Stuart Cunningham

Stuart Cunningham is Distinguished Professor, Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. He is one of Australia’s best known media scholars with a special interest in policy.

Cunningham is author or editor of several books and major reports, most recently: The Media and Communications in Australia 3rd ed (with Graeme Turner, Allen & Unwin, forthcoming 2009), What Price a Creative Economy? (Platform Papers, 2006), Beyond the creative industries: mapping the creative economy in the United Kingdom (with Peter Higgs and Hasan Bakhshi, NESTA, 2008) and In the Vernacular: A Generation of Australian Culture and Controversy (University of Queensland Press, 2008).

Cunningham has held a visiting professorial appointment at the Australian National University and currently holds visiting professorial appointments at City University London and the University of St Andrews. He has served as a Commissioner of the Australian Film Commission; foundation Chair of QPIX, Queensland’s screen resource centre; Treasurer and Executive member of Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; Panel Chair and member, Australian Research Council College of Experts; President of the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; and currently is an appointee to the Library Board of Queensland.

Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Queensland University of Technology

Will Vinton

Academy Award winning director/producer Will Vinton is known around the world as the pioneer of Claymation having coined and trademarked the word and created some of the most innovative dimensional animation in history. Will and his production teams have also created some of the best known animated characters in the world, including The California Raisins and the “CG” (“Computer Animated”) M&Ms “Red” and “Yellow.” He produced the acclaimed television series “The PJs” for The WB, and “Gary and Mike” for UPN. Vinton also founded Will Vinton Studios to explore 3D animation and grew the company at its peak into one of the world’s most respected and creative companies for all types of 3D animation.

Currently, Will Vinton is building on this history with new projects he has developed which he intends to direct and / or produce in the next few years.

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Bryce Zabel

The winner of last year’s Writers Guild award for the Hallmark medical thriller miniseries “Pandemic,” Bryce Zabel has also created five primetime network TV series, written studio feature films, reported for CNN and was elected chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

In 2009, Zabel wrote and produced the cutting-edge Animal Planet limited series “Animal Armageddon” and scripted the Hallmark family film, “Chasing a Dream.”

In TV series production, Bryce has received the WGA “created by” or “developed by” credit on “Kay O’Brien” (CBS), “Dark Skies” (NBC), “M.A.N.T.I.S.” (FOX), “The Crow: Stairway to Heaven” (SYN) and “E.N.G.” (CTV). On three of those series, he served as a showrunner, responsible for yearly production budgets in excess of $40-million. His other series work includes “Taken,” “L.A. Law,” “Life Goes On” and “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.”

In the world of feature films, Bryce received writing credit on “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” which opened as the #1 box office film as well as the hit Disney animated film, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.” He also wrote the Hallmark pirate adventure “Blackbeard” and the NBC disaster epic “The Poseidon Adventure.” Besides two WGA nominations and one win, his work has been nominated by the Environmental Media Association, Mystery Writers of America and the LA Emmy awards.

Bryce began his career in television news in Oregon before continuing as an on-air LA based correspondent for CNN. He has also produced PBS documentaries that won investigative journalism awards, launched an internet site with Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, taught producing for the USC School of Cinematic Arts and served as CEO of the TV Academy when 9/11 forced two Emmy cancellations. He is a member of the Directors Guild, Writers Guild and AFTRA. Bryce edits the film review portal, “Movie Smackdown!”

Bryce Zabel’s Bio

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