

She has served on over 100 international film fest juries and panels throughout the world, offering distribution deals for iTunes, Amazon, and Oscar qualification as well as TV licenses for ShortsTV™ – The Short Movie Channel.

Linda has programmed shorts for the DreamWorks Short Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortsfest, Newport Beach FF and Sofia Independent FF, and pre-screened shorts and features for Fear Fete and Sundance FF. Additional credits include: ‘Shrek’, ‘The Road To El Dorado’, ‘Prince Of Egypt’, ‘Reality Bites’, and ‘The Life Of David Gale’.

Linda is also an avid photographer, making pictures of the short film world.

Craig Boreham, Flickerfest LGBTQ Shorts Programme Director

Craig BorehamCraig Boreham is an Australian award winning director whose films have been shown at over 200 international festivals, including Berlin, Cannes and Palm Springs and Flickerfest.

His work has received numerous awards and nominations including the Berlinale Teddy Award, Best Film at My Queer Career, Mardi Gras Film Festival, The City of Melbourne Best Short Film Award, MQFF and National Film Sound Archive Orlando Award among others.

A retrospective of Craig’s work, CINEMA OF TRUE POISON, was presented by Fundacion Triangulo in Madrid. Craig has been worked as a script assessor for Screen NSW and Metro Screen and has been a jury member for the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Awards, the Iris Prize in the UK and the Mardi Gras Film Festival. Craig has been the Flickerfest Rainbow Shorts curator since 2018.

Celia Tulevski, Flickerfest LGBTQ Shorts Programming Team

Celia Tulevski has worked in the Film & TV industry for over 23 years. Her focus has been on the production of high end TVCs and she has been fortunate enough to work with some very talented cast & crew over the years.

Between jobs Celia has also produced music videos & short films with some of the industries finest technicians.

In her spare time, when she’s not wrangling her three small children, she loves watching films & has loved being part of the Flickerfest pre selection committee for the past 8 years and joining the programming team for Rainbow Shorts this year.

Mina Asfour, Flickerfest LGBTQ Shorts Programming Team

Mina Asfour (He/Him) is a bilingual Jordanian-Palestinian-Australian multidisciplinary artist based in Western-Sydney. His career started out in his teenage years in front of the camera for a plethora of projects, including: guest starring on ABC’s ‘Halal Gurls’ (dir. Vonne Patiag), Czech Republic’s ‘Jak Nas Vidi Svet’ (Orange TV), TVCs for Clients like: TikTok, LADbible, Donut King, Gumtree, ReachOut Australia, TAFE NSW. Mina’s career in the arts is also taken behind the camera being a producer and Publicist for Fingerless Theatre Co. Working on their production of The Tale Of The Great Emu War and Twelfth Night and The Government Inspector. Besides his acting, producing and publicity career, Mina is also a writer. Currently working on his latest feature film project The Rectangle Love Triangle, which follows the tale of a “self-destructive romantic”. Mina’s driving passion for his career is to create more opportunity, for himself and for others like him, to diversify the Australian film industry and to break barriers, being a pioneer for the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.

Julia Savage, Flickerfest FlickerUp Programming Team

Julia Savage is an Australian actress who was nominated for the 2022 AACTA award for Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film for her work in ‘Blaze’ produced by Causeway Films and directed by Del Kathryn Barton.

In 2023 she appeared as ‘Amy’ in the acclaimed eight-part psychological thriller series ‘The Clearing’ directed by Jeffrey Walker (‘The Portable Door’) and Gracie Otto (‘Heartbreak High’) for Disney+ and in Kacie Anning’s all-female comedy series ‘Class of ’07’ for Matchbox Pictures (Universal International Studios) and Amazon Prime.

She has appeared in three award-winning short films selected for the Flickerfest Best of Australian program: ‘Sherbert Rosencrantz, You’re Beautiful’ (2018); ‘Sweet Tooth’ (2020), and ‘The Familiars’ (2021), all of which went on to screen at film festivals around the world.

Julia was honoured to join the judging panel for FlickerUp in 2023 and to be part of the FlickerUp programming team for 2024.

Albie & Stan Warren, Flickerfest FlickerKids Programming Team

Albie(5) & Stan(9) have grown up watching short films from all over the world and are regular attendees at their local film festival.

Outside of their film watching they enjoy playing football, reading, climbing and pokemon!