AWG delegates attend biggest Asia-Pacific screen summit in Brisbane

10 December, 2015

A delegation from the Australian Writers’ Guild attended this year’s Asia-Pacific focused screen summit in Brisbane.Warren Coleman (Happy Feet) Shane Krause and Shane Armstrong (Bait, Acolytes, K-9) took part in a panel titled Telling Stories in the Asia-Pacific. WA based screenwriter Barbara Connel completed the AWG delegation.The summit, with a major focus on creative collaborations in region, formed part of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy’s industry networking events in the lead up to the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on November 26.The event was also supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and it brought together 40 members of three film industry delegations from Australia, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China with some 100 APSA nominees, International Jury members and APSA members.Others in the Australian delegation were from the Australian Directors Guild (ADG) and the Screen Producers Australia (SPA).Head of Business and Audience at Screen Australia, Richard Harris, said: “APSA brings together extraordinary delegations from across the Asia-Pacific. This is an exceptional opportunity for this select group of Australian directors, writers and producers to meet with these creatives and work towards creative collaborations”.CEO of the Australian Directors Guild, Kingston Anderson said: “This was a unique opportunity for Australian writers, directors and producers to meet their colleagues form the Asia-Pacific region and start a dialogue about creating stories that can cross our regions and enrich our cultures.”For AWG delegate Shane Krause, it was the first time he’d been to APSA.“There was plenty of inspiring talk about trusting your partners, free community screenings, long research periods for projects – all alien concepts which I’m still struggling with – but what I did recognise and connect to was an obvious love of cinema, a never-say-die attitude of the filmmakers I met and some good old fashioned networking happening everywhere.“I’m sure projects were born, deals done and friendships made – and that’s something my distrustful, mercantile and research-recoiling mind does understand.”