You can contact us via email at contact@sfo.org.nz

For any further information about Short Film Otago please contact Judith Curran 027 2358 794, Richard Thomas 021 459 101 or Stephen Downes 021 174 9411

Three of the principal people behind The Short Film Otago Trust are:

Judith Curran

Judith is a documentary director/producer from Dunedin. She studied drama at Otago University (some years ago) as part of a B.A. which sparked an interest in acting and writing drama. She performed in plays during this time including new works written by Peter Tait.

Moving to Sydney she studied drama as an actor for 2 years at the renowned Sydney Acting School. In 1990 She began a long association with the Griffin Theatre Company - which only produces new Australian works. In that year her first play Beat of a Different Drum was given a rehearsed reading during their famous Development Week.

The next year she was accepted into the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney (N.I.D.A.) as a playwright. The first play she wrote that year - The Garage Sale - was picked up by the Griffin Theatre Company (after a rehearsed public reading at NIDA) and produced in 1991.

She was specially invited to return to NIDA for a 2nd year as a writer. Her play Dancing Naked Among Roses was produced at NIDA in 1992 with Cate Blanchett playing the lead role.

Meanwhile she worked as a story-liner for Roadshow Coote and Carroll, for their then head of drama Sue Masters, researching and writing treatments for proposed drama series. Her work led to two major productions Law of the Land and The Paper Man, both blue chip drama series produced by the Nine network.

She then started to develop and write feature film scripts: No Hide No Christmas Box and The Cow Girls. The Cow Girls won 2nd prize at the 1999 Sunrise Feature Film Pitching Competition in Sydney, and sparked a letter of interest from major distributor Beyond Productions.

Judith has also produced many hours of award winning documentary films over the past twenty years.

Stephen Downes

Stephen is from Dunedin. Stephen and Robert Sarkies made short film happen in Dunedin when they formed Nightmare Productions together in the late 1980's. From the beginning, Nightmare Productions was a collaborative effort providing a forum for all members to contribute to scripts and planning. Over the course of ten years a large group of diverse talents evolved around Stephen and Robert producing a string of highly successful short films. They split the key creative roles, with Robert directing talent and Stephen director of photography, but with both writing.

Those ten years culminated in the realization of both their dreams - the opportunity to make a feature in Dunedin. That feature was 'Scarfies' which went on to become one of New Zealand's most successful recent feature films. Since 'Scarfies', Stephen has continued to shoot many short dramas for others and to direct and shoot his own projects as well.

Richard Thomas

Richard began his working life producing scripted comedy for BBC Radio Coming to New Zealand in the mid seventies he was the first creative executive to fund a Vincent Ward project. Later as Head of Fulltime Training at the Australian Film and TV School he produced many student short films. He played a significant role in the recruitment and development of many young film makers including Jane Campion, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Paul- Muriel’s Wedding – Hogan.

For three years in the mid eighties he was Director of Television for the ABC where he was strongly involved with creating a new drama policy for the channel.

In 2000 - determined to become more involved with drama again - he produced the short film Camping with Camus based on a short story by Owen Marshall which was a finalist in the 2001 Nokia Film Awards.