Elissa Down
Elissa Down is an Australian filmmaker who, in 1999 and 2000, was nominated for Young Film-maker of the year at the WA Screen Awards. Her major works are a number of award-winning short films, "Summer Angst", "The Cherry Orchard", "Her Outback", "The Bathers", "Pink Pyjamas", "HMAS Unicorn" and "Samantha Stewart, aged fourteen". They have been screened at numerous festivals including Tampere, Locarno Aix-en-Provence, Montecatini, Milan, San Francisco Indie, St Kilda, Brisbane, Revelation, Women on Women, POV and Tropfest. These shorts have also been screened in theatres and broadcast nationally and overseas. Down was one  of Australia's upcoming artists featured in the In Progress spread in Vogue (2005). Down's first feature film, the semi-autobiographical, "The Black Balloon" was released in Australian cinemas 6 March 2008. It stars Rhys Wakefield, Gemma Ward, Luke Ford, Erik Thomson and Academy Award Nominee Toni Collette. The Film was partially based on herself and family. The world premiere was at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany in February 2008, where the film received a Crystal Bear as the best feature-length film in the "Generation 14plus" category. On 6 December 2008 Down was awarded the AFI  Best Direction in Film Award and AFI Best Original Screenplay Award for the Black Balloon. The film also won the L'Oreal Paris AFI Award for Best FIlm. Down will be director on the upcoming short film "Amendment".