meet Our 2026 JUdges
Emma Hough Hobbs (she/they) is a queer artist from Adelaide. They're a filmmaker, animator and production designer. They co-wrote and co-directed their Teddy Award winning debut feature film 'Lesbian Space Princess', which placed 2nd for the Panorama Jury prize in the 2025 Berlinale. Lesbian Space Princess was also nominated for 7 AACTA awards including “Best Film”.
Emma's previous short, the inaugural Hanlon-Larsen fellowship film 'On Film' was in competition at SXSW Sydney 2023 and won best animation at the South Australian Screen Awards. Emma is a 2025 Elle Magazine Australia Next Gen Award nominee and 2025 RUBY award nominee for the Frank Ford Memorial Young Achiever Award. As a props master they have worked on projects such as A24’s ‘Talk To Me’ and ‘Gold’ starring Zac Efron.
Emma Hobbs
SHE/THEY
Shonee Samia is a Māori Samoan Gold Coast–based actor, producer and motion-capture performer who likes her storytelling bold, honest, and a bit unhinged (in the best way). With a background spanning acting, stunts, producing, and performance capture, she brings passion, heart, and humour to everything she does — whether that’s on set, inside a mocap volume, or on an indie project held together by duct tape.
Her recent credits include starring as ‘The Tourist’ in the 2024 feature ‘The Nut Farm,’ voicing and motion-capturing multiple characters in the video game ‘Battlefield 6,’ appearing as "Mo" in the AACTA-nominated web series ‘Ruff & Ruby,’ and playing Officer Kena in the short film ‘The Brutal Alchemy of Water’. She won Best Actor at the "Yeah Nah Horror Festival" for her role in ‘Ripe for Change’ and landed a lead stunt double credit on a major U.S. film coming to cinemas this year.
Shonee Samia
EJ is a producer of indigenous content specialising in factual story telling. EJ started his career in media as producer/presenter, video journalist and producer of community focused media campaigns. EJ has produced, directed and written documentaries for broadcast including Writer/Director of “Tiga’ a 56min documentary of legendary Leader Tiga Bayles for SBS/NITV; Director of the ‘Fire’ episode for the Elements series NITV/SBS, a 30min documentary; a producer for ‘Always Black and Always Cracked’ a 15 minute documentary for NITV/SBS; and as writer and consulting director for ‘Rock Bottom In Rockhampton’ a 15 minute documentary for NITV/SBS. Ej has extensive experience with community engagement and community based media campaigns.
EJ is a Darumbal man from the coastal lands of Central Qld and his mother is from the Wulli Wulli people of the Burnett region. EJ’s content focuses on the lived experience of First Nations people living in contemporary Australia.
ej garrett
Jaydon Martin is a multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker whose practice draws upon the exploration of maligned cultures, mundane existence and spiritual modernity. By using unconventional narrative structures Martin draws a direct line between reality and the subconscious in pursuit of an ecstatic truth. Blending documentary with fiction to mine the universal longing for human connection.
Martin’s films have screened internationally at festivals, including at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Warsaw International Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival & Melbourne International Film Festival and has received a Special Jury Prize at IFFR and the Black Magic Innovation Award at MIFF.
JAYDON MARTIN
As a contemporary Indigenous artist descended from the Bundjalung and Butahulla Nations, Sally holds an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts from the Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts, where she trained under the celebrated mentorship of Stephen Oliver, Deborah Mailman, and Leah Purcell. Sally primarily guides the festival committee on First Nations protocols throughout the planning, coordination, and initial shortlisting process.
SALLY TERARE
FIRST NATIONS LIASON