MWFF Critics Lab 2023: Meet the Team!
Now in its sixth year, the MWFF Critics Lab aims to support a new generation of screen critics. We’re thrilled to announce this year’s cohort of critics and mentors!
In 2023, Silvi Vann-Wall and Vyshnavee Wijekumar will be joining the MWFF Critics Lab as mentors. They’ll be working with a group of six incredible emerging critics: Meg Funston, Madeleine McDonald, Ruby Box, Chelsea Daniel, Shantal Hayden and Erika Lay. As part of the lab, they will be embedded in the festival throughout February, meeting filmmakers and programmers, working on reviews, blog posts, interviews and more!
Mentors
Silvi Vann-Wall is a non-binary podcaster, journalist, award winning-writer and audio producer from Melbourne. They currently write for ScreenHub as their Film Content Lead. Their passions include cinema, chronic illness and disability, global human rights, and video games. You can see their top 4 films on Letterboxd @SilviV, or read their current thoughts on Twitter @SilviReports. Examples of their work are available on silvireports.com
Vyshnavee Wijekumar is an arts worker and freelance critic. She has written for The Age, The Saturday Paper and Junkee. She is also Triple R Breakfasters' fortnightly film reviewer. You can follow her on Twitter @vylentfemme.
Mentees
Chelsea Daniel is a freelance writer focusing on all things cultural and screen. Their works have been featured in publications like Antithesis Blog, Farrago, and Overland. She was a member of the inaugural Parliament Express program and can be found desperately scouring Melbourne searching for a perfect bagel.
Ruby Box is currently working towards a major in Creative Writing and a minor in Cinema Studies. They find it difficult to be impartial when it comes to the movies, and have a soft spot for 90s sport movies and Geena Davis. Ruby believes that one of life’s greatest and most simple comforts is storytelling, which is where she believes her love of film lies.
Erika Lay is a writer and film critic based in Naarm, Melbourne. They write essays and criticism across literature and film, intertwining critical theory and auto-theory. Their work is concerned with criticism as ekphrasis.
Madeleine McDonald is originally from Tasmania and moved to Melbourne to attend the University of Melbourne. Recently she completed a bachelor of Arts degree with honours specialising in screen studies, with her thesis covering the evolution of the Superhero genre through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Madeleine has written reviews for Melbourne University Film Society's online publication The Inquirer and on her personal review blog The cinematic Experience.
Shantal Hayden has recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communications (Journalism) where she got the opportunity to intern for Variety AU. With a strong passion for all things film and television related, she likes to spend her spare time working on mini reviews on her Instagram @cinema_daries__.
Meg Funston is an aspiring academic and film journalist based in Naarm/Melbourne. In 2023, she will commence her Masters Degree studying gender, genre and reflexivity in contemporary female coming-of-age film. Meg has a strong interest in representations of young women on screen and in the communication of gendered values and ideologies through cinema.