Biography
Michela Ledwidge is a director redefining the space between cinema and immersive interactive experience. She created the first website in NSW as part of a Computer Science Honours thesis, the National Library of Australia’s inaugural web service and early VRML prototypes for Australia’s first web agency Next Online in the 90s. Throughout a decade in London Michela worked on many pioneer projects including the launches of Reuters’ Euro currency systems, e-commerce startup boo.com and the video-on-demand service BBC iPlayer. In 2001 she won the SIGGRAPH web3D art prize for her real-time animated short, Horses For Courses. She received a NESTA Invention award for ‘remixable film’ architecture in 2004, which led to the formation of UK startups MOD Films and Rack&Pin. Returning to Australia she won the inaugural Sydney Film Festival Peter Rasmussen Innovation Award in 2009 and co-founded Studio Mod in 2010. Michela was a producer on the 2013 International Emmy Award winning multi-platform series dirtgirlworld. She is currently CEO of Studio Mod and Vice President of the Australian Directors Guild. She has been creative and technical lead on many products including experience platform Rack&Pin, touring show ACO Virtual and immersive experience, Action Stations! onboard two vessels moored at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Michela’s first investigative journalism project is in development as a room-scale VR/MR experience.