The annual Stella Young Award celebrates a young disabled person in the arts.
Inez Playford
The winner of the 2025 Stella Young Award is Inez Playford.
Inez is an emerging Writer, Director, and Producer with a Master of Directing from AFTRS whose work centres disabled, queer and intersectional storytelling. Her debut short film Rehabilitating premiered at Sydney Film Festival and screened at St Kilda Film Festival and Flickerfest before being acquired by SBS for national broadcast. The film was made on AFTRS’ first accessible film set, which Inez co-designed with disabled cast and crew, and has since become a teaching model for accessibility.
Her recent short The Mark premiered at St Kilda Film Festival, screened at Canberra Short Film Festival, Cambridge Short Film Festival and the Jane Austen Film Festival (UK), where she won Best Director. It was also selected by the Helsingborg Symphonic Orchestra (Sweden) for a pedagogical concert series. Her upcoming works include the sci-fi comedy Collect Call starring Ana Maria Belo, as well as This House Is Mine Now, a queer short film.
Inez is currently directing and producing a documentary following disability advocate and actor Bridie McKim as she challenges NDIS funding cuts, marking Inez’s expansion into documentary storytelling.
Alongside filmmaking, Inez worked at SBS as Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator, contributing to the Commissioning Inclusion Guidelines (2025–2028), developing onboarding processes for Access Coordinators, and creating SBS’s visual story. She also worked as a casting assistant for Amanda Mitchell Casting on productions including ABC’s The Family Next Door, Austin and Sony’s I Know What You Did Last Summer.
A former ADG and Screen NSW +ScreenStories delegate and Create NSW Createability intern, Inez also works as a disability consultant across the arts sector and is committed to culturally safe, inclusive storytelling.
The Stella Young Award recognises a young disabled artists aged between 16 and 30 years old for their impact on disability activism and culture through their artistic practice (in comedy, performing arts or screen culture).
The award is made possible by the amazing work and legacy of Disability Media Australia (formerly Grit Media). We thank everyone involved with the organisation and those involved in the production of ‘No Limits.’
