Industry Mentorship & Training: Special Guest TONY AYRES

INDUSTRY MENTORSHIP & TRAINING PROGRAM. A not-for-profit initiative facilitated by Tony Ayres (Multi award-winning Show Creator, Showrunner, Screenwriter, Director & Executive Producer), Pino Amenta (Executive Television Producer & Director), and Craig McMahon (Founding Artistic Director & International Artist Manager).

In Studio I 163 Victoria Avenue, Albert Park, Melbourne I 6 Week Program

$273 + GST
Commencing September 5, 2026 I 10:00am – 12:00pm

Actors will have a rare opportunity to work with Tony Ayres, one of Australia’s most acclaimed and influential screen creators, writers, producers, and directors. Tony has spent decades creating, developing, and overseeing award-winning film and television productions while working closely with actors, directors, writers, producers, and casting professionals. Tonys feature films and TV shows have been nominated for over one hundred Australian and International awards, and have won over sixty of these awards including International Emmy, a BAFTA, a Golden Horse (the Asian Oscars), Prix de Jours, AACTAs, IFs, AFIs, Logies & SPA Awards. 

Participants will be working with original material developed by one of Australia’s most celebrated storytellers, gaining invaluable insight into the creative process from page to screen. For performers, this initiative provides a unique pathway to gain firsthand insight from a creative leader whose work has helped shape contemporary Australian screen storytelling and launched the international careers of many screen artists.

As showrunner and executive producer, Tony is ultimately responsible for the final casting decisions, working in collaboration with studio and network executives.

Participants will also be mentored by Pino Amenta (multi-award-winning executive producer, show creator and director: Wentworth, High Country, Home & Away) and Craig McMahon (Founding Artistic Director & International Artist Manager).

Throughout the program, actors engage in intensive on-camera training, receive detailed professional feedback, and develop practical strategies grounded in current industry expectations, working directly with three exceptional mentors at the highest level of the screen industry.

Tuition contributes solely to program delivery, including mentors, guest contributors, and studio operations. The program runs not-for-profit as a genuine initiative to support and elevate access to world-class actor training.

TONY AYRES feature films and TV shows have been nominated for over one hundred Australian and International awards, and have won over sixty of these awards including an International Emmy, a BAFTA, a Golden Horse (the Asian Oscars), Prix de Jours, AACTAs, IFs, AFIs, Logies & SPA Awards. Tony is listed as one of the most influential figure heads of all time in the Australian Film & Television Industry.  He is one of Australia’s most prolific and award-winning showrunners, screenwriters, directors and executive producers who makes world-class content. Producing over 60 titles since 2012, he has worked with every network in Australia and various international buyers and commissioners. He is one of the founding members of Matchbox Pictures, now owned by NBCU. In 2018 Tony established his own production company Tony Ayres Productions (TAP), developing and producing feature films and television for global audiences and international marketplaces.

Tony executive produced multi-award winning mini-series, The Survivors, based on Jane Harper’s best-selling novel of the same title, and co-wrote the hit Netflix miniseries Clickbait, nominated for Best Drama Series at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards (and starring Film & Television Studio International Full-Time Program Graduate Phoenix Raie). Tony executive produced the ABC miniseries Fires. Fires won the AACTA Award for Best Miniseries or Telefeature and the TV Week Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie. Tony’s recent releases have followed on from the great success of Stateless, (ABC) a miniseries starring Cate Blanchett that Tony executive produced and wrote. Stateless was the winner of Best Miniseries or Telefeature at the AACTA Awards. Tony was an executive producer on Creamerie, Wanted, Glitch and The Family Law, and produced miniseries Barracuda and Seven Types of Ambiguity. Tony also executive produced Old School, and the contemporary reimagining of The Devil’s Playground.

Tony created and executive produced Nowhere Boys and the telemovie based on the series, Nowhere Boys: The Book of Shadows, which had a cinematic release in 2016. The series is internationally-acclaimed, winning the AACTA for Best Children’s Television Series, a Logie Award, a Prix Jeunesse International Award, and a nomination for a Children’s BAFTA Award. Tony’s other television credits include The Slap and its US remake, Underground: The Julian Assange Story, The Straits, and Saved.

Tony’s first feature film, Walking on Water, won the Teddy Award at Berlin in 2002, and five AFI awards, while his second feature, The Home Song Stories, premiered at Berlin and won 24 Australian and international awards, including eight AFI Awards. His third feature, Cut Snake, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014 and screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Tony has a number of productions slated for 2026/2027, including the greatly anticipated upcoming series, Toxic.

CRAIG MCMAHON is the Founder and Director of McMahon Management, one of Australia’s leading boutique talent agencies representing actors across Australia and the United States. With over three decades in the film and television industry, Craig is recognised for his ability to identify, develop, and strategically guide exceptional talent.

Founded in Melbourne more than 20 years ago, McMahon Management has grown into two complementary divisions: McMahon Management, focused on nurturing emerging talent, and McMahon Management International, representing established actors working on the global stage. Together, they provide tailored career management for artists at every stage of their journey.

In 1999, Craig and his wife Dominique co-founded Film & Television Studio International, now one of Australia’s most respected screen acting schools. Through both the agency and the studio, Craig continues to mentor and develop the next generation of performers.

A highly respected industry figure, Craig serves as an ongoing judge for the TV WEEK Logie Awards and has received national recognition for his contributions to the Australian entertainment industry, including Most Outstanding Achievement of the Year Award for over a decade of creative excellence at Network Ten, spanning presenting, producing, and writing. Today, he divides his time between Melbourne, Los Angeles, and New York, providing hands-on guidance to clients while leading McMahon Management’s continued success in international talent representation.

PINO AMENTA is one of Australia’s most prolific and enduring film and television Directors and Series Producers.  Winner of an AACTA Award for Best Television Drama for Wentworth, he then went on to become the series producer in 2016 from the 4th season onwards. Currently directing Home and Away, and prior that series producing High Country, Five Bedrooms, and TV Mini-Series Darby and Joan, Pino began his career as a television director in the mid to late-1970s, through shows such as Chopper Squad (1978) and The Sullivans (1976).  Over nearly five decades, he has directed 800 Words; Winners and Losers; The Doctor Blake Mysteries; Worst Year of My Life, Again!; Packed to the Rafters; Conspiracy 365; City Homicide; All Saints; Mortified; Holly’s Heroes; Last Man Standing; Silversun; Noah & Saskia; Always Greener; Marshall Law; Beastmaster; Crash Palace; The Lost World; Flap Chat; Chuck Finn; Crash Zone; Farscape; Blue Heelers; Good Guys Bad Guys; Snowy River: The McGregor Saga; Us and Them; All Together Now (92 Episodes!); Acropolis Now; The Flying Doctors; Boulevard of Broken Dreams; Nancy Wake; Sons and Daughters; My Brother Tom; Anzacs; Carson’s Law; All the Rivers Run; Taurus Rising; Bellamy; Cop Shop; Young Ramsay; and many more.  

Over the past five decades, he has directed and/or series produced some of Australia’s finest actors (some in award winning performances), including Leah Purcell, Chris Hemsworth, Susie Porter, Ryan Corr, Marta Dusseldorp, Aaron Jeffery, Orpheus Pledger, Danielle Cormack, Kate Jenkinson, Kate Atkinson, Katrina Milosevic, Celia Ireland, Socratis Otto, Sigrid Thornton, Robbie Magasiva, Georgie Parker, Erik Thomson, Denise Scott, Craig McLauchlan, Nadine Garner, Roger Corser, Anna McGhan, John Wood, Pamela Rabe; Tammy Macintosh, Nicole Da Silva, Bernard Curry, Rebecca Gibney, Michael Caton, Hugh Sheridan, Angus McLaren, Jessica Marais, James Stewart, Jessica McNamee, Zoe Ventoura, Brooke Satchwell, Shane Bourne, Noni Hazelhurst, Daniel McPherson, Libby Tanner, Judith McGrath, John Howard, Marny Kennedy, Kate Box, Zoe Terakes, Maia Mitchell, Matt Passmore, Damien Bodie, Kat Stewart, Michala Banas, Scott Major, Nathanial Dean, Grant Bowler, Lisa McCune, Alison Whyte, William McInnes, Anne Phelan, Jane Hall, Francis Greenslade, Radha Mitchell, Kerry Armstrong, Jane Hall, Gary Sweet, Caroline Gilmer, Bryan Brown, John Waters, Stephen Peacocke, and so many more.  Too many to list.  His contribution to the Australian film and television industry has been incredible.