TEAM
ABI TABONE
Producer
Abi is a Producer at Midwinter Films. She has produced short form series Over and Out, and Skitbox. She was Associate Producer on H is for Happiness, which premiered at MIFF and won Best Film at Cinefest Oz in 2019. H is for Happiness was nominated for 10 AACTA Awards. She co-produced The Butterfly Tree (MIFF and TIFF 2017). Abi has worked as a digital producer, making apps and digital platforms, with clients including Junkee Media, BBC and Channel 7.
With over 20 years experience in entertainment, working in technical production, Abi’s career has spanned theatre, events, television commercials, television shows and feature films. She spent a number of years working in operations and business development, with clients including The Wolverine, Australian Ninja Warrior, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here, Handa Opera’s West Side Story on Sydney Harbour, and Where the Wild Things Are.
Abi holds a Masters in Screen Arts and Business, a Graduate Diploma in Producing from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and an honours degree from Victorian College of the Arts in Creative Arts. Abi’s research work has been published in Lumina, The Conversation and Gig Nation. She is a member of staff at University of Technology, Sydney and at Compton School, Australia’s first business school for creatives.
GEMMA EASTON
Producer
Gemma cut her teeth on New Zealand’s iconic What Now, a magazine style family show that has been airing nationally since 1981. During her five seasons there as host and writer she clocked up over 400 hours of live broadcast television, working with a tight creative team to create and execute 40 x two hour episodes annually. What Now was awarded the TV Guide’s “Best on the Box” Award for all five seasons, with Gemma being nominated as TV Guide’s ‘Rising Star’ Award in 2012.
After moving to Australia in 2015, Gemma has gained credits as Associate Producer on feature film The Butterfly Tree (Toronto International Film Festival Official Selection 2017, MIFF Premiere Fund 2017, triple AACTA nomination), Associate Producer on feature film Harmony (currently streaming on Stan) and recently produced the Canneseries award winning web series Over and Out as well as the Google/Screen Australia supported series Skit Box. She was also one of six recipients of the New Zealand Someday Stories grant (supported by New Zealand on Air, the New Zealand Film Commission, Maori Television and Radio New Zealand) and with it produced the doco-short 2D Love (Doc NYC Official Selection 2019.)
Gemma currently splits her time between Sydney and Auckland.
LISA HOPPE
Writer & Producer
Lisa is an award-winning Australian screenwriter and producer of film and television. She wrote and produced H is for Happiness which received the 2020 Generation KPlus Jury’s ‘Special Mention’ prize at Berlinale, 10 AACTA nominations including Best Film, an AWGIE nomination for best Adapted Screenplay and a nomination for the 2020 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Betty Rowland Prize for Best Screenplay (among other awards around the world). H is for Happiness won Best Film at CinefestOz in 2019.
Lisa has a Graduate Diploma in Screen Business and a MA in Producing from AFTRS. She has produced a number of short films that screened around the world including Godel, Incomplete (starring Elizabeth Debicki), and the AWGIE Award winning Heck, which she also co-wrote. From 2017 to 2018 Lisa worked as a Creative Producer with A Stark Production, producers of children’s film and television content including The Deep, the international hit screened in over 130 countries. Lisa’s extensive experience as writer, script editor and script producer has seen her work on Australian TV shows across a range of genres and formats including Heartbreak High, All Saints, White Collar Blue, Hi 5 and Guess How Much I Love You.