Photo Credit: Andrew Cowen
From Sydney, classically trained as an actor in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts, Shelly’s filmmaking career is preceded by nearly a decade of of work as an actor and theatre maker on some of Australia’s most prestigious stages.
In 2015, Lauman earned her Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory where she was awarded the AFI Richard P Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award of her graduating film Woman Outside. During her course she was the recipient of the AFI scholarship for two consecutive years. Woman Outside has screened at numerous international film festivals including Palm Springs International Short Fest, Odense International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival and the UN Woman Global Voices Festival where it won Best Dramatic Short Film.
Shelly has also been recognized with other esteemed awards including the Glorias’ Fellowship, Mary Pickford Foundation Endowed Scholarship, Holleigh Bernson Memorial Scholarship. Her first short Two Ducks was the winner of the Audience Choice Award at the 2009 World of Women Film Festival in Sydney.
Shelly’s latest work Birdie was the recipient of the Australian Directors’ Guild / Metro Screen Production Fellowship. It premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a first for the studio and was nominated in the 2019 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards.
Shelly is a 2024 Screen Australia Enterprise People recipient via which she will be take up a role at Easy Tiger Productions.
Gender, body and voicelessness are main themes of her work.
http://www.shellylauman.com/
