Antenna Documentary Film Festival invites Australian filmmakers nation-wide to submit their documentary feature films to its 5th Rough Cut Lab, to be held in September  2024. 

The Antenna Rough Cut Lab is a workshop designed to pair local filmmakers with industry mentors from around the world to assist them in finishing their films to the best of their creative potential, and find new ways to reach global audiences. 

Three feature-length documentaries at rough-cut stage will be selected for the Lab, and their creative teams will receive access to these international experts and decision-makers and be provided coaching and advice on storytelling, editing, marketing, sales and festival strategies.

The Rough Cut Lab Mentors this year are: 

Penny Lane is an award-winning American documentary director and producer, celebrated for her distinctive vision and style. Her critically acclaimed films include Our Nixon (2013), Nuts! (2016), Hail Satan? (2019), and Listening to Kenny G (2021). Her most recent work, Confessions of a Good Samaritan, premiered at SXSW last year and won the festival’s Hope Special Award. Penny also co-founded Spinning Nancy, a documentary production company, and served as Executive Producer for HBO’s TIME BOMB Y2K.

Chris Boeckmann is a documentary writer, programmer, and story consultant. From 2009 to 2020, Chris worked as a Senior Programmer at the True/False Film Festival, one of the most respected film festivals on the circuit. He has since consulted and written for award-winning documentaries and currently serves as the Director of Development at Impact Partners, an equity funding body dedicated to supporting independent documentary storytelling. Since 2007, Impact Partners’ films have premiered at top film festivals and received the film industry’s highest honours and awards, including Academy Awards, Emmys, and Peabody Awards.

Simon Price is an Australian-based award-winning documentary and fiction film editor. Simon has brought his craft and story skills to acclaimed feature films and documentaries such as Ruin (2013) Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013) Free in Deed (2015) The Leunig Fragments (2019) Martha: A Picture Story (2019) and In My Blood It Runs (2019), Man On Earth (2022).

The Antenna Rough Cut Lab will be held on the 24th and 25th of Sep 2024. Applications are now open and will close on the 10th of September.

Antenna Rough Cut Lab is provided free of charge, thanks to the support of Screen NSW and the City of Sydney

ENQUIRIES Luis Antonio Cervantes – program@antennafestival.org