bio

Boobook Media is the company of Ella Millard - a creative events, immersive theatre and film producer.

Ella’s short Beautiful They by non-binary writer/director Cloudy Rhodes premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival before going on to screen at multiple festivals around the world, among them Outfest Los Angeles, Melbourne International Film Festival, and Hollyshorts Film Festival. Beautiful They was nominated for a 2021 AACTA Award for Best Short Form Drama, and Best Editing in a Short Film by the Australian Screen Editors Guild, and won Best Film at the 2022 Mardi Gras Film Festival’s OutFest, and Best Direction in a Short Film at the 2021 Australian Director’s Guild Awards.

Ella produced short film Girl and Body, written and directed by Charlotte Mars (Gayby Baby, Awake) which had its international premiere in competition at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020. Girl and Body premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, went on to receive awards and nominations at festivals around the world including Palm Springs Shorts Fest, St Kilda Film Festival, Oakland Short Film Festival, and Berlin Feminist Film Week, and was nominated for Best Achievement in Cinematography by the 2020 St Kilda Film Festival.

Ella was Development & Production Executive for Causeway Films and producers Kristina Ceyton (The Nightingale, The Babadook) and Sam Jennings (Buoyancy, Cargo), where she produced short film, Grace, by writer/director Alex Holmes. Grace was financed by Screen Australia, won Best Film at the 2018 Dublin Independent Film Festival, screened as part of the opening night selection of the 2018 St Kilda Film Festival, and has gone on to receive awards and nominations at festivals around the world.  

As a producer Ella has worked with a suite of creative Australian companies, developing and delivering large scale events and arts experiences. She was  Director of Operations for Sydney-based creativity agency Semi Permanent - the biggest design festival in the Southern Hemisphere - and was part of the original programming team behind the first three Dark Mofo Festivals for Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art, as well as also joining the programming team for several MONA FOMA Festivals. She was Executive Producer for seminal Australian theatre company Erth Visual & Physical Inc, overseeing the rollout of national and international tours, managing the day-to-day operations of the company, and working closely with their creative and design teams to produce projects in immersive theatre and virtual reality for partners and commissioning bodies including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; the Barangaroo Delivery Authority; Zoos Victoria; the Australian Film, Television and Radio School; Start VR; Mandylights Australia; Jacob Nash; Samantha Lang; and Sydney Festival. These works include Prehistoric VR – a short virtual reality film commissioned by ACMI which screened as part of the 2017 Adelaide Film Festival; and major immersive theatre experiences The Liminal Hour and Winter Camp commissioned by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority for Vivid Sydney 2018 and 2019.

Ella is an occasional tutor and guest lecturer in Event Management and Event Creation at the University of Technology’s School of Business. She is consultant producer and script consultant on several independent projects in development, and is currently based in Northern NSW where she is the Creative Programs Producer for Ballina Shire Council owned-and-operated Northern Rivers Community Gallery.