Inez Playford is an emerging Writer & Director with a Masters in Directing from AFTRS. Her debut short film, Rehabilitating premiered at Sydney Film Festival and screened at St Kilda Film Festival, Flickerfest International Film Festival and has been acquired by SBS for broadcast and SBS on demand, making it one of the first scripted short films to include disability content on their platform. 

The film explores the intricacies of chronic pain for young women. Inez prioritised disabled cast and crew members and further ensured an accessible set environment for the first time in AFTRS history.

Inez Playford was awarded the Stella Young Award in 2025 for her disability advocacy in the arts. 

Inez has been selected for the Createability internship program in partnership with SBS in 2025, 

The +SCREENSTORIES Mentorship program run in conjunction with Screen Canberra and the ADG in 2025 and the Australian Writer’s Guild First Break Program in 2026.

Inez’s other films have screened at Flickerfest Film Festival, St Kilda Film Festival, Canberra Short Film Festival, CINEVERSE Film Festival and internationally at Cambridge Short Film Festival, Forbidden World’s Film Festival (awarded Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy Film), the Jane Austen Film Festival (awarded Best Director for a drama short film) and Liverpool International Film Festival (award Best Film). Her work was also selected for use by the Swedish Helsingborg Symphonic Orchestra in a pedagogical concert series.

Alongside her filmmaking, Inez worked at SBS as the Diversity Inclusion Co-ordinator, contributing to the landmark Commissioning Inclusion Guidelines (2025–2028), developing internal processes for onboarding Access Coordinators, and creating SBS’s visual story. 

She has also worked as a casting assistant for acclaimed casting director Amanda Mitchell, where she assisted on prominent productions including ABC’s The Family Next Door and Austin and Sony’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. 

Across film and disability consultancy Inez Playford is passionate about diversity of representation and accessibility in the film and television industry.

If you would like to chat further. Feel free to contact her here