Samantha has held numerous senior executive positions at Australian screen agencies including Screen Australia and Screen NSW, managing the creative development and financing of projects including The Sapphires and The Rocket. Jennings joined forces with Kristina Ceyton and founded Causeway Films in 2014 and worked on The Babadook (2013), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was an international cultural sensation as well as winning Jennings an AACTA Award for Best Film. Causeway was subsequently awarded a Feature Enterprise grant and Gender Matters Brilliant Careers grant to foster female screen talent. She co-produced Cargo (2017) starring Martin Freeman, which was Australia’s first Netflix Original feature film. It was released in May 2018 and nominated for five AACTA awards. This was followed by Buoyancy which premiered at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize. She received her first APSA nomination for Best Youth Feature Film for producing Buoyancy.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
