Dr Christopher Gist

School of Communication, Media and Journalism

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Available For Media Comment.


Dr Christopher Gist is an awarded academic and screen content creator. In education, he is a PhD co-supervisor, adjunct research fellow at Adelaide University, and sessional academic at University of Melbourne VCA Film and Television. Nominations and award conferrals in education include: 2025, UniSA Creative faculty's nominee for UniSA's Research and Enterprise Higher Degree Researcher Award; 2024 recipient of University of California, Los Angeles Theatre, Film and Television school Alumni Association’s Distinguished Mentor Award; 2022, recipient of UniSA's Critically Creative Research Colloquium Award; and in 2015 he was the recipient of University of New England's Ian Loaney Prize in Politics. In his professional practice, Chris has developed and executive produced over 30 titles seen globally, from features to series television, commissioning and/or executive producing some of Australia's and New Zealand's highest rating and awarded dramas. His debut feature screenplay The World's Greatest Martini was selected by Screen Australia for New York's The Gotham IFP awards, and was production financed by Screen Australia and VicScreen; his co-written romantic comedy was production financed by Screen Australia; his comedy short The Op Shop won 11 Australian and international film awards; and his debut feature Darklands won an Australian Cinematographers Society award for cinematography, and was nominated both for Best Independent Feature for Australia’s premiere screen awards the AACTAs, and Best Director (feature under 1mil) by the Australian Directors’ Guild. In theatre, Chris's work has been performed at a range of festivals including the Queensland Music Festival, Tasmania's Festival of Voices, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Queensland Cabaret Festival, and the BL-NK project at Cube Space London. In new formats, Chris mentors and co-writes for international Vertical drama series, a recent title for DramaBox receiving over 120 million views. 

Year Citation
2026 Batty, C., Joseph, S., Böhm, C., Burne, P., Dabner, M., Flanagan, N., . . . Lees, B. (2026). Transforming screenwriting practice through doctoral research: reflections on post-PhD creative and industry practice. New Writing, 16 pages.
DOI
2025 Gist, C. (2025). Shadow Hollywood: vertical drama and cross-cultural writing - How new models of drama production are impacting current screen industry practice. Journal of Screenwriting, 16(2), 189-199.
DOI Scopus1
2025 Flanagan, N., Gist, C., Joseph, S., & Batty, C. (2025). The autoethnographic screenwriter: deepening insights and producing knowledge in the creative PhD. New Writing, 22(1), 37-54.
DOI Scopus2 WoS1
2021 Gist, C. (2021). THE ART OF SCREEN ADAPTATION: TOP WRITERS REVEAL THEIR CRAFT. JOURNAL OF SCREENWRITING, 12(1), 113-115.
DOI
- Gist, C. (2026). Where Am I in AI? Desktop Screen Production via AI Video Generation. Creative Matters, 33.
DOI

Chris has taught final year screenwriting students, supervised honours, and co-supervises HDR candidates. For students and HDR candidates, his teaching and research are informed by a significant track record in commissioning, executive producing, and writing screen content. 

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor Why is development hell? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Stephen Francis Luby
2025 Co-Supervisor Performance and the Performative: The Tension Between Intention and Outcome in Modern Corporatised Organisations - a comedy writing approach Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Craig Anthony Gilliver

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