From Page to Screen: Art of Storytelling with Kelly Lefever, Shaun Grant and Tadji Ulrich
Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival
Do you want to write for film or TV? Do you want to know how to fund, create and direct a short film? What do writers need to consider when adapting a book to film? Join Kelly Lefever, Shaun Grant and moderator Tadji Ulrich as they dive deep into the world of screenwriting at the 2026 Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival. This informative session will give you all the answers, and a chance to ask an expert panel for advice.
Tadji Ulrich creates and directs short films. He is a multi-award-winning writer and director based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. His 2025 short film, The Wake, won the Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year at the 2025 edition of the Byron Bay International Film Festival. His previous projects have won top prize at the youth section of Tropfest and the inaugural Emerging Filmmaker Award from North Bellarine Film Festival.
Kelly Lefever is a long-time writer for TV. She has written, script produced, and script edited over 650 hours of television and feature films. A multiple award winner and nominee, she was awarded the Foxtel Fellowship in Recognition of an Outstanding and Significant Body of Work in 2024.
Shaun Grant has written and directed many films and TV episodes. He is a critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning screenwriter whose work has premiered at the world’s most prestigious film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. In 2025, he was the co-creator and sole writer of the Amazon Prime limited series, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He was also one of the writers on the film Penguin Bloom which starred Naomi Watts (King Kong, Mulholland Drive), Andrew Lincoln (This Life, The Walking Dead) and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Stork).
After the panel, audiences are invited to stay on for a screen of Penguin Bloom, the 2020 film based on the book of the same name by Cameron Bloom and Bradley Trevor Greive. The book and film are based on a true story of Sam and Cameron Bloom's family and their interactions with an Australian magpie named "Penguin".
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