Cameron Nelson

Lecturer (Teaching Specialist (Clin))

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

place Bedford Park (3103)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Cameron Bruce Nelson is a writer/director whose award-winning first feature, Some Beasts, was chosen to participate at the IFP Narrative Labs, the U.S. in Progress-Wroclaw, and received an Austin Film Society post-production grant. The film went on to screen at both national and international festivals and received a physical and streaming release via Turn Key Films. His most recent short films, Pillars and Comforter, World Premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2020 and 2021. Pillars won the jury award for Outstanding US Narrative Short at the DC Shorts festival and received praise from Film Threat, which called it “brief, quiet, and tightly composed, but brimming with passion and regret and loss.” Cameron is a graduate of Black Factory Cinema's workshop in Cuba, where he was mentored by Abbas Kiarostami. He holds an MFA in Screenwriting/Directing from Columbia University's School of the Arts, where he was awarded a Janowsky Screenwriting Fellowship, the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Grant, and the Lisa Rubin Award for Screenwriting. His producing credits include Frank Mosley's Her Wilderness and Daniel Laabs' Jules of Light and Dark, which won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Narrative Feature at LA Outfest and New York’s Newfest and was the recipient of a SFFILM/Kenneth Rainin Filmmaking Grant. Cameron was a Narrative Features Programmer for the 2021 edition of the Slamdance Film Festival and has served as a juror for the Slamdance Film Festival's Screenplay Competition for the 2021 and 2022 editions. At Columbia University, Cameron taught Non-Fiction Film and served as a Teaching Assistant for Professors Richard Peña and Ronald Gregg. Cameron is an alumni and mentor for The Gotham (formerly IFP) and serves on the Austin Film Society's Film Advisory Committee, where he mentors rising filmmakers. He currently serves as a lecturer in Screen at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.

Qualifications

M.F.A. in Film, Screenwriting & Directing, Columbia University, New York, October 2020.

B.A. with High Honors in History and Cultural Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin,
December 2004.

Honours, awards and grants

2020 Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant (Columbia University)

2020 Outstanding US Narrative Short, DC Shorts (Pillars)

2019 Lisa Rubin Award for Best Pilot Screenplay (Columbia University)

2019 Grand Jury Prize, Best Narrative Feature, Outfest (Jules of Light and Dark)

2019 Austin Film Society Travel Grant (Jules of Light and Dark)

2018 Grand Jury Award, Narrative Feature, NewFest (Jules of Light and Dark)

2017 IFP Narrative Labs, Official Selection (Jules of Light and Dark)

2017 U.S. In Progress, Paris, Official Selection (Jules of Light and Dark)

2016-2020 Janowsky Fellowship in Screenwriting (Columbia University)

2016 IFP IFP No Borders, Official Selection (Jules of Light and Dark)

2016 Jury Award, Sarasota Film Festival (Some Beasts)

2016 Hammer to Nail Short Film Contest, Winner (Casa de mi Madre)

2015 Jury Award, Dallas International Film Festival (Some Beasts)

2015 Jury Award, Knoxville Film Festival (Some Beasts)

2015 Best Narrative Feature, Virginia Film Festival (Some Beasts)

2015 Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award, IndieMemphis (Some Beasts)

2015 Austin film Society Production Grant (Jules of Light and Dark)

2014 IFP Narrative Labs, Official Selection (Some Beasts)

2013 Austin Film Society Post-Production Grant (Some Beasts)

2013 U.S. in Progress, Wroclaw, Official Selection (Some Beasts)

2011 Austin film Society Production Grant (Jules of Light and Dark)

Topic coordinator
SCME2072 Screen Production Techniques 5
SCME2073 Screen Production Techniques 6
SCME1072 Screen Production Techniques 3
SCME3071 Screen Production Techniques 8
SCME1005 Introduction to Postproduction
SCME8002 Introduction to Postproduction
Topic lecturer
SCME1070 Screen Production Techniques 1
SCME1060 Screen Production Techniques A
SCME2072 Screen Production Techniques 5
SCME2073 Screen Production Techniques 6
SCME1072 Screen Production Techniques 3
SCME9001 Screen and Media Production, Major Project
SCME9011 Major Project Documentation in Screen and Media Production
SCME9012 Screen and Media Production Creative Project and Exegesis
SCME1005 Introduction to Postproduction
SCME3071 Screen Production Techniques 8
SCME8002 Introduction to Postproduction