Spotlight on Women Directors: Billie Pleffer
As part of a regular series with Free The Bid Australia, Campaign Brief shines the spotlight on top female commercials directors in Australia and New Zealand…
Billie Pleffer is a director at EXIT Films.
Three best spots:
Foxtel ‘Cup‘
Billie is an award winning writer and director. With two awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, an Australian Writers Guild Award, and ADG and AACTA nominations under her belt, Billie has just made the leap to long form writing and directing the episodic pilot series DEADLOCK. An original youth focused high-octane drama, commissioned by the ABC, currently playing on TV and iView.
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Billie is the recipient of the Screen NSW Emerging Filmmakers Fund, Screen Australia’s Hot Shot Program, the Talent Escalator Fund and in 2018, Screen Australia’s Talent USA. Her shorts have played at prestigious festivals nationally and internationally from the Berlinale to the Sydney Dendy Awards.
Billie has a unique eye and a poetic visual language and is driven to create work which subverts the familiar in striking and surprising ways.
Says Pleffer: “I aspire to make spots which are visually striking or emotionally powerful, that hook you in. Intriguing because they subvert the ordinary, joyous in their dark humor and levity, electrifying, fast and furious or moody and poetic. Spots, which connect to humanity in honest authentic performances. High concept, elevated spots which tell a story in a frame that is so arresting, inspiring, moving or strange that you are still thinking about it the next day.”
Since launching a year ago, Free The Bid has 200 Australian Women Directors on its searchable database. Free The Bid now has over 20 major agencies that use the database to find the right director for each of their projects and have committed to putting one female director in the mix for every job.