John Smithies, Director, CDN
John has studied and worked extensively in the field of cinema programming, new media arts exhibitions, and screen education. He studied at the Tasmanian School of Art, the South Australian School of Art, Monash University and the Academy of Fine Art Karlsruhe, Germany. From 1992, John was Director of the State Film Centre of Victoria until its merger with Film Victoria in 1997 to form Cinemedia. At Cinemedia, John was Deputy Director, with prime responsibility for developing the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). John was Chief Executive Officer of Cinemedia in 2000, and became the first CEO for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in March 2002. He was responsible for opening the new public facilities at Federation Square in Melbourne in October 2002. In addition to his role as Director of CDN, John still works on new and innovative technology based projects and is returning to development of his own arts practice.