Announcing Three New Sydney Film Festival Board Members

The appointments bring together expertise spanning film distribution, performance and writing, corporate governance, finance and strategy. Together they strengthen the Festival’s capacity to support Australian and international filmmakers, whilst guiding one of the country’s most significant cultural institutions at a time where SFF comes off a record box-office year in 2025.

Deb Eckersley joins the Sydney Film Festival Board as Treasurer, bringing more than 30 years’ experience across professional and financial services. A Chartered Accountant by training, she is the founder of Calaur Advisory and previously served as Group Executive, People and Culture at Bank of Queensland and Managing Partner, Human Capital at PwC Australia, advising major Australian companies on strategy, workforce transformation and organisational change. Eckersley currently sits on the boards of Technology One Limited and Chief Executive Women. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. 

Paul Wiegard joins the Board with extensive experience across film distribution and production. He is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Madman Entertainment, one of Australasia’s leading independent film distributors, which has released more than 35 Oscar-nominated films including Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall and Searching for Sugar Man. Wiegard has executive produced more than 50 feature films and documentaries including Nitram, The Australian Dream, The Giants and Girls Can’t Surf. He also founded the documentary streaming platform DocPlay in 2016 and currently serves on the boards of Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Screenrights.

Thomas Weatherall joins the Board after serving as a jury member at the 2025 Festival, as an award-winning actor and writer working across screen and stage. He is widely known for his role as Malakai Mitchell in the Netflix series Heartbreak High and as Frank Gardner in The Narrow Road to the Deep North directed by Justin Kurzel. His performance in Heartbreak High earned him an AACTA Awards honour for Best Supporting Actor and a Logie Awards award for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor. Weatherall is also an acclaimed playwright. His debut work Blue, developed through the Balnaves Fellowship, premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in 2023 to strong critical acclaim and later toured nationally and internationally. The play was nominated for the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2024.