Samantha Lang is a filmmaker and visual artist who directs, produces and writes. Over the last twenty years her films have screened at major international festivals including Sundance, Toronto, Locarno, and have received international recognition at the highest level, her film ‘The Well’ competing at the Cannes Film Festival for the prestigious Palme D’Or. She has directed across feature films, TV drama, as well as commercials and most recently several VR films.

As well as being a creative practitioner, she has mentored, supervised emerging film directors in her capacity as Head of Directing at AFTRS (2010-2016), as well as at Create NSW and Screen Australia. She has served as President of the Australian Director’s Guild and was a founding member of the Gender Matters Initiative to redress gender and diversity imbalance in the sector. She has been on panels and juries at Australian and International film festivals, including Edinburgh and in South Korea, as well as holding filmmaker masterclasses at Stanford University. She currently serves as Deputy Chair for Australians in Film.

She currently serves as deputy chair on the board of Australians in Film, led by president, Emma Cooper. She was board president of the Australian Directors’ Guild (2015-22) leading on policy and programs that span the industrial, cultural, and professional arena. She was particularly focussed on the professional development of women, CALD & LGBTQI directors through programs such as DirectOne. From 2015 -2019 She also served on the inaugural Screen Australia Gender Matters Task Force across two terms. Recently she has presented papers on gender equity in South Korea and China.

In May 2023 Samantha graduated with a multidisciplinary doctoral thesis (PHD – Communications, Cultural Theory and Screen Media – University of Technology, Sydney) Her areas of interest include post-human poetics, environment and the Anthropocene.

Her company Hand Made Media is committed to producing films that unearth stories from diverse perspectives. With an eye and ear for emerging and established talent, Samantha is committed to finding authentic voices with an multi-cultural aesthetic. A social, ethical, ecological consciousness pervades all the Hand Made Media projects.

Samantha’s current projects include, a feature adaptation of cross-cultural romantic comedy ‘Kill The Messenger’ by playwright & comedian, Nakkiah Lui. Asian Australian YA feature ‘Laurinda’ by screenwriter & actress, Michelle Law). She directed her first VR film ‘Prehistoric VR’ in 2018 and her next VR ‘Anthropocene Project’ in 2019. Her most recent work in 2022 was Brown Lake – an artist moving image work installed in Moreton Bay Gallery and screened at ACMI and in the Asia-Pacific Triennale at GOMA.