Patrick Kelly 

Senior Lecturer, Media & Communication

A screen production scholar, Patrick is a leader in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, integrated scholarship, and Work Integrated Learning (WIL), and the translation of creative screen & media practice into real world settings.

Patrick is a screen production scholar with a strong track record in research, teaching, and engagement, who is passionate about fostering diverse and inclusive communities around screen culture and creativity. He has held a number of leadership positions at RMIT, including as Program Manager of the Bachelor and Master of Media programs and Director of the Screen & Sound Cultures research group. He has attracted $81,500 in research funding, incl. $16,500 for L&T projects. In 2019, he was the Conference Producer of Sightlines: Screen Production in the Academy, a major international gathering of screen production scholars and practitioners, and currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Australian Screen Production Education & Research Association and the Melbourne WebFest Board, as well as the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Group for the international documentary conference Visible Evidence. In 2025, he was lead editor of the Senses of Cinema dossier ‘My Formative Queers: Stories of the Music Videos that made us Queer’. His creative research outputs have been exhibited nationally and internationally.

You can find information about Patrick’s work as a filmmaker, researcher, and teacher (including his industry partnerships) in the respective pages of this website.

From 2014-2016, Patrick served as a Co-Director of Critical Animals creative research symposium and media arts exhibition, which takes place in Newcastle during October of each year, as part of This Is Not Art festival.

He has worked in film and television production for Network Ten, Jonathan M Schiff Productions, and LCR Filmsound. He worked in development and pre-production on 'Are We Not Men? The Devo Documentary'. He also works as a freelance videographer, editor, writer and project manager. His written work about media has appeared in the Journal of Creative Technologies, Altitude Journal, Critical Animalia, ABC’s The Drum, The Conversation, Fairfax, Mumbrella, The Lifted Brow, and M/C Reviews.

He has taught a wide range of media theory and practice courses at RMIT, Swinburne, and Deakin universities since 2010, teaching everything from undergraduate foundation communications theory and experimental video production, to interactive documentary production and postgraduate work integrated learning. 

His practice and research involves all forms of media -- especially documentary production, interactive video, all things mobile, ethnography, and professional practice. 

Leadership & Committee positions

  • 2024-present - Executive Committee Member, ASPERA (Australian Screen Production Education & Research Association)

  • 2024-present - Board Secretary, Melbourne WebFest

  • 2024-present - DEI Working Group Committee Member, Visible Evidence

  • 2024 - Program Manager, Bachelor of Communication (Media), RMIT University

  • 2020-2024 - Program Manager, Master of Media, RMIT University

  • 2018-2021 - Research Group Co-Director, RMIT’s Screen & Sound Cultures research group

  • 2017-2019 - Deputy Program Manager, Master of Media, RMIT University

  • 2019 - Conference Creative Producer, Sightlines: Screen Production in the Academy

  • 2014-2020 MINA, Screening Review Committee member

  • 2012 Digital Cinema Symposium, Symposium Committee member

Research Grants, Awards & Honours

  • 2025 - Dean’s Award for Creative Practice Research (RMIT’s School of Media & Comm.) (with Dr Stayci Taylor and Cerise Howard; inaugural award)

  • 2025 - RMIT Academic Professional Development Leave Grant

  • 2024 - RMIT EIP Capability Development Funds (for My Formative Queers, with Dr Stayci Taylor)

  • 2023 - Australian Environments on Screen short film commission (for the creation of the smartphone film Dirty/Queer/Green/City, with Stayci Taylor), as part of the ARC Discovery Project led by Prof. Belinda Smaill, Prof. Therese Davis, A/Prof. Max Schleser, et. al.).

  • 2022 - Dean’s Award for Diversity and Inclusion (Highly Commended) (RMIT’s School of Media & Comm.) (with Dr Stayci Taylor)

  • 2022 - RMIT ECP Capability Development Funds (for Queer Screen Production: new methods for new queer stories, with Dr Stayci Taylor)

  • 2019 - RMIT ECP Capability Development Funds (for Creative Practice Impact Series, with A/Prof. Yoko Akama & Dr. Michelle Aung-Thin)

  • 2019 - Endeavour Leadership Program Mobility Grants

  • 2019 - Dean’s Award for Leadership (RMIT’s School of Media & Comm.)

  • 2017 Creative Victoria - Virtual Creative Professional in Schools (for Tributary: Stories of Travel and Transition along Bendigo Creek, with Guntarik, O. & Byrne, B.)

  • 2016 DSC Conference Travel Funding

  • 2013 HDR Candidates Funding (Travel Scholarship)

  • 2012 RMIT DVC (R&I)’s Postgraduate Research Student International Conference Fund

  • 2010-2013 RMIT PhD Scholarship

  • 2010 Award of Excellence, Canada International Film Festival (for Lance Johnson in Person, as director/writer/producer)

  • 2010 Official Selection, Tropical Alternative Film Festival (for Lance Johnson in Person, as director/writer/producer)

  • 2007 First Prize, Montclair State University Film Festival (for Post Mortem Depression, as director/writer/editor)

  • 2007 QUT Foreign Exchange Bursary

  • 2007 Official Selection, International iPod Film Festival (for Spare, as director/writer/editor)