Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride

Katrina Sedgwick is the Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), a major national cultural institution located at Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square. Previously, she has been the head of arts for ABC TV and ABC Arts online, and the founding director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival.

Annette Blonski is a freelance script editor and script consultant to a number of government film funding agencies and independent producers, writers and directors.  She has script edited award-winning feature films, shorts and documentaries including My Tehran for Sale, What I Have Written, Stranded, Life, Eternity, and Delivery Day.  She has been a member of the board of Film Victoria and the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. 

Charlotte Day is Director of Monash University Museum of Art, and has worked as an independent curator and Associate Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Day has worked on numerous large-scale commissions by local and international artists, has co-curated the Adelaide Biennial (2010), TarraWarra Biennial (2008), and projects for the Venice Biennale (2007 and 2005).

Gideon Obarzanek is the founder and former Artistic Director of Chunky Move. Obarzanek has created stage productions, installations, site-specific works and films, and his works have been performed in festival and theatres around the world. Obarzanek has received numerous awards, including a New York Bessie award, two Australian Helpmann Awards, and best short documentary at the Melbourne International Film, Festival. Since leaving Chunky Move in 2012, Obarzanek has worked with the Australian Ballet, Sydney Theatre Company, and co-directed the short film I want to Dance Better at Parties.

Daniel Palmer is a writer and Associate Dean of Graduate Research at MADA (Monash Art, Design & Architecture). He has a long-standing involvement with the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, as a former curator and current board member. His publications include the co-authored books Digital Light (2014) and Twelve Australian Photo Artists (2009) and the Photogenic: Essays/Photography/CCP 2000-2004 (2005). Palmer has also published over 100 critical reviews and catalogues on contemporary arts and photography over the past decade.

Tony Sweeney was the Director and CEO of ACMI from 2005 to 2015.  Prior to this he directed the UK’s award-winning National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (NMPFT). Prior to this, Tony had a distinctive track record in the media, cultural and educational sectors, producing distinctive exhibitions, events and publications across film, television, media art and contemporary digital culture.  Tony is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London.

Special Advisor to the Judging Panel

Lady [Primrose] Potter AC is a Trustee of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust. She is a passionate supporter of the Arts and has held a long list of offices with major arts institutions, including Patron of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Director of The Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University, Honorary Life Member of the National Gallery Victoria and was Founding Benefactor of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Lady Potter is also patron and an active member of several leading performing arts companies and community welfare organisations.