Women in the Arts Leadership Forum 2025

Kyas is an accomplished industry leader known for authentic collaboration and agility, ability to bring cultural change and strong stakeholder relations, negotiation skills and execution of government policy. 

 As the Head of Screen NSW, Kyas spearheads the state’s film and production strategy and advances NSW’s position both in digital games and as one of the leading national and international screen and post-production destinations. Kyas leads a dedicated team to deliver innovative funding programs, services and initiatives that champion storytellers and creative workers in the screen and digital games industry. 

 Her extensive creative expertise spans across feature films, documentaries, television series, and web series. Prior to joining Screen NSW, Kyas served as the Head of Commissioning and Programming at NITV working within SBS, and has worked with esteemed organisations including  the Australian Film Television and Radio School and Screen Australia. Kyas currently sits on the Board of AusFilm and has held positions as a board member for MediaRing and the Australian International Documentary Conference. She was an inaugural member of the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) and was previously an ambassador for the Natalie Miller Fellowship. 

 In 2021 Kyas was honoured as an Official Competition Jury Member for the 68th Sydney Film Festival, and in 2023 she was selected as a Featured Speaker at the inaugural SXSW Sydney. Her well attended fireside chat ‘Burn it to the Ground- Creative Leadership’ was facilitated by Holly Ransom.

Who likes bios? No one. So let’s keep it brief. Lucy is a Create NSW Artform Board Member (Digital & Experimental, Immersive & Light Art) and the Head of Strategy & Experiences steering the immersive experiences transformation of Luna Park Sydney. She’s also ex-Artistic Director of Paris Festival of Light, ex-Curator of Vivid Sydney (Light) and Managing Director of Public Art Australia. A graduate of NIDA and the National Art School, she started in theatre design, has called herself an artist for a while, and has since commissioned more than $100m of work by emerging Australian artists, performers, writers and designers. She an advocate for cross-genre creativity and the creative industries as a whole.

Bina Bhattacharya is an AWGIE-nominated feature film writer and award-winning filmmaker from Campbelltown in Sydney’s southwest. She was one of eight writers for the anthology film ‘Here Out West’ which was the opening night film of the Sydney Film Festival 2021. Her first feature film “From All Sides”, was selected for the prestigious “Goes to Cannes” showcase by the Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival where she was invited to present at Marché du Film as a work in progress, and has been acquired by Screen Inc. Her directing credits also include the music video for ARIA-nominated Punjabi-Australian singer Parvyn’s single ‘What You See’, which was featured in Rolling Stone India.

Bina works as a Creative Producer – Youth and Emerging at PYT Fairfield – Western Sydney’s leading professional theatre company with a focus on youth where she uses my skills as a writer, dramaturg and director to shape new theatre works with multicultural young people from Western Sydney, including the hugely successful “Tuan’s Party.” In 2024 Bina was commissioned to write a new play for the NSW Department of Education and Training Drama curriculum that was suitable for multicultural classrooms, “Laila is Missing.” Bina also works regularly as a script doctor and editor for screen projects in development, including “Hindi Vindi”, featuring Guy Sebastian and Neena Gupta. 

Rosie Lourde is a multi-faceted filmmaker with a passion for advocacy. Recently Rosie EP’d YA sport docuseries YOUNG BLOODS (TikTok), and comedies PLEASANT AVENUE (Facebook) and WHITE FEVER (ABC). She directed romcom ROMANCE ON THE MENU (Netflix), and produced STARTING FROM NOW (YouTube) which has over 250 million views online. As an actor Rosie is in season 3 of TOTAL CONTROL(ABC), ONE NIGHT (Paramount+/Netflix), and HOUSE OF GODS (ABC). Rosie is currently the Chair of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce, and was previously an Investment Manager at Screen Australia’s Online Production fund.

Kerri is a well-known and influential arts leader in Sydney having built a strong reputation as an independent theatre maker, award winning venue owner, artistic director, CEO and effective advocate for the cultural sector. She is a respected voice of the Sydney night-time economy and has led the way in regulatory reform for the sector over the past six years, ensuring that policy positions are based on sector led data and needs. 

Kerri is the founding co-director of artist run company 505 which operated the legendary live music club Venue 505 in Surry Hills (2004-19), and award winning Old 505 Theatre in Newtown (2015 to 2023). In 2013 she was appointed as CEO & Festival Director of the Sydney Fringe Festival. Under her stewardship the festival has grown from a small community event to the largest independent arts festival in NSW now featuring 2000 artists, attracting over 100,000 audiences and contributing over $40.7million in economic impact to the city. 

A leading advocate for the Independent arts sector she has contributed to a number of key action plans/policies and resulting reforms including: Creative Communities– NSW Government cultural policy 2023, REVIVE– Australian Government cultural policy 2023; the Committee for Sydney’s– Everyday Culture Project 2023 and Sydney a 24 Hour City Report 2019the City of Sydney’s– Live Music and Performance Action Plan 2014, Inner West Council’s – Off Broadway Plan 2015. In her role at Sydney Fringe Festival she works extensively leading the way in temporary re-adaptive use of space for performance that resulted in the now nationally recognised report: An Anthology of Space 2015-2018: Activating Unused and Under-utilised Space for the Performing and Creative Industries of NSW.

 She is currently Acting Chair of the NSW Government’s Creative Communities Council, a founding Board Director of the Night Time Industries Association, founding Board Director of the Live Music Venues Alliance, sits on the Create NSW’s Festivals Artform Board and a Board Director of peak body PAC Australia.

She served as co-Chair of the City of Sydney’s Nightlife and Cultural Sector Advisory Committee 2019-2022, a Director of the City Recital Hall Board from 2015-2019 and in 2011 was included in the Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Magazine’s annual 100 Most Influential and Inspiring People list.

Based on the island of lutruwita/Tasmania, Kath Melbourne works across Australia and internationally, enabling companies, governments and individuals to better achieve their goals, communicate ideas, reach audiences, embed imagination and resilience, generate income and transform their thinking at all levels.

Her clients laud her for her deep and diverse knowledge and skills, clear thinking smarts, holistic approach, trustworthiness and integrity. Together they consider the cross-roads as well as the possibilities that come with the question  “what if we?” Kath’s processes and the outcomes she creates with her clients are notable for their grounding in respect, resilience, imagination, originality and pragmatism.

Danielle O’Keefe has worked in the arts for over 15 years establishing a reputation as one of the country’s leading youth arts creators. After finishing her studies in 2003 in London, Danielle returned to Sydney to conduct the Australian Youth Choir (AYC) and held that post until 2012 when she left to work in Outback Australia.

 Simultaneous to conducting the AYC, Danielle worked with companies such as the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), Sydney Chamber Opera (SCO), The Australian Institute of Performing Arts (AIPA), Brent Street and PACT to create exciting works for and with young people. Alongside her work with young people, Danielle has directed mainstage shows at the Seymour Centre, The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Complex and Merrigong Theatre, to name a few.

 Since returning to Sydney from her post as Artistic Director of Outback Theatre for Young People, she has been working with large ensembles of girls and women, and is now formalising a cross-age female ensemble to work together across a variety of projects.

Danielle is a creative entrepreneur. Founder and CEO of The House that Dan Built, the joyous company that does. Danielle consistently confounds contemporary expectations and understating of what potential pursued by young women can sound like. Passionate about passion, Danielle is an interdisciplinary contemporary artist whose site-responsive work with young female singers is being recognised and awarded internationally. Her work has been featured in collaborations through Melbourne Festival, Dark Mofo, and Sydney Festival. In 2014, the House ensemble was established with 12 creatively distinct young women who are gaining recognition as an extraordinary multidisciplinary performance collective. Most recently the ensemble performed with Sydney Chamber Opera in their acclaimed production The Howling Girls and in 2019 the ensemble were featured at the Venice Biennale in renowned Australian video artist Angelica Mesiti’s work Assembly.

Jane Stratton is a lawyer, human rights educator, an advocate, a program maker, a creative producer, a maker of new spaces and possibilities, and a social and creative innovator.

She is the founder and CEO of the Think+DO Tank Foundation where she leads a team of arts and community workers to enable social change through the arts.

Jane is most proud and joyous about:

• realising her vision of the highly successful social enterprise Lost In Books, a multilingual kids’ bookshop and creative hub;
• championing multilingual creative production in Australia;
• making and holding beautiful space for creativity, community and for women in Fairfield since 2017;
• employing more than 50 local people, paying wages of more than $2 million so far; and
• attracting more than $7 million in funding and investment to Western Sydney.

 Jane loves textiles, making music, writing, silence, nature and feasts.

https://foundation.thinkanddotank.net.au/

Ana Tiwary is a producer/director and runs the production company indiVisual films – international that specialises in authentic multicultural stories for global audiences. She has received Screen Australia Enterprise Business Grant for 2024/25. She has produced over 25 documentaries for ABC TV and other international networks. She co-produced the first Asian-Australian rom-com ‘Rhapsody of Love’ and is currently developing a diverse slate of series with some of Australia’s most talented multicultural writers. Ana has served in leadership roles at the Australian Directors’ Guild, Women in Film & Television Australia and as a member of the Screen Australia Gender Matters Task Force. 

From Bollywood films to National Geographic Channel, she has lived and worked in many different parts of the world including the US, Canada, India, Germany and West Africa. In 2023, she was awarded the Stellar South-Asian Woman of Australia award. Ana is a highly regarded speaker on issues of diversity in media and arts. She has presented on panels and at events for over 15 years, including the Sydney Film Festival, SXSW Sydney, SPA Screen Forever Conference, Screenworks Conference, APSA Forum, Screenmakers Conference, OzAsia Festival, WIFT Australia, ADG Conference, AFTRS, NIDA and others. 

Over 15 years ago, Ana created Diversity in Australian Media, a community that is passionate about cultural safety and intersectionality in the screen and arts sector. She continues to mentor emerging filmmakers and is passionate about community building, authentic storytelling and safe spaces. Ana is currently co-writing a book with Katrina Irawati Graham on how to make the arts more equitable, safe, just and joyful for everyone.

Eda Gunaydin is a Turkish-Australian essayist and researcher whose writing explores class, Western Sydney, intergenerational trauma and diaspora. She has been published widely in publications including Meanjin, HEAT, Sydney Review of Books, Cordite, and others. Her debut essay collection Root & Branch: Essays on Inheritance won the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards’ Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. She lives on Wangal land. edagunaydin.com