Speaking Daggers officially selected for St Kilda Film Festival among other amazing things! #shakespeare #webseries #shortfilm

L-R: Lisa (MWF Comms Intern), Phil Hayden (Studio Director, Howard Fine Acting Studio Melbourne), Sally McLean (General Manager, Melbourne WebFest) and Callum (MWF A/V Intern) during filming interviews with partners and sponsors for this year’s Melbourne WebFest at LaTrobe University, City Campus

It’s May already?! So much has gone on since my last update here! Where to begin?

So, Shakespeare Republic (the web series) has now won eleven awards, been nominated 45 times and officially selected for 43 international film festivals to date. It screened at the Pilot Light TV Festival this weekend just gone, and screens in Wales, England, USA, Italy, Brazil and Melbourne, Australia over the next two months!

The short film, Speaking Daggers (the spin off from the web series), has been officially selected for 12 international film festivals to date, and the big news there is that it will be screening in a couple of weeks as an official selection at the St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne! So excited that the film made it into the Top 100 Films at St Kilda this year!! I will also be on a panel discussing web series during the festival, alongside the fabulous Warwick Holt (creator/writer of “Bruce”), among some impressive others. All details for tickets for the festival can be found here: https://stkildafilmfestival.com.au/screenings-events/

And the concept teaser for my new project ‘Till The Boys Come Home, is now at just over 16,800 views on Facebook! Amazing!

Billy Smedley, Sally McLean and Alan Fletcher at the Ozflix Independent Film Awards in April

Shakespeare Republic has had an extraordinary run on the festival and awards circuit over the past 12 months, including being a Finalist at the inaugural 2018 Ozflix Awards in Melbourne! We have also had our trophies arriving from all over the world, including the one shown below from Rio WebFest for Best Original Idea. So grateful to all the festivals for the love shown to the work so far! So delighted it has been received so well!

Trophy for Best Original Idea from Rio WebFest for Shakespeare Republic

On the acting front, I have just filmed a role for Balloon Tree Productions’ latest commercial venture and have a short film role coming up soon. On the directing/writing/acting front, I have just been commissioned to write/adapt another Shakespeare short film, so am disappearing down that rabbit hole for a while, coming up with a few ideas and then seeing which one sticks!

I have also returned to teaching, and am LOVING teaching my current Shakespeare class at Howard Fine Acting Studios Australia. I have a brilliant class of actors I’m working with and am so excited to present the work to whomever would like to come along to the last class on May 29th to see what we have achieved. All details here: https://www.howardfinestudio.com.au/allcalendar/2018/4/24/playing-the-bard-shakespeare-in-performance

And my work as General Manager of Melbourne WebFest continues, and is getting busy as the Festival opens on June 28! I have a lot of my favourite industry colleagues involved in the festival this year, and cannot wait to celebrate all things web series with them over the 4 days in June/July!

On a personal note, I celebrated my birthday last month and it was a lovely day filled with fabulous people – so shout out to all the wonderful creatives who make up my inner circle and show me such support and love. Love you all right back!

Phoebe Taylor, Michala Banas, Sally McLean, Billy Smedley, Ahren Morris, Bronwyn Gregory, Shaun Herbertson and Caitlin at Sally’s birthday dinner on April 13

So that’s it from me for this update. So much has been going on, but you can catch up properly on all the news via the Shakespeare Republic Facebook Page and hopefully it won’t be so long between updates here!

Hope everyone is well and take care until next time!

All best, Sal x