Twelve screen creatives have been selected to participate in National Talent Camp 2022, a skills development program for creatives from diverse backgrounds.
This year’s National Talent Camp participants are Chika Ikogwe (NSW), Jacob and Jayden Jansz (NSW), Miranda Aguilar (NSW), Anna Loren (QLD), Courtney Cavallaro (QLD), Aarushi Chowdhury (VIC), Brendan Wan (VIC), Alice Yang (SA), Melanie Easton (SA), Pius Kung (TAS) and Ursula Woods (TAS).
The 2022 Talent Camp program began with a week-long workshop in five states. Twelve participants from those state camps were then selected to take part in the national workshop through a second-round application process.
National Talent Camp supports participants from five states to take part in a week-long intensive at the AFTRS campus in Sydney. The workshop further finesses the participants’ storytelling and screenwriting techniques by focusing on individual development through writers’ room simulations, a notetaking/script supervision workshop, one-to-one industry mentorships and feedback sessions. The aim is to provide development and opportunities for emerging storytellers to create new content and be employment ready for the screen sector.
The program is supported by tutors Stephanie Westwood, Liam Heyen and Alli Parker. Mentors for the National Talent Camp participants include Rosie Lourde, Mithila Gupta, Benjamin Law, Michelle Law, Roanna Gonsalves, Corrie Chen, Neil Sharma, and Yingna Lu. Netflix’s Creative Executive, Nakul Legha, will also join us as a guest speaker.
Dr. Romaine Moreton, Director of First Nations and Outreach, said: “Talent Camp is a vital opportunity for Australia’s premiere screen agencies to work together in support of diverse stories from our country’s emerging talent. We are proud to announce this year’s impressive cohort and support them through the culmination of the Talent Camp program. The application process was incredibly competitive, and I’d like to acknowledge the inspiring work submitted by all of our applicants.”
Talent Camp alumni success stories include the recent announcement that Grace Feng and Nikki Tran (VIC Talent Camp 2019) have received Screen Australia funding to develop a 6 x 30-minute television version of their web series Girl Interpreted. Additionally, three of the four 2021 SBS Digital Originals projects announced involve Talent Camp alumni: Appetite (creator/writer/director/producer Mohini Herse, NSW Talent Camp 2019; writer Neilesh Verma, NSW and National Talent Camps 2019-20; writer Grace Tan, NSW Talent Camp 2022), Night Bloomers (writer Ra Chapman, VIC and National Talent Camps 2019-20) and Latecomers (writer Nina Oyama, NSW Talent Camp 2019; director Alistair Baldwin, VIC Talent Camp 2017).
The 2022 National Talent Camp will be held at AFTRS in Sydney from 12-16 September 2022.
Talent Camp is a biannual initiative of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), which launched in 2017. The 2022 event is financed with the assistance of Screen Australia, South Australian Film Corporation, VicScreen, Screen Queensland, Screen NSW and Screen Tasmania.
Read more about National Talent Camp and meet our 2022 participants here.