SRN and Sightlines: Filmmaking in the Academy festival 2025 – A critical-creative report.

The article reports on the 2025 Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) conference and Sightlines: Filmmaking in the Academy festival, hosted by the University of South Australia on Kaurna Country, which centered on the theme of the "hyphen" to explore connections across screenwriting and screen production disciplines. It highlights how the event fostered interdisciplinary dialogue, blending academic and industry perspectives while addressing diverse identities, languages, and creative practices within screenwriting research. Contributors reflect on the conference’s encouragement of collaborative, hybrid methodologies that challenge disciplinary boundaries and embrace uncertainty, with implications for broader social issues such as inclusion and environmental advocacy. The report emphasizes the conference as a space for ongoing conversations that link creative practice with critical inquiry, underscoring the potential of screenwriting and filmmaking to act as agents of cultural and social engagement.