I am a film director and screenwriter. My films have been awarded, screened and distributed internationally including at SXSW, Sydney Film Festival and on major streaming platforms. Prior to my film and academic career, I worked in the creative industries in Australia and the UK in architecture, design and animation.

My research is focused on ‘budget’ filmmaking and non-industrial approaches to creative screenwriting and cinematic production: including DIY, independent ('indie') and microbudget practices. In our increasingly homogenous and screen saturated environment today, a diversity of screen ideas and their creative articulation is paramount. My research, centred on creatively sustainable models of screen production, has been incorporated into the development guidelines of Screen Australia for low-budget and microbudget filmmakers.

On a more granular level, I am interested in the mechanisms of film style and authorship via mise-en-scène and screen language. My higher degree research supervision focuses on industry practitioners seeking to reframe their creative filmmaking practices in a research context. I regularly write for The Conversation on current film and screen topics.

At UTS I lead the Creative Practice Research Group (CRPG) in the Faculty of Design and Society. Through our creative research practices we make stories, experiences and environments which shape culture, meaning and understanding. We draw on cross-disciplinary research and engage with our community and industry partners to translate our research in the wider world.

I am the Course Director of the UTS Animal Logic Academy which is a unique collaboration with the world-leading Netlfix Animation Studios.

L’art est ce qui rend la vie plus intéressante que l’art

(Art is what makes life more interesting than art).

Robert Filliou