Emma Franz

Film Director, Producer, Editor, writer

Emma Franz is an award-winning independent filmmaker. Her auteur-driven non-fiction films (which she produced, directed, shot, wrote and edited) have been broadcast on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Link TV USA, NHK Japan, ABC Australia, Sky Italy, YLE Finland and TV Catalunya Spain, and screened as far and wide as the USA, Australia, UK, Japan, Korea, Italy, France, Finland, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Singapore, New Zealand and Macedonia. They have enjoyed theatrical release at Laemmle Cinemas around Los Angeles and the IFC Centre, MOMI (Museum of the Moving Image), the Lincoln Centre and Jacob Burns Film Centre in New York, as well as a 13-city release in Korean cinemas.

Prior to her work in film and television, Franz worked as a professional musician for stage, television and radio around the world. She remains highly connected to music, writing and performing, and drawing on her passion for and experience of music practice to inform and inspire her film-making.

Professional film and music engagements have provided her the opportunity to work and collaborate in 35 countries over 6 continents.

Her first feature film, the hybrid-nonfiction Intangible Asset Number 82, screened in competition at many prestigious festivals and won Best Foreign Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival (2009), an AFI award in Australia for Best Sound in Documentary (2010), Audience favourite finalist in Sao Paolo International FIlm Festival Brazil and Melbourne International Film Festival Australia, as well as other awards and accolades globally.

Her second feature, Bill Frisell, A Portrait - a character portrait of the master guitarist - premiered as a Grand Jury finalist for Best Feature Documentary Award at the prestigious South by South West Film Festival, USA (2017), and went on to screen in competition at major film festivals around the world.

Franz has been invited to speak at such esteemed institutions as the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., the Lincoln Center and the Museum of the Moving Image New York, the Australia Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, and the National Sound and Film Archives, Australia. She has been the recipient of grants and sponsorships from Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Arts Victoria, ScreenWest, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australia-Korea Foundation.

She has worked as a post-production supervisor, story editor, vision editor, production assistant, camera operator, researcher and sound editor for various production companies on high profile Australian and international productions.

Events of note in her music career include being signed to Warner-Chappell Publishing and now to Alberts Music, doing over fifty feature performances for Australian television, being a finalist in the Australian Jazz Awards, fronting her own groups and performing with many of Australia’s most notable musicians, including Paul Grabowsky (AO), Allan Brown (AO), the Moovin’ and Groovin’ Orchestra, the B Sharp Big Band and others.

Franz holds First Class Honours for a Master of Fine Arts by Research (Interdisciplinary Arts Practice) from the Centre for Ideas, University of Melbourne.