The Sydney Film Industry Meetup Group

The Sydney Film Industry Meetup Group is a collective of some 500+ film-makers based in Sydney, and was founded by Ian Nicholson in 2007.

The group has already made numerous Tropfest entries, with some actually making it through to the finals and winning prizes.

The group comprises of writers, cameramen, editors, directors, actors, musicians and other talented crew. Membership is free, and the only joining criteria is that you have a passion for making film.

About the Producer

Dan Feuerriegel, Ian Nicholson and Matuse at Tropfest 2007.

Ian Nicholson has made over 20 short films since 2006 as Producer, Writer, Director, Director of Photography, or all four!

In 2007, he shot and helped direct, 'Between the Flags' by Jayce White, that won Best Comedy and Best Male Actor at Tropfest 2007.

He has studied Documentary Video Making at the University of Sydney under John Buckmaster, and is about to complete his 5-Year Part-Time Advanced Acting Diploma at the Screen Actors Workshop under Alan Nurthen. He has also studied American Standard Accents under Bill Pepper of NIDA.

In 2007, he completed the intensive Hollywood Film Institute's course as a Certified Cinema Director and Line Producer Emeritus under Hollywood veteran Dov S.S. Simens, who has taught director/producers like Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino, Chris Nolan and Will Smith.

Besides acting in several short films, Ian has appeared in a number of TV commercials for Abbey National, Sanitarium, and Virgin Mobile.

More recently, he has appeared on stage playing Inspector Cray in Agatha Christie's 'The Patient' (director Roz Riley), a Russian thug in the Fox TV mini-series 'False Witness' directed by Peter Andrikidis, and played one of Danny Huston's henchmen in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Gavin Hood.

In 2007, he founded the Sydney Film Industry Meetup Group which has grown to over 500 members, and is the Executive Producer of their new 6-part TV series 'Strange Fiction', for which he has written several episodes.

Nicholson got the idea when, after sending three scripts off to Bryan Brown for his Two Twisted series that came back rejected, decided "Bugger him!" and set out to produce a separate, more superior series.

Ian is also a partner of www.mycitylifestyle.tv and has produced a number of corporate videos.

He is currently working on several feature films as screenwriter, teaches short film making for the Screen Actors Workshop and the Manly-Warringah Community College, and took up the role of 1st Assistant Director in a new Australian feature production, 'Slag: Best Enemies'.