About

Thomas Caldwell is a writer, broadcaster, film critic, public speaker and film programmer based in Melbourne, Australia.

He is currently the Artistic Director of the Children’s International Film Festival (Australia), and was previously the Programmer for the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Artistic Director of the Europa ! Europa film festival

From 2020 to 2022 Thomas was the film reviewer on Afternoons on ABC Radio Melbourne and from 2014 to 2019 he discussed book to film adaptations on The Book Show (formerly Books and Arts) on ABC RN. From 2011 to 2017 he produced and hosted the film criticism show Plato’s Cave, every Monday night on Melbourne independent community radio station Triple R (3RRR 102.7FM), and from 2010 to 2015 he was the film reviewer on the Breakfasters every Thursday morning.

He is experienced moderating Q&As, hosting In Conversation events, taking part in panel discussions and delivering film as text lectures and workshops to students and teachers.

Thomas is the author of two film text guides as well as the secondary school textbook Film Analysis Handbook, which was published in 2005 by Insight Publications, with a revised edition published in 2017. His film reviews, articles and interviews have appeared in The Age, Overland Literary Journal, Senses of Cinema, Metro, Screen Education and The Big Issue.

He won the Ivan Hutchinson Award for Writing on Australian Film in the 2010, 2015 and 2022 Australian Film Critics Association (AFCA) Writing Awards. In 2022 he also won for the award for an Individual Review of an International Film.

Updated October 2023