Originally from Christchurch and having moved to the Waikato very recently, forty-nine year-old cinefile, Steve Austin started a career in performing arts over thirty years ago, amassing a huge number of performances, holding diplomas in both Performing Arts and Theatre Studies and has extensive past experience working as a self-published professional critic of film, TV & theatre, as a casting agent, an itinerant drama tutor and even a part-time cinema projectionist.
From 2005 to 2010, Steve was an integral part of the national management team of the hugely popular competitive event V48HOURS Furious Filmmaking.
More recently, he made his first starring role in a feature film, the low-budget Jaws homage Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws and was a member of the Programming Team for the 2022 edition of national short film festival Show Me Shorts.
Steve is extremely passionate about film in every aspect, which grew from a healthy obsession with movies and TV in childhood – his VHS copy of Bad Taste was particularly well-worn having been watched on a near-weekly basis. From a long stint as a jumped-up video store clerk at pre-streaming video rental outlet Fatso which cultivated a particular obsession with obscure cult cinema from around the world.
Frequently attending festivals, fan conventions & events across the globe, he views pop-culture deeply and critically from all angles, has a uniquely passionate perspective on the current output of mainstream movie culture and is always striving to grow and support the wider industry of modern independent filmmakers, especially locally.
He is currently the Lead Curator of Misty Flicks Film Festival and is in development on his first feature film, Operation: RAMBU!, following up on the success of his short film on the same subject for the Loading Docs platform.
