Kate Vinen is an award-winning film director known for crafting restrained yet visceral narratives that illuminate interior and otherworldly realms. A graduate of the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School (Directing), she has been mentored by visionary filmmakers including Lynette Wallworth, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Joshua Oppenheimer, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Alena Lodkina, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Her poetic short 'Acts for the Invisible' (2021) premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Sydney Film Festival (SFF) before screening at the Australian International Screen Forum (Lincoln Centre, NYC) and winning the prestigious CILECT CAPA Best Film: Documentary (2022). The film was showcased at numerous international festivals, including DocEdge, Short Shorts, and the Newport Beach Film Festival.
In 2022, her short 'Hopeful Romantic' debuted at the Oscar-qualifying 32nd Flickerfest and won five awards at the Australian Women’s Film Festival including Best Screenplay and Best Film. The film screened at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Oska Bright (UK), Bentonville Film Festival (USA) and is currently streaming on Stan.
Selected for the 2022 Playlab Films Creators Lab in the Peruvian Amazon, Vinen directed Mitayero under the mentorship of Palme d’Or-winning Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Memoria, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). The film premiered at Antenna Documentary Film Festival and was showcased at Thessaloníki International Short Film Festival (TiSFF), Slow Film Festival, and was selected to screen on Filmin VOD in Spain and Portugal.
Vinen is also a 2022 alumni of the prestigious Adelaide Film Festival Expand Lab, where her project 'The Ingress' was shortlisted and funded for development as a moving image commission for the Samstag Museum of Art. She has received commissions from AFTRS & SCCI and ANAM & AFTRS, directing the short films 'The Caretakers' and 'Resonance', which premiered at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival.
Her latest short fiction 'Flow' was shot in Sydney, Australia. She is currently developing her debut feature, 'If God Has Teeth' and co-directing 'Consensual' with Rebecca Barry for Media Stockade.
