Video: Birdie

Directed by Shelly Lauman and starring Maeve Dermody, “Birdie” is a drama about a woman walking alone in a train station who finds herself part of a sinister game after returning the smallest of gestures to a young man.

Running time: 7 minutes

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About the director:

From Sydney, classically trained as an actor in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts, Shelly Lauman‘s filmmaking career is preceded by nearly a decade of of work as an actor and theatre maker on some of Australia’s most prestigious stages.

In 2015, Lauman earned her Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory where she was awarded the AFI Richard P Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award of her graduating film WOMAN OUTSIDE. 

Lauman has also been recognized with other esteemed awards including the Glorias’ Fellowship, Mary Pickford Foundation Endowed Scholarship, Holleigh Bernson Memorial Scholarship and the AFI Scholarship, two years in a row. Her first short, TWO DUCKS, was the winner of the Audience Choice Award at the 2009 World of Women Film Festival in Sydney. WOMAN OUTSIDE has screened at numerous international film festivals including Palm Springs International Short Fest, Odense International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival and the UN Woman Global Voices Festival where it won Best Dramatic Short Film.

Her latest work, BIRDIE is the recipient of the Australian Director’s Guild / Metro Screen Production Fellowship. It premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a first for the studio. Lauman was nominated for Best Direction in a Short Film for BIRDIE, by the Australian Director’s Guild.

Gender, body and voicelessness are main themes of Lauman’s work.