OUR team
Tarek Chamkhi
Festival founder & co-director
Tarek journey with media production and content creation goes back to the early 1990s, then around 2016 he switched from journalism to factual filmmaking, his debut documentary is G’day Cameleers: The Story of the Australian Muslim Cameleers, the Pioneers of Inland.
Karina Sorelli
FESTIVAL CO-DIRECTOR
Karina Sorelli is a French actress, dancer and fitness instructor. She studied at the famous theatre school “Les Cours Florent” in Paris.
Karina is native French, she also speaks several languages fluently. Including: English, Italian, Spanish.
Conversational: Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Greek, AUSLAN. She has many accents in repertoire, such as: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Eastern European.
Hannah Iskomala
FESTIVAL PRODUCER
Hannah is the festival producer, who carries years of experience in social media management, grapghic design, filmmaking and multimedia in general.
Hannah interts going behind the film induistry into cooking, laboratory analysing, marketing and hiking.
OUR JUDGES
“Niam Itani is currently leading the acquisitions team at TRT World and is based in Istanbul. She started her corporate career at Al-Jazeera in 2005 where she produced programs for Al-Jazeera News Channel.”
“After finishing his master’s degree in films from Brunel University in London, He ventured into various genres of documentary practices. His film ‘Boumedienne’, shot in Algeria, France, and Tunisia was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in Journee Cinematographic d’Alger Film Festival.”
Louay Ali, born on December 7, 1960, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Baghdad. He is a member of several organizations, including the Artists Syndicate and the Iraqi Musicians Association. A skilled photographer, film editor, musician, and sound engineer, Louay worked at the General Organization for Cinema and Theater in Baghdad during the 1980s. He served as a sound engineer and director for the Babylon International Festival and participated in various music festivals in Baghdad. Currently, he is a jury member for the Multicultural Film Festival in Australia (2023 and 2024) and the Muslim Film Festival in Australia (2024).
“Suzanne is an accomplished screen professional with extensive experience in the arts and media industries. She is also Director of Brain Salad, Producer on several feature films and documentaries, Co-Director of UpBeat Events, and Curator for Film Festivals around the world.”
“He won The Best Director Award from Cheongju International Acting Awards South Korea Acting Festival 2020 for his play ‘Client City’. He published a poem ‘Reeds of House’ within the small poetry Museum in Italia, The Piccolo Museo Della Poesia Chiesa Di San Cristoforo, Italy 2020.”
Tibor Meszaros is a dedicated advocate for multicultural and inclusive media in community television, with over twenty years of experience producing award-winning programs. He served as General Manager of West Television (WTV), a platform for aspiring media professionals and local content. Tibor was named Senior Citizen of the Year in 2020 for his efforts to provide Perth residents with access to local free-to-air television. In 2023, he earned a Master of Media by Research, advocating for the community television sector’s rights to remain local and free-to-air. Tibor is also involved in a film festival that promotes diversity and inclusion, evaluating submissions from the Muslim Film Festival and the International Film Festival for the upcoming 2024 event in Perth.