In Conversation: Liam Young & Natasha Wanganeen

Liam Young is a designer, director, and BAFTA-nominated producer working at the intersection of design, fiction, and futures. Described by the BBC as "the man designing our futures," his films and speculative worlds explore both tomorrow’s possibilities and today’s urgent environmental challenges.

As a worldbuilder, Liam has contributed to projects like the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated Swan Song (Apple), the upcoming Gattaca series (Sony/Showtime), and Folding City (Wanda). His own films have premiered at prestigious platforms including SxSW, Tribeca, and the Venice Biennale, and are featured in international museum collections such as the V&A and M+ Hong Kong. He also leads the groundbreaking Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles and has published several books, including Planet City and Machine Landscapes.

Natasha Wanganeen is a proud Indigenous actress whose career began with a starring role in the 2002 film Rabbit Proof Fence at age 15. Her extensive work includes notable TV roles in Redfern Now, The Secret River, Firebite, MaveriX, and the upcoming Thou Shalt Not Steal. Her film credits include Cargo, A Second Chance: Rivals, Storm Boy, and Dark Place. In 2023, she appeared in Ivan Sen’s Limbo, which was nominated at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Natasha also has a strong theatre background, with roles in productions like Holy Day, Bullies House, and The Cherry Pickers. She is currently developing her own independent film, Battle of the Ancestors, and co-wrote and co-produced the 2022 short film Bunker: The Last Fleet, a sci-fi drama about an alien invasion in Australia.

Amanda Haskard is a Tatungalung & Brabralung curator living in Naarm (Melbourne).

Primarily working with moving image, sound and installation, Amanda’s curatorial work & research explores duality and experimentation, often through themes of memory, ritual and resistance. Projects are site responsive, highly collaborative and embrace a cross-disciplinary approach. Amanda is committed to working in non-traditional modes and across art-forms, and is passionate about creating a culture of interconnectedness in her curatorial work which values new ideas, experimentation and difference.

Amanda has held curatorial and leadership positions with Firstdraft, the Centre for Projection Art and SIGNAL. She was a founding member of Animatism, a collective facilitating artistic action and creative exchange with Timor-Leste. The project received several accolades including the University of Melbourne’s Vice Chancellor Engagement Award. 

Amanda is a Curator at ACMI, lectures with RMIT School of Architecture and Design, and holds a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.