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About

BUNYA GROUP

TEAM

David Jowsey

Co-Managing Director and Producer Bunya Productions

In 2008, David Jowsey formed BUNYA Productions with auteur filmmaker Ivan Sen.

David produced Toomelah by Ivan Sen, selected in Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2011. David produced the 2011 Sundance selected feature Mad Bastards by Brendan Fletcher and Satellite Boy by Catriona McKenzie which premiered at Toronto 2012 and Berlin 2013. David produced Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road film which received a Special Presentation at Toronto 2013.

In 2015 David produced Jasper Jones, based on the best-selling novel and directed by Rachel Perkins, as well as Ivan Sen’s Goldstone which premiered in Toronto’s 2016 Platfom Section. David Jowsey produced Sweet Country by Warwick Thornton, which won the Special Jury Prize at Venice 2017 and the Platform Prize at Toronto 2017.

In 2018 David produced the award-winning series Mystery Road. David produced High Ground in 2019 which premiered at Berlin. Across 2019/20 he produced Mystery Road Series 2 which premiered in Berlin Series, as well as the features Loveland by Ivan Sen and The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson by Leah Purcell which premiered at SXSW.

In 2021 David Jowsey produced True Colours a mystery drama series and Mystery Road Origin the series prequel, which premiered at Toronto. Most recently David produced In Limbo a comedy series for ABC TV and Limbo by Ivan Sen with premiered in Competition at Berlin.  He is currently in production on feature films The Deb and Kangaroo.

Ivan Sen

Writer | Director | Composer

Throughout the late 1990s Ivan Sen worked on numerous short films, before making his feature film debut with Beneath Clouds in 2002. The film won Ivan global acclaim, screening in Competition at the 2002 Berlinale and winning a Silver Bear. Beneath Clouds also screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and earned Ivan the 2002 Best Director Award at the Australian Film Institute Awards.

Ivan has written and produced a number of award-winning documentaries. His documentary Yellow Fella screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.

In 2011 Ivan completed his feature Toomelah, which was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The world premiere of the film at Cannes received a standing ovation. The film won the Grand Prix at the Pacific Meridian Film Festival 2011 and the UNESCO Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2011.

In 2012 Ivan was awarded the prestigious Byron Kennedy Award, for “his unique artistic vision and for showing, by his resourceful, multidisciplinary filmmaking, that telling stories on screen is in reach of all who have something consequential to say”.

In 2013 Ivan wrote and directed the feature film Mystery Road starring Aaron Pedersen, Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten, Tasma Walton and Jack Thompson. Mystery Road had its international premiere with a “Special Presentation” at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and opened the 2013 Sydney Film Festival. Ivan is an Executive Producer on the successful TV drama series adaptation of Mystery Road.

In 2015 Ivan directed Goldstone starring Aaron Pedersen, Jacki Weaver, David Gulpilil, Cheng Pei Pei, Alex Russell and David Wenham. Goldstone premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was the opening night film at the 2015 Sydney Film Festival.

In 2019 Ivan wrote and directed his sci fi Loveland starring Ryan Kwanten, Hugo Weaving and Jillian Nguyen.

Greer Simpkin

Co-Managing Director and Producer Bunya Productions

Greer Simpkin is Co-Managing Director of the Bunya Media Group.

Since joining Bunya, Greer has produced the award-winning feature films Limbo, Sweet Country, Goldstone, High Ground, Loveland, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson and was an Executive Producer on Jasper Jones. Greer Is currently producing Rebel Wilson’s debut feature The Deb and the Studio Canal feature Kangaroo.

Greer has produced all three series of award-winning television drama series Mystery Road as well as the SBS mini-series True Colours and the ABC Comedy In Limbo.

The Mystery Road franchise has won a total of 15 AACTA Awards and a TV Week Logie Award for Most Popular Drama. The series has been a ratings hit; the second series was the highest rating Australian drama on free to air in 2020, the third series Mystery Road: Origin was the highest rating drama on ABC iview in its 15-year history.

Prior to joining Bunya, Greer was Deputy Head of Fiction at ABC Television. Greer was instrumental in commissioning a large slate of drama and comedy including The Code, The Slap, Rake, Paper Giants, Cliffy, Jack Irish, Please Like Me, Devil’s Dust, Miss Fisher, Dr Blake and Mabo. Greer was also an Executive Producer of The Code, Hiding, Parer’s War, Serangoon Road and The Secret River.

Lauren Mather

Head of Production

Lauren Mather joined Bunya Productions in 2016 as Head of Production where she has overseen the Bunya factual slate including the drama/doc series Blue Water Empire, the feature documentaries Sanctuary and Beautiful Minds: The Agents of Change and the VR film Every King Tide.  

Lauren began her media career in the Marketing and Publicity department at ABC Television before moving to the Drama & Narrative Comedy Unit, supporting a number of Executive Producers on an award-winning slate of commissioned series, web series and telemovies. Lauren has also worked as an Associate Agent at esteemed talent agency Cameron’s Management and has practised law in New South Wales.

Angela Littlejohn

Producer

Angela is a seasoned screen producer and executive who has worked in the film and TV industry for the past 30 years in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. She worked as Drama Co-Production Executive and Programme Finance Manager for Channel 4 drama and Film4 and oversaw productions including Trainspotting, Secrets and Lies, Velvet Goldmine, Queer as Folk, Longitude and Sword of Honour.

Her TV producing credits include Cleverman Season 1 & 2.  She co-produced Channel 4’s BAFTA winning Not Only But Always starring Rhys Ifans and was Series Producer on Pukeko Picture’s pre-school animation TV series Kiddets, the first NZ/China official TV co-production. Her NZ film credits include Anthony McCarten’s Show of Hands and Sima Urale’s Apron Strings Slow West, Separation City and The Changeover.

In 2019 she joined Bunya Productions and produced Ivan Sen’s Loveland, and Leah Purcell’s The Drovers Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, alongside Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey. She returned to NZ in 2020 and produced feature films, Matthew J Saville’s Juniper (starring Charlotte Rampling) and Michelle Savill’s Millie Lies Low.

Her recent TV credits include 6-part comedy drama series In Limbo for the ABC. She is currently in production on a Studio Canal film, Kangaroo, directed by Kate Wood.

Sophia O'Rourke

Development Co-ordinator

Sophia O’Rourke manages the Bunya development slate. In this role, Sophia works closely with producers, writers and script producers throughout all stages of development.

Sophia joined Bunya Productions in 2022 as Development Coordinator, having previously worked with the company on two seasons of Mystery Road.

Sophia began her career working in television at the ABC in the production team for Four Corners and QandA. She moved to Broome and worked as a Radio Producer and Presenter for ABC Kimberley. She has also worked as a Media Adviser in federal politics.

Sophia is a Graduate of AFTRS and has produced and written award-winning short films which have screened nationally and internationally. Her writing has been published in Australian literary journals.

Sophia is a PhD candidate at UTS where her research investigates the experiences of autisic women in film – on and off screen.

BUNYA PRODUCTIONS

FILM

Bunya Productions has produced and collaborated on a slate of award-winning feature films, all of which have premiered at a top international film festival including: Limbo (Berlin Competition) High Ground (Berlin), Sweet Country (Venice Competition and Toronto Platform) The Drovers Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson (SXSW), Goldstone (Toronto Platform), Mystery Road (Toronto), Jasper Jones  (Shanghai), Toomelah (Cannes), Mad Bastards (Sundance) and Satellite Boy (Berlin and Toronto).

The Film arm of Bunya has won awards such as the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and the coveted Platform Prize at the Toronto Film Festival and the APSA award for Best Film (all for Sweet Country). More recently, The Drovers Wife won the APSA 2021 Grand Jury Prize and the 2022 AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a film and Limbo won the 2024 AACTA award for Best Indie Film, 6 Film Critics of Australia  awards and 2 Australian Film Critics awards.

TELEVISION

Bunya Productions’ television division produces the ratings hit Mystery Road franchise. The latest series, Mystery Road Origin won 7 AACTA awards including Best Drama Series in 2022. It was the highest rating Drama launch on ABC iview in its 15-year history.

The first Mystery Road series, starring Aaron Pedersen and Judy Davis won 5 AACTA Awards including Best Drama Series as well as Most Popular Drama at the 2019 TV Week Logie Awards. Mystery Road Season 2, starring Aaron Pedersen and Sofia Helin (The Bridge) and directed by Warwick Thornton and Wayne Blair, premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival. It won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Drama Series and was the highest rating Australian adult TV drama series on free to air television in 2020. The Mystery Road franchise has the highest ever number of AACTA nominations for a television series.

Bunya Productions also produced True Colours for SBS – a ground-breaking series set in the art world of Alice Springs and a remote Indigenous community, and with much of the series spoken in the local Arrernte language. The series stars Rarriwuy Hick, Miranda Otto, Luke Arnold and Warren Williams.  True Colours was nominated for Best Miniseries at the 2020 AACTA awards.

More recently Bunya produced In Limbo, a heartfelt comedy for the ABC which won the 2024 SPA award for Best Narrative Comedy.

BUNYA ENTERTAINMENT

Bunya Entertainment is in production on The Office Australia for Amazon Prime and Ladies In Black for the ABC.

Bunya Entertainment produced The Moth Effect sketch comedy series for Amazon and is in production on comedy series Limbo starring Ryan Corr and Bob Morley for ABC Comedy. The Moth Effect was nominated for a 2021 AACTA for best comedy/entertainment series.

DARK MATTER

Bunya’s distribution arm has released features and documentaries including the features Mystery Road, Loveland, The Leadershipand Sanctuary. In 2023 Dark Matter released  the feature films We Are Still Here and Ivan Sen’s Limbo.

Bunya Media acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, learn and work.
Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
Members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are respectfully advised that this website contains images and voices of deceased people.