Lighting design
AACTA Festival 2026: Panel Discussions
Lighting for the conversations behind Australian screen culture. Wes designed the lighting for AACTA Festival's panel discussions at HOTA during the 2026 festival weekend.
Explore the production- When
- 7 and 8 February 2026
- For
- HOTA, Home of the Arts
- Where
- HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast
The panel stage and audience seen from the auditorium.
Screen culture, beyond the awards ceremony
AACTA Festival returned to HOTA on the Gold Coast from 4 to 8 February 2026. Alongside the awards, its programme brought filmmakers, performers, industry professionals and audiences together through screenings, interviews, workshops and panel discussions.
The festival announced more than 100 events and over 300 on-stage participants across the wider programme. The panels offered audiences a different encounter with screen work: the people behind it discussing their craft, careers and the development of films and television.
Lighting the people in the conversation
Krank'd's work was the lighting design for panel discussions on 7 and 8 February, led by Wes. In this format, the speakers are the focus, with several people sharing the stage and taking turns to address each other and the audience.
The design focused on the panel format within the larger festival. This followed our lighting design for How to Make Gravy: Live in Concert at AACTA Festival 2025, moving from the pace of a music programme to an event led by conversation. Both centred on the people bringing Australian screen stories to an audience, through two very different stage formats.
