2011 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund Panel

Andrew Pike OAM is a film historian and documentary filmmaker, a producer, film distributor and exhibitor. He has produced and directed several documentaries, and through his company, Ronin Films, has distributed many Asian and Australian films.

During the 1980s he specialised in bringing renowned films from Japan and China to Australian audiences and implemented many innovative distribution and marketing activities for which he won the Australian Film Institute’s Byron Kennedy Award in 1986. He has distributed major Australian films including Shine and Strictly Ballroom, the work of documentary directors such as Dennis O’Rourke and Bob Connolly, and the early work of feature film directors such as Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Vincent Ward and Scott Hicks. He directed Angels of War, which won Best Documentary at the 1982 AFI Awards and Best Documentary at the 1982 Nyon Film Festival, Switzerland. He co-authored a seminal book, Australian Film 1900-1977 published by Oxford University Press. In 2007, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to the film industry and the community, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra. In 2003, he was appointed by the French government to the rank of Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres for his promotion of French cinema in Australia. He is a Board member of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. In 2009, Andrew was a member of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards International Jury.

Tony Ayres is one of Australia’s leading writer/directors. His 2007 feature film The Home Song Stories, premiered at Berlin and won Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Lead Actress for Joan Chen at the 2007 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards.

Ayres’ first feature Walking on Water won the Teddy Award at Berlin in 2002, five AFI awards, two Australian Film Critics Circle Awards and an IF Award. In 2009 Ayres directed the SBS telemovie Saved, which won the 2010 Logie Award for Best Actress for Claudia Karvan. In recent times, he has become a prolific producer, making the Bogan Pride and Anatomy television series and the feature film Lou, starring John Hurt. He is one of Australia’s most sought after script editors, having edited numerous films including Mallboy, Soft Fruit and Walking on Water. He has recently produced (alongside Helen Bowden and Michael McMahon) and co-directed the eight-part drama series The Slap for Australia’s ABC Television, based on the bestselling novel by Christos Tsiolkas.

Xue Xiaolu, award-winning scriptwriterturned-director, is an Associate Professor at the Beijing Film Academy (BFA), of which she is an alumnus with a Master’s degree specialising in screenwriting and film theory.

Ms Xue studied in Australia during 1997 and 1998 and upon her return to China she worked as the director of scientific and educational programs at China Central Television’s (CCTV) production centre in Beijing. In 2003, she returned to BFA to teach courses in screenwriting and film critiquing. As an accomplished screenwriter, Xue has written nine scripts for films, which have been theatrically released, including Together (2002) directed by Chen Kaige, Running for Son (2003) and Autumn Rain (2005). Ms Xue has written scripts for more than 180 TV drama episodes, as well as numerous documentaries and novels. In 2010, her critically acclaimed directorial debut, Ocean Heaven, starring Jet Li in his first non-action film opened the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival and Xue won the Emerging Talent of the Year award at CineAsia. She serves as a Professor at the BFA’s Film Literature Department and belongs to several prestigious artist associations including the Chinese Writers’ Association, Chinese Film Artists Association and the Chinese TV Artists Association.