Sophie Byrne is an award-winning film and TV producer with over 30 years of industry experience both in London and Melbourne and is best known for her work on the initial pilot and original music videos for the hugely successful concept band Gorillaz, the expansion of the cult brand Scarygirl and for producing the Academy Award-winning animated short The Lost Thing.
Her production company, Highly Spirited, is the offspring of Oscar-winning production company Passion Pictures Australia. Based in Melbourne, Highly Spirited has many high-end independent film, TV and new media projects in various stages of development and production including an animated feature film based on Nathan Jurevicius’ acclaimed Scarygirl concept (with co-producers Like a Photon Creative), the high-end TV series Tales from Outer Suburbia with co-production partners Flying Bark Productions based on Shaun Tan’s award winning children’s book of the same name, and a music-driven kids TV series based on AFL star Eddie Betts’ best-selling picture books, Eddie’s Lil Homies.
Highly Spirited was also a Supervising Producer of the recent 2D animated feature film Where Is Anne Frank, directed by Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir).
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.
