Judd Tilyard

Judd Lute Tilyard began acting at the age of 6, moved into writing and directing primarily for local theater while at High School. He began his career at 16, working for network Television as an assistant editor in the commercial division of NBN. Subsequently receiving a skills based scholarship to attend one of Australia's leading film schools, he relocated to Brisbane in 1996 and after graduating formed the production company MediaStorm Films. Over the following 3 years Judd gained notoriety amongst the Brisbane film scene as one of the founding members of MediaStorm, where as the youngest yet most experienced of the team, he produced, directed and edited multiple Corporate and commercial productions, as well as several Music videos and short films. As the partners of MediaStorm went their separate ways, Judd was keen to pursue these creative interests and formed DarcStorm, with writer and long time associate Andrew R Close, and shortly after Judd was offered the opportunity to develop and direct the short film "Sniffer". The youngest director financed by the Pacific Film and Television Commission, on a budget of this magnitude ($110K). Sniffer took two years to complete before going on to be awarded and screen at several prestigious festivals including Opening for "The Castle", at the inaugural Australia Week in LA and Curated by the American Film Institute (AFI). Unable to remain idle during this time, Judd assumed the role of Producer on "The Machine" an ambitious high concept Sci-Fi Short Film, from young Writer / Director Michel Craft. The film hit the festival circuit several months before Sniffer and became an international hit, winning several awards, screening at 40 plus festivals, and gaining the director representation (ICM). Simultaneously Judd was developing DarcStorm, leading to several contracts to provide Ongoing Visual displays, live and prerecorded, for several Brisbane Niteclubs and touring artists (GateCrasher, Roger Sanchez). Whilst developing "Spectrum" an interactive Drama based in the Club scene, which would ultimately lead Judd and Andrew to produce and present a sample of the revolutionary Parallel Action DVD technology, at the 2002 Screen Producers Association of Australia Conference in Melbourne, where they hosted a forum on Interactive Narrative. Wrapping up DarcStorm's Niteclub contracts, Judd began focusing solely on developing feature length work, both as a Producer and Director, attending several international markets and festivals, and financing his developments by shooting and directing music videos for several Australian and International acts. Still in demand as a short form Producer, Judd took on a proactive position to encouraging Local talent by working with several upcoming Queensland directors, including Clinton Isle, Paul Butler & Scott Walton, Stuart Mannion and Steven Kastrissios, he produced several independent Shorts as well as a further two Short Films for the Pacific Film and Television Commission, "Little Witches" and "Road Kill" utilizing the financial opportunities attached to film at Warner Studios and to work with established actor Ernie Dingo (Crocodile Dundee, Get Away). In 2006 Judd was approached by Music Video producer and associate, Roham Ghodsi with the opportunity to direct a low budget horror film. After 6 months of development and pre-production, a series of unfortunate incidents immediately leading up to, and during the first week of filming, saw the film canceled. What followed was a furious 3 month development and pre-production process on a new concept, "The Stitched" written by Judd, it was shot in two weeks leading up to Christmas on a minimum budget, and completed just 3 months later. However following talks with distributors, additional material was shot and the film as it stands was completed in late 2007, picking up a sales agent shortly after. During that time Judd remained an active force in the Queensland industry taking on the role of Producer for "Sleeper" an exciting independent Feature film in the Horror genre, from Writer / Director Dru Brown it mixed violence and thrills for dynamic affect. Later re-locating to Canada, Judd continued to produce high quality genre films, beginning with action/horror film "Battleground" which was later distributed by Epic Pictures. After producing the moving drama "To Our Bright White Hearts" which was directed by Sundance Alum Ayz Waraich, and co-producing the supernatural horror "Feed the Devil" Judd moved up to Executive Producing. Having gone on to Executive Produce various award-winning Irish and Canadian features, Judd continues to develop a full slate of exciting film and television projects, including a number of international co-productions.