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WA filmmaker and ECU alumna makes history

Monday, 15 June 2026

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  • Emilie, alumna and award winning filmmaker

    Emilie Lowe

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Edith Cowan University (ECU) alumna and filmmaker Emilie Lowe has been recognised as one of Australia’s most promising visual storytellers, winning a prestigious Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) award.

Ms Lowe was awarded the John Leake OAM ACS Emerging Cinematographer award, which includes a camera and optics rental package, which she said has come at the perfect time ahead of the start of her new film set in outback Western Australia in August.

The award is named in honour of ACS founder, John Leake OAM, who began his film career at the age of 15, and served as the society’s president and historian.

Ms Lowe, who graduated from ECU with a Bachelor of Arts in 2021, specialising in writing, said being told it was a unanimous decision from the judges, who both appreciated her work and saw great future potential in film, was a great honour.

Furthermore, being the first Western Australian cinematographer to win the award made it even more special, she said.

Forming her own company, Salt and Honey Productions while she was at university, and making her first feature film, The Canary while studying, filmmaking has been a lifelong passion for Ms Lowe.

From a young age, she has memories of her first foray making her own film during her primary school years.

“I first made films in my backyard when I was seven years old, on a camcorder, and now I'm making feature films,” she said.

She credits her time at ECU for giving her the confidence to get out there and try, to experiment and learn it was ok to fail but to learn from the experience.

“ECU gave me the backbone and the foundation that I need now to take that into my career,” she said.

“So having a good education is really important, and having supportive teachers and peers as well really helped motivate me.”

With several short films and documentaries under her belt, Ms Lowe remains living in Perth and is keen to continue to use local cast and crew in all the WA films she makes.

Ms Lowe – who is also a finalist in the 7 News Young Achiever Awards – said her next feature film project is called Dead Centre, which she describes as a “a quasi- Western” film.

“It's very much addressing humans' connection with nature, environmental change, and also how we need to work with nature,” she said.

Ms Lowe said without the passionate ECU lecturers she learnt from, she might not have had the belief that there was a future career for her in the arts.

“They were very enthusiastic - they really instilled a hope in me that you can go into this field - and it's not easy doing the arts, especially, founding your own production company - but they really gave me the confidence to go out there and try,” she said.

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