1976 - present

Allanah Zitserman has been a Bondi resident since her arrival in Australia with her family in 1980. They emigrated as Jewish refugees from Kharkov, Ukraine (formerly USSR).

Allanah is a dynamic filmmaker working across all aspects of the craft. She’s written and produced feature films, established multiple film festivals and distributed Australian films.

When Allanah was 18, while studying a Bachelor of Business and Communication at the University of Technology Sydney she founded ‘Barbarella’, a trendy nightlife destination in Sydney.

From there she leaped into the film industry, first working on Strange Planet starring Naomi Watts. In 1999 she then wrote Russian Doll, a romantic comedy starring Hugo Weaving. The film was a celebration of the Jewish and Russian community in Bondi. It became a local hit, was sold across the world and at the 2000 AACTA / Australian Film Institute awards, Allanah garnered the Best Original Screenplay award.

Following this, she wrote and produced Horseplay launching her into several international independent film festivals. Utilising this time to develop international networks, Allanah stayed in Europe interspersing script development in London and hosting exclusive events at the Marrakesh and Cannes film festivals.

Allanah returned to Australia in 2006 and was awarded the AFI Writer’s Fellowship. She started Dungog Film Festival (NSW) in 2007, an event devoted to celebrating and showcasing Australian films. Between 2007-2012 the festival summoned more than 50,000 attendees putting Dungog on the map for cinema lovers. Alongside this, she founded a distribution company specialising in releasing local independent films such as: Stone Bros. and The Combination to name a few.

In 2012 she staged the Cockatoo Island Film Festival in the heart of Sydney Harbour displaying an array of films and activities for thousands of cinéphiles.

In 2017, Allanah’s production company Lumila Films, named after her daughters, Lula and Mila, produced Ladies in Black. The film, directed by legendary filmmaker, Bruce Beresford, amassed great reviews and is now considered a classic of Australian cinema.

Allanah’s passion for creating screen content that explores Australia’s melting pot, lies at the heart of her experience growing up in Bondi.

Courtesy Allanah Zisterman.