Sandra Sciberras

Having received a Diploma in Performing Arts, Sandra Sciberras was already gaining a reputation for writing performance based independent theatre. Having a great passion for the Actor and the Visual Arts, she felt the need to combine the two and found herself applying for the undergraduate course at VCA School of Film and Television. Her graduating short film Frail Mary launched her writing and directing career. Only months after graduating, she received her first feature film new writer’s grant from The Australian Film Commission.

Only one year out of film school, Sandra moved into directing commercials and music film clips but her desire to write and direct narrative feature length films helped her move away from the commercial industry not long after entering it. She continued to write and before she knew it, she was being commissioned by Producers to either, re-write, script edit or write a variety of scripts; from television to feature length drama.

Eager to direct her first non short film, Sandra wrote and directed the independent low budget feature Deeper Than Blue. It premiered at the 50th Sydney International Film Festival, where the reviews were impressive. The film gained her enough attention to be invited to participate in the new Indivision program that the Australian Film Commission was launching. The powerful art house drama The Caterpillar Wish was the first film selected and financed under this program. The Caterpillar Wish in which she wrote and directed was released through Palace Films with Kate Whitbread producing. Encouraged to write a more commercial based screenplay by Momo Films, Surviving Georgia is her third film script to move into production and co-directed with Kate Whitbread. Sandra has worked with numerous producers ghost writing and editing screenplays in-between major productions both in Australia and in the UK. Sandra has developed several screenplays over the last few years, where she is attached as Director.

Her passion for creating works for the screen and nurturing younger filmmakers has been her major strengths in an industry that is constantly in flux. Her interests in working with upcoming screenwriters/directors and producers in East Timor as well as in Malta, cements her commitment to mentoring the development of a screen and television industry amongst countries that are in early stages of building their own, on an International level. Helping writers, directors and producers find their own unique way of telling stories in an industry that is heavily dictated by traditional narrative rules is something she has mastered and continues to challenge in countries where these narrative rules have less impact. Developing these artists are fundamental to her teaching, mentoring and commitment to the future of the film and television industry on a global level.