Pathways to Audience: Navigating Indie Film Distribution
Description
Join the conversation about Pathways to Audience for Australian indie films.
Making a film is only half the journey. Next you have to reach an audience!
For independent filmmakers, today's screen landscape demands new skills, new thinking and a more intentional approach. Increasingly, audience strategy isn't something to consider once your film is finished; it's something that shapes your project from the very beginning.
Traditional pathways through distributors, broadcasters and sales agents remain an important part of the industry, but they're also highly competitive. At the same time, filmmakers are finding success with community screenings, impact campaigns, direct audience engagement and alternative release models to bring their work to the screen.
So where do you begin? How do you navigate getting your film onto screen? And what can independent filmmakers learn from each other's experiences?
Join us for an honest conversation with two Australian feature film producers who have taken different approaches to finding audiences for their work. Together we'll explore the realities of different pathways to audience; what worked, what they'd do differently, and what they wish they'd known before releasing their films.
Erin Fenech, Brick Studios
Christmess (2023), The Blind Sea (2024)
Bill Code, Wedge-Tail Pictures
SOLD! Who broke the Australian Dream? (2025), The Lake of Scars (2022), Dancing With the Devil (2024)
Hosted by Dr Misty McPhail (Made in the West) and Si Dikkenberg (WSU Launch Pad Creative), this filmmaker event is the first step in a broader conversation about the current challenges facing independent filmmakers seeking to distribute their Australian-made films. Before the session, we'll invite participants to share their own experiences, challenges and ideas as we explore what stronger networks, better resources and more effective pathways to audience could look like for us all in future.
The insights gathered through this conversation will help shape future professional development opportunities including further Distribution Talks and a proposed Summit designed especially for Australia's independent filmmaking community.
WHO THIS EVENT IS FOR
Independent filmmakers developing, producing or releasing a feature film, documentary or series
Emerging producers, writer-directors and creative teams planning their first independent projects
Established producers interested in exploring alternative audience-building and distribution models
Documentary and impact filmmakers seeking to engage communities beyond the festival circuit
Screen media students and recent graduates looking to better understand today's distribution landscape
Lineup
Erin Fenech
Guest Speaker: Erin is a South Western Sydney Producer with over 15+ years’ experience working in the performing and visual arts space, ensuring projects are accessible for audiences, and marketable for multiple platforms and technologies. Working with leading Australian production companies CDP Theatre Producers, The Australian Stencil Art Prize, Flinders St Art Gallery, Sue Barnett & Associates, and has run a successful Floral Events & Installation business in South West Sydney and recently earned her first two feature film Executive Producer credits for Heath Davis’ CHRISTMESS, released in cinemas in November 2023, and Daniel Fenech’s THE BLIND SEA in August 2024. Erin was named a finalist in the 2022 Women of Western Sydney awards in the Creative & Performing art category.
Bill Code
Guest Speaker: Bill Code is a director and producer focusing on social impact and environmental documentary. In 2025 he released 'SOLD! Who broke the Australian Dream?', hosted by comic Mark Humphries – a satirical documentary for Binge/Foxtel. Prior to that in 2022 he released the critically-acclaimed ' The Lake of Scars' into cinemas nationwide, hosted by beloved late actor Uncle Jack Charles. He has also produced and directed several films - shorts and features - for galleries. Before working on longer-form films Bill was a journalist for over a decade, working with Al Jazeera, The Guardian, SBS and others. His company Wedge-Tall Pictures is currently developing two documentary projects with screen agency support including an online-first series on the coming freshwater crisis, Big Water.
Misty McPhail
Dr Misty McPhail is a producer and community arts leader working across Western Sydney. As Co-Founder of Made in the West Creative she works on films, festivals and creative programs that demand she make connections with new audiences.
Si Dikkenberg
Creator-in-Residence at Launch Pad Creative, Si is a documentary and narrative filmmaker with a deep well of distribution failures to draw upon. His role with Western Sydney University focuses on creative entrepreneurship, developing programs and events for Western Sydney's screen and creative industries.
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