Mentor: Kristian Moliere, Triptych Pictures

When Joel was younger, his parents used to tell him not to watch so many movies. His response: “I’m researching for my career”. As it turns out, he was telling the truth. Cut to many years later, and Joel is now an award winning producer, writer and director with a passion for making ambitious projects that inspire the imagination and resonate with audiences emotionally.

Based in both Melbourne and Sydney, Joel comes from a background in advertising and production and his work as a freelance producer/director has seen him create content for brands such as BUPA, Australia Post and RACV. Joel recently graduated from a Masters of Communication at RMIT, finishing with honours, and has also had training through a number of Industry initiatives, including a Film Victoria funded attachment with the late oscar winning director Anthony Minghella on his civil war epic Cold Mountain.

Joel moves between producing, directing and creating and this versatility is reflected through a breadth of experience in both film and television. He directed on Season 3 of the kids TV show ‘The Saddle Club’ and was also a producer’s attachment. More recently, Joel was background director and producer’s assistant on the Sony feature film Spin Out. He has also made a host of diverse, high-end short films that have screened both locally and worldwide, from the large-scale kids adventure film ‘Gravediggers’ to the Tropfest finalist film Here Today. His Raw Nerve finalist film, Dinner for Three, screened on the ABC and Joel has just completed his latest short film, Rehab, with producer Ben Whimpey and Indimax productions. Ben and Joel are currently working on a few new projects together, one of which is a high-end web-series based on Joel’s Hp and Genero.com Future Finalist short-film, the sci-fi drama Processed.

Joel is currently the creative director at Sherpa Projects, a digital production outfit and sister company to TVC production house SO Productions. He also runs his own company, Screen Invaders, and is developing a slate of exciting projects for film, TV and on-line platforms.