Judging Panel

JOHN PAPSIDERA

John Papsidera started his professional career as a trained actor graduating from Florida State University with a BFA degree and attending post-Graduate studies at Circle in the Square in New York City.

Starting as a casting assistant at The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, John moved into feature film casting and worked on such big budget action films as Clear and Present Danger, The Net, Anaconda and Cutthroat Island.

Starting in 1997, Papsidera embarked on forming his own casting company and over the past 27 years has been the Casting Director for over 250 films and television projects.  His film credits include, the original Austin Powers, Boiler Room, Memento, Batman: Begins, The Longest Yard, The Prestige, Enchanted, The Dark Knight, Zombieland and Zombieland: Double Tap, Inception, The Grey, The Dark Knight Rises, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Gangster Squad, Men Women and Children, Interstellar, Venom, Uncharted, Dunkirk, Tenet, Honey Boy, The Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters; Afterlife, Ghostbusters; Frozen Empire, Twisters, Oppenheimer, Saturday Night, James Gunn’s Superman and The Odyssey.

Television credits include, HBO's If These Walls Could Talk, Live from Baghdad, Carnivale, Lackawanna Blues, Prison Break, Showtime’s Ray Donovan, Hulu’s Casual, Netflix’s Lost In Space, HBO’s Westworld, HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, Paramount’s Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Lioness, Lawman: Bass Reeves, The Offer, Land Man, The Madison, Netflix’s Wednesday and The Night Agent, Amazon’s Fallout and Mob Land for Paramount+.  His achievements in the field of casting include 35 nominations and six prestigious Artios Awards for outstanding casting and six nominations and two Emmys for his work in television. In 2025, John was also awarded the Hoyt Bowers Award for excellence in casting and his body of work and outstanding contribution to the casting profession.

Papsidera formed his entertainment company, automatic sweat, in the fall of 2000.  He opened with friend and Producer, Gavin Polone, a Hollywood restaurant, The Waffle in the Winter of 2007. An avid art collector, he owns and curates his own gallery, The Salon @ automatic sweat. John resides in Nashville and Los Angeles, still casts feature films and television, is in the process of producing two films and is still looking forward to new horizons of opportunity.

THEA MCLEOD

Thea McLeod is an accomplished Australian casting director and is currently serving her fourth year as President of the Casting Guild of Australia (CGA). In 2025 she marked 15 years casting Neighbours, which recently wrapped after four decades on air. During that time she discovered and nurtured a new wave of Australian talent, many of whom are now seen on screens around the world.

Her credits span film and television, including Better Man (SBS), Schapelle (Nine), Underbelly Files: The Man That Got Away (Screentime), City Homicide (Seven), and UK–Australia co-productions Lie With Me, Riptide, Heat, and the upcoming Imposter. On film, she has cast the award-winning Pawno, Netflix Original Measure for Measure (which she also produced) and most recently cast Her Aussie Romance, the U.S. feature film A. Rimbaud, plus numerous other productions over the years

ANOUSHA ZARKESH    

AACTA and Casting Guild award winning Casting Director Anousha Zarkesh has specialised in high end Australian TV and film for over 25 years. 

Based in Sydney, her casting agency has gained a reputation for a specialised service championing cultural diversity and inclusive casting. The agency takes pride in casting for a wide range of genres including political satire, drama, comedy, telemovies, documentary series and film. 

Her feature film productions include the multi award winning films: Noora Niasari’s Shayda (2023), Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy (2023) and Sweet Country (2017), Thomas M Wright’s The Stranger (2022), Rachel Perkins’ Jasper Jones(2017), Ben Young’s Hounds of Love (2016), and soon to be released The Correspondent (2024) by Kriv Stenders amongst others

For television, productions include Thou Shalt Not Steal (STAN), Ladies in Black (ABC), Territory (Netflix), Class of 07(Prime), Firebite (AMC)  Total Control 1, 2 (ABC) , Mystery Road Series 1, 2, 3 (ABC), Rake (ABC), Redfern Now (ABC), Cleverman (ABC, SundanceTV), The Principal (SBS), INXS: Never Tear Us Apart (Seven), Catching Milat (Seven), Black Comedy (ABC), and the Australian adaptation of The Office (Amazon, BBC).   Full biog - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0953514/  or https://www.zarkesh.com.au/

Anousha currently sits as Vice President of the Casting Guild of Australia, The Advisory Board of Screen Illawarra and is an active member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the CGA.

NIKKI BARRETT

Nikki Barrett has been casting Australian and international film and television for over 20 years.  Her work includes acclaimed features such as Bring Her Back, Furiosa, Elvis, Talk To Me, Nitram, Anyone But You, Thirteen Lives, Dangerous Animals, The Power of the Dog, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Babadook, Hacksaw Ridge, I Am Mother, The Nightingale,  Peter Rabbit,  The Proposition, Holding The Man, Mao’s Last Dancer, The Sapphires, Somersault, The Daughter,  The Railway Man and Candy. Recent television work includes the much loved series, Boy Swallows Universe and Justin Kurzel’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.