Dannika Horvat is an award-winning writer, director from Melbourne. Through intimate performance driven work, Dannika is drawn to telling stories that focus on young women and deals with themes of sexuality and moral ambiguity.
In 2024, Dannika completed a director’s attachment with Emma Freeman on the Beyond Films production, THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR, in addition to taking part in the NEIGHBOURS attachment program. She also completed a Director’s Attachment in 2021 with acclaimed director Ana Kokkinos on 6-part drama series THE FIRES for Tony Ayres Productions and the ABC.
Most recently, Dannika completed her short film SAFE HANDS, which will premier in 2025, serving as a proof of concept for a feature of the same name which she is developing with producer, Tessa Mansfield-Hung.
Dannika was nominated for a 2020 AWGIE award for her short film TRIPLE SWEAR, the film premiered at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival as part of the Accelerator Lab and was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the Palm Spring International Shorts Fest 2020.
Dannika’s 2014 short film, THE SUMMER OF ABC BURNS, was awarded Best Director at the 2016 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Audience Choice at the 2015 St Kilda Film Festival and Best Tertiary Fiction at the 2014 ATOM Awards, among others.
In 2023, Dannika wrote two episodes on the young adult series TURN UP THE VOLUME for Matchbox and the ABC.
In 2022, Dannika’s script DON’T YOU REMEMBER was selected for the highly competitive screenwriter accelerator program, Impact Australia, founded by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Tyler Mitchell, where she was mentored by Sarah Lambert.
Website: http://www.dannikahorvat.com/
