The Actor, Director and Producer - In Conversation with Joanna Werner, Emma Freeman and Nicole Nabout

Host(s)

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  Joanna Werner

  Joanna Werner is the Company Director, Creative and Executive Producer of the Melbourne based production company Werner Film Productions, which she established in 2008 and was recently named the Production Business of the Year at the Screen Producers of Australia awards. Joanna’s work has been defined by consistent acclaim, with multiple AACTA awards and Logies and three Emmy nominations. Joanna has amassed production credits on an array of internationally acclaimed work – most recently on AACTA and Logie winning series The Newsreader for the ABC and Netflix global top 10 hits Surviving Summer and Clickbait. Other credits include Riot for the ABC, Secret City for Foxtel, Crazy Fun Park for the ABC, Emmy- nominated Ready For this, as well as the two-time Emmy-nominated Dance Academy, which ran for three seasons and spanned a Feature Film version – Dance Academy The Movie. Joanna recently completed a six-year term on the Board of Screen Australia and served as the Chair of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Task Force for six years.
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  Emma Freeman

  Emma Freeman is an internationally acclaimed award-winning director. She directed seasons 1 and 2 of The Newsreader for Werner Film Productions and the ABC/eOne. Both seasons won the AACTA Award for Best Drama Series in 2021 and 2024, with Emma also winning Best Direction in Drama or Comedy and the ADG Award for Best Direction in a TV or SVOD Drama Series Episode. In 2021 Emma directed the first season of Love Me for Warner Bros. International Television Australia and Aquarius Films, currently streaming on Binge. For Ep 4, Emma was nominated for the 2022 AACTA Award for Best Direction in Drama or Comedy. In 2020, Emma directed 3 episodes of Stateless for Matchbox Pictures, the ABC and Netflix, for which she won Best Director at the 2020 ADG Awards. She also directed 2 episodes of Clickbait, a Netflix / Matchbox Pictures, which premiered on Netflix in 2021. Emma was the sole director of the third season of Glitch for Matchbox Pictures, the ABC and Netflix. In 2015 she was also the sole director on the first season of Glitch, for which she won an ADG Award in 2016, and was setup director on the second season in 2017, directing the first 3 of 6 episodes. Emma was the sole director on the first season of the political thriller Secret City for Matchbox and Foxtel, winning an ADG Award in 2017. A graduate of VCA, Emma’s short film Lamb received First Prize, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score at Tropfest in 2002. The film also screened at Locarno, Palm Springs, Cork and New York International Film Festivals, and was invited to screen at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood. In 2003 Emma joined Fox Searchlab, a division of Fox Searchlight Pictures and directed Mittens, which was selected by Fox Searchlab as their contender for the Academy Awards. In 2010 Emma was nominated for AFI Awards (Best Direction in Television) for Tangle, and the telemovie Hawke, for which she won the award. Hawke was also nominated for a Logie (Most Outstanding Telemovie) and won the ADG award for Best Direction in a Telemovie. Emma’s other television credits include multiple episodes of Sisters (including the telemovie pilot), Offspring, Puberty Blues, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Rush, Love My Way, The Secret Life of Us, and Party Tricks. Her first feature film, The Circus, is currently in development with producers Joanna Werner and Leanne Tonkes. In 2023 Emma directed two episodes of Interview with the Vampire for AMC Studios and was the set-up director on the upcoming Kindling Pictures production Fake for Paramount+, based on the novel by Stephanie Wood. Emma is currently in post-production on series 3 of The Newsreader.
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  Nicole Nabout

  Nicole’s recent TV jobs include The Clearing (Disney+) and Return to Paradise (in production with BBC Studios Australia). She performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing for the ASC 2023/2024 in Melbourne and Sydney. Nicole was in the Australian premier of Selling Kabul at Red Stitch in 2023 and a sold out poduction of The Crucible at The Ath. Other career highlights include Queen Claudia in Because the Night at The Malthouse and Evie Mansour in the final season of Jack Irish, three seasons of The Librarians as Nada and Rob Connolly's film Three Dollars with David Wenham. Film and TV credits include: Angel of Mine; Newton’s Law; The Doctor Blake Mysteries; Nowhere Boys; The Time of our Lives; Offspring; Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries; Very Small Business; Blue Heelers and Last Man Standing. Theatre credits include: Oil and Wakey Wakey, Red Stich; A Good Muslim Boy, Malthouse/QTC; Secret Bridesmaid’s Business, Playbox and Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Royal Shakespeare Company. She studied with Jacques Lecoq in Paris.