MWFF Critics Lab 2020: Meet the mentors!
We’re thrilled to announce that Emma Westwood and Stephanie Van Schilt will be joining us as mentors for the 2020 MWFF Critics Lab! In just a few weeks they will be talking all things criticism with this year’s cohort of emerging critics. Keep an eye out for them at the festival!
Emma Westwood – www.emmawestwood.net – is a writer, journalist, film historian, storyteller and dedicated aesthete of extreme cinema from Melbourne, Australia.
As a media correspondent, her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, websites and newspapers including Empire (Australia), Screen Education (Australia), Fangoria (USA), Filmink (Australia), Screem (USA), Senses of Cinema (Australia), ReviewAsia (Hong Kong), Diabolique (UK) and Metro (Australia). She has also dabbled in travel journalism for the likes of FRV (Bali) and Essentials (Australia).
Emma was arts editor for Melbourne weekly street press, The Music (formerly Inpress), for four years from 2000; penned a weekly performing arts column for The Age called ‘Curtain Call’ for two years; and enjoyed a six-month stint as a researcher on the one-and-only season of ABC’s arts panel television show, Vulture (executive produced by Guy Rundle).
As an arts professional, she has written and edited program guides, synopses and press releases for the likes of the Melbourne International Film Festival, Greek Film Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Palace Cinemas, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, to name a few.
Her first clandestine viewing of The Exorcist at age 11 kicked off a love affair with the horror genre, which saw her write her first book, Monster Movies, in 2008. Her second non-fiction book on David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) was released in 2018, and she is currently co-writing a monograph with Jez Conolly on John Frankenheimer’s cult classic, Seconds (1966). Her next book will be about James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for which she is about to undertake a research trip to Los Angeles.
For the past three years, Emma has been talking about film live every Monday (or in podcast form) with her esteemed colleagues on Triple R’s Plato’s Cave but will be appearing as a guest presenter in 2020. She can also be heard on numerous DVD audio commentaries for the likes of Umbrella (Australia), Kino Lorber (USA), Eureka (UK) and Indicator (UK), of which her work with Lee Gambin on William Castle’s Strait-Jacket was nominated for a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best DVD Commentary.
Emma is also proud to be Queen and Worker Bee of her own content creation and storytelling enterprise, Bakewood – http://www.bakewood.com.au.
Stephanie Van Schilt is a writer, editor and podcaster based in Victoria, Australia. Her journalism, nonfiction and criticism has been published broadly in outlets including Crime Reads, the Guardian, ELLE.com, The Saturday Paper and VICE. Stephanie is former editor of The Lifted Brow and TV columnist for Kill Your Darlings.
In 2016, Stephanie created independent podcast Sisteria, which she currently hosts and produces. From 2014-2016, Stephanie co-hosted pop culture podcast, The Rereaders.
Stephanie regularly hosts events and speaking engagements at ACMI and the Wheeler Centre. She was named one of Melbourne Writers Festival’s 30 Under 30 (2015), has been awarded a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellowship for her work and was recently shortlisted for Endemol Shine’s women in screenwriting initiative. Stephanie has been awarded grants from the Australia Council, City of Melbourne and the Copyright Agency for her creative projects and professional development.
In 2017, Stephanie was invited to participate in WNYC’s Werk It: Women’s Podcasting Festival in Los Angeles. She's also been programmed for the Melbourne Writers Festival, Emerging Writers Festival and National Young Writers Festival. She’s read her work at Women of Letters and been a guest on ABC, 2ser, Triple R and Joy FM.
In 2008, Stephanie completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hon) in Film and Television Studies. Her thesis on creative film criticism won the John Flaus Prize at Monash University. From 2007–2013 she worked as an arts program administrator at the NGV and Film Victoria and has worked as a sessional tutor and lecturer at Monash University, focusing on film and television studies, gender, arts criticism and memoir.