Steven Arriagada
Directors, Writers
"The Judges Award went to Nathan Loves Ricky Martin by Steven Arriagada and Llewellyn Michael Bates – a disturbing but beautiful film ... " Filmink on Steven's short film
Steven Arriagada is an Indigenous Chilean-Italian screenwriter and director. Steven has lived experience within Australian crime networks and works as a consultant with this expertise on film and television projects. Demonstrating his versatility Steven was also a core writer on Stan’s heartwarming hit series BUMP in it’s first two seasons, writing four episodes and crafting the series with the key creators.
He has written on multiple feature film projects for Vocab Films. He is currently developing television projects with Goalpost in Australia and New Sparta in the UK.
Steven’s debut as director, writer and producer, NATHAN LOVES RICKY MARTIN was AACTA and Dendy nominated for Best Short Film. It ranked 6th in AACTA’s short films of the decade. He then adapted the short into a pilot, which was nominated for the AWG Monte Miller Award for best long-form script.
Steven has vast experience working in below-the-line production jobs, including shooting the Australian Open for ESPN and directing Hugh Jackman in video segments of his Broadway to Oz show.
He has also worked in development as Story Analyst for Studio Canal through the Australian Writers Guild /Scripted Ink. Steven won the Arclight / Chinalight feature film initiative through Screen Australia and won the Script Pipeline First Look competition. He has also been nominated for Best Short Film at Montreal Festival of New Cinema twice.
Steven shadowed showrunners Louise Fox and Tony Ayres on ABC/Netflix’s GLITCH (Season 3). He was director, writer and producer on short WATCH OUT FOR THE AUSTRALIANS!! starring Kuni Hashimoto (WOLVERINE), which was award nominated at Festival du Nouveau Cinema and St Kilda Film Festival. In 2022, he was 1 of 18 selected to participate in Netflix’s Grow Creative initiative.
Steven also works as a creative across several formats, including comic book creation, theatre and experimental visual arts.