A stand-alone Indigenous Unit launches, led by Head of Indigenous Kyas Sherriff (now Hepworth, and Head of Screen NSW). While AFTRS has a long history of nurturing First Nations students, the unit’s focus is on increasing the number of First Nations students and providing dedicated scholarships.

Within its first year, the unit runs cinematography-focused talent lab Black Shot for mid-level practitioners, and the series Black Talk, where First Nations practitioners share their career journeys and storytelling approaches. In April 2017, Uncle Bruce Pascoe is appointed as inaugural Elder in Residence at AFTRS, with Sonia Smallacombe taking up the role in 2019 and Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor in 2021.

In July 2019, the unit launches Talk Talk an Indigenous Language and Storytelling Podcast. Also in 2021, AFTRS and Netflix announce the Netflix Indigenous Scholarship Fund. 

AFTRS alumna Lisa Leong begins her popular ABC Radio National podcast This Working Life, where business experts share their ups, downs and successes for listeners to take away and use in their own careers.

The podcast says, “We’re cheaper than therapy and more fun than LinkedIn.” Leong, who was in the 2003 cohort for the Graduate Diploma in Commercial Radio Broadcasting, also presents Sundays with Lisa Leong on ABC Radio Melbourne and co-wrote This Working Life: How to Navigate Your Career in Uncertain Times with Monique Ross, which won the Australian Career Book of the Year Award 2022 (RSA Oceania). 

Listen: This Working Life.

David White was the first Australian to be nominated for and win the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road. White has worked on productions including Farscape, The Railway Man, Happy Feet 2 and Zach’s Ceremony.

The sound designer, editor and mixer was a BA student at AFTRS in the early 1980s, but never received a certificate as he was too busy working on other students’ projects.

After studying he co-founded Counterpoint Sound with AFTRS peers. Later, he taught courses at the School, mentored and hired its graduates, and advised on the development of an innovation research project involving binaural technology. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Arts) by AFTRS, in recognition for his decades-long contribution to the industry.

AFTRS alumnus Daniel Monks (Foundations Diploma, 2009; Graduate Certificate in Directing, 2011), and the writer, star and co-producer of feature film Pulse wins the BNK Busan Bank award worth $20,000 at Busan International Film Festival in Korea. Monks accepts the award alongside director Stevie Cruz-Martin.

The film, which screened at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival, stars Monks, who is himself disabled, as a gay disabled teenager, who jumps at the chance to transfer his mind into the body of a beautiful young abled woman. 

Two white papers are published from AFTRS Applied Innovation Research projects, which focus on emerging fields where technology and storytelling intersect. The first, White Paper No. 1  – VR Noir, explores storytelling in virtual reality and developing narrative skills for a user-led immersive experience. The second, White Paper No. 2 – Precipice Binaural, looks at binaural podcasting, and how people can generate meaning out of natural ambient surround sound – a type of virtual reality for your ears. A third paper on biometric audience engagement technology and research methods publishes later in 2018.

Alumnus Tony Ayres, who completed the Certificate Scriptwriting in 1989, is awarded the prestigious Hector Crawford Award at the Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE Awards for outstanding contribution to the craft. It recognises Ayres’ decades-long contribution to Australian screen storytelling.

One of the founding members of Matchbox Pictures (now owned by NBCU), Ayres also established his own production company Tony Ayres Productions in 2018. He executive produced and co-wrote the hit Netflix miniseries Clickbait, executive produced the award-winning ABC miniseries Fires and his other many credits include executive producing Stateless, Creamerie, Wanted, Glitch, The Family Law, and Nowhere Boys; producing miniseries Barracuda and Seven Types of Ambiguity, and directing the acclaimed features Cut Snake, The Home Song Stories and Walking on Water. 

The AFTRS podcast series Lumina launches. A dive into the future of creativity and how technology changes the way we tell stories, it’s hosted by Fenella Kernebone and guests across the two seasons include Zareh Nalbandian (former CEO of Animal Logic), Wendy Zukerman (podcaster with Gimlet Media), Chloe Rickard (CEO of Jungle), Mikaela Jade (founder of InDigital) and more. 

Listen to podcast: Lumina

Alumnus Tony McNamara (Bachelor of Arts, Scriptwriting, 1995) wins the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Favourite with co-writer Deborah Davis. The pair also win the International AACTA Award, a Golden Globe nomination and Academy Award nomination.

McNamara’s celebrated career began with an AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film for his AFTRS graduation work with Mathew Schulz and Daniel Nettheim, The Beat Manifesto. He went onto win another AFI Award as well as AWGIE Award and the MIFF Audience Award for The Rage in Placid Lake, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for The Great, and nominated for a BAFTA, Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2024 for Poor Things.  

AFTRS alum Samuel Van Grinsven’s Master of Arts Screen: Directing graduate project Sequin in a Blue Room wins the Sydney Film Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, following a standing ovation at its world premiere and sell-out screenings.

Van Grinsven co-wrote the queer coming-of-age tale with screenwriter Jory Anast, and the feature film was produced by fellow AFTRS alum Sophie Hattch (Bachelor of Arts: Screen, 2017). It goes on to be selected for Outfest, Palm Springs International Film Festival, Mardi Gras Film Festival, TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, Melbourne Queer Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival; receives an AACTA nomination for Best Indie Film; and is picked up by Amazon Prime Video. 

Award-winning film director, screenwriter and author Thomas Wilson-White, a 2017 graduate of the Masters of Screen Arts, is announced as the first recipient of the AFTRS Charlie’s Grant in collaboration with Australians In Film (AiF). Just one of the initiatives AFTRS has created to help support those breaking into the industry, the Charlie’s grant helped one AFTRS alumni get their project off the ground with access to the American Film Market and the AiF office and hub, Charlie’s, in Los Angeles.

Wilson-White would go on to make his debut feature film The Greenhouse (2021), which in premiered at BFI: Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival and Frameline, won Best Direction in a Feature Film (budget under $1M) at the 2021 Australian Directors Guild awards, and the Audience Choice Award at 2021 Mardi Gras Film Festival before it was acquired by Netflix ANZ.

He wrote the hit Netflix series Heartbreak High, which won an International Emmy and five AACTA awards and has written on season 2 as well as Paramount+’s Paper Dolls.

Other initiatives AFTRS has run in recent years include national skills development program Talent Camp, the non-fiction storytellers New Perspectives Pitch Lab, and Bus Stop Films’ Accessible Film Studies Program.