Richard Sowada

Festival Director & Freelance Curator

Sowada has been an active player in the Australian Screen Culture sector for three decades.

As founder of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 1997 and remaining as the festival’s Director, Sowada has built a national reputation as an innovative film and art curator and vocal advocate of screen culture activity in Australia.

From 2006 until 2015, Sowada was Head of Film Programs at the country’s leading screen culture organisation, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) during which time he sat on the ACMI Executive team and programmed some of the institute’s most successful film programs.

He is currently Director of the St Kilda Film Festival, is undertaking a PhD examining the cycles of Australian film distribution and exhibition, He has previoulsy curated the Melbourne, Perth and Fremantle Design Week film programs, and the Melbourne and Perth International Jazz Festival film programs. He also curated the Big Screen regional touring film festival for the National Film and Sound Archive/Screen Australia (2001-2024).

Sowada has previously acted as script and project assessor for ScreenWest Creative Victoria and Vic Screen and was Conference Director  for the 2001 Australian International Documentary Conference. He is also a regular lecturer in cinema and monthly film reviewer for Melbourne ABC 774 radio.