NAFA Chat: Crowdfunding your micro-budget feature films
Monday, 12 August 2024
6.30pm – 7.30pm (doors open 6pm)
Upstairs at Forrester’s, Surry Hills
[More info]
Guest Speaker: Maria Tran
Maria is a Vietnamese-Australian actor and filmmaker specialising in independent films and micro-budget filmmaking.
She is also an expert in fight action choreography and is the founder of Phoenix Eye Films, a female-led production company based in both Australia and the US.
Maria has also worked extensively across China and Vietnam. She appeared in the Roger Corman–produced Fist of the Dragon, for which she won the Breakout Action Actor award at International Action Film Festival 2016.
Her feature action thriller Echo 8, produced on a $10,000 budget, is Australia’s first female-led action movie. It has won several awards, including Best Film at the Tokyo Film Awards and Best Feature Film – Women’s Film at the World Film Carnival – Singapore.
Maria is set to begin production on the next two films in the Echo 8 trilogy, Five By Five and Echo 8 Beyond, which received over two-and-a-half times its funding goal on Indiegogo.
Maria is an avid filmmaker who champions community-led models of filmmaking and demonstrates how local grassroots projects can make a global impact.
Echo 8 is currently streaming on 13 VOD platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and Apple TV+.
