James Elazzi is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director whose bold, emotionally resonant work amplifies marginalised voices and brings culturally specific stories to the stage and screen.
In 2026, James was a finalist for the Martin Lysicrates Prize and the Carlo Annoni International Playwriting Prize, and received the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award. His work has also received three consecutive NSW Premier’s Literary Award nominations for Lady Tabouli (2021), Queen Fatima (2022) and Son of Byblos (2023), as well as the ANZ Tomorrow Makers Award and the 2024 Panavision Award.
James is a published playwright, with four of his works published by leading Australian theatre publishers Currency Press and Playlab Australia. His plays have been produced by Belvoir, Griffin Theatre Company, New Theatre, Sydney Festival and Qtopia, and presented nationally and internationally.
His stage work includes Lady Tabouli, Queen Fatima, Son of Byblos, Karim and Saints of Damour. His writing explores Lebanese Australian migration, family, community and belonging, often bringing humour, warmth and cultural specificity to stories about people who are rarely centred.
Alongside his theatre work, James is expanding his practice into feature filmmaking. In 2026–27, he is screenwriting 2 Moons, an original feature film, while developing Love is a Doily, an original feature film which he is writing, producing and directing for 2027.
James is committed to creating work that brings culturally specific and marginalised stories into the mainstream without losing the specificity, humour and lived experience that make those stories distinctive.
FILM
SEEDS OF GOLD (2025)
Short Film | Writer, Director & Producer
Set in rural New South Wales in 1977, Seeds of Gold follows a Lebanese mother and daughter who have fled the civil war and are trying to rebuild their lives in Australia. When rumours emerge of gold on the farm where they work, hope and ambition begin to take hold.
Official Film Festival Selections
Lebanese Independent Film Festival — 2025
Lebanese Film Festival Australia — 2024
Florence Indie Film Festival — 2025
Melbourne Independent Film Festival — 2025
Prague Underground Film Festival — 2025
Ciné-Beyrouth / Cinema Beirut — 2025
World Around Film Festival — 2025
Qtopia Shorts and Cuts — 2025
Awards & Recognition
Winner — Panavision Australia Film Award, Lebanese Film Festival Australia
Semi-Finalist — Melbourne Independent Film Festival, 2025
Semi-Finalist — Florence Indie Film Festival, 2025
Semi-Finalist — Prague Underground Film Festival, 2025
YANNIS (2023)
Short Film | Writer, Director & Producer
An intimate drama about a young Greek-Lebanese Australian man rejected by his family because of his sexuality. Living rough and surviving through sex work, Yannis struggles to find connection and belonging in a world that has pushed him to its margins.
Official Film Festival Selections
Pride Film Festival — 2023
Flickerfest — 2023
Lebanese Film Festival Australia — 2022
Canberra Short Film Festival — 2022
Melbourne Queer Film Festival — 2023
Lift-Off Global Network: First-Time Filmmakers Sessions, Pinewood Studios — 2022
LGBTQIA+ Los Angeles Film Festival — 2022
Black Cat Award International Film Festival — 2022
Made in the West Film Festival — 2022
Lift-Off Sydney — 2022
Omovie International LGBT Film Festival, Naples — 2022
SydFest Independent Film Festival — 2023
Melbourne CINEVERSE Film Festival — 2023
LGBTQI+ Film Festival, Poland — 2023
Lebanese Independent Film Festival — 2023
Awards & Recognition
Winner — Best Performance, LGBTQ+ Los Angeles Film Festival
Winner — Best Lead Actor, Made in the West Film Festival, 2022
Runner-up — Best in the West, Made in the West Film Festival, 2022
Made in the West Film Festival — Seven Nominations
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Lead Actor — Winner
Best Supporting Actor
Best Original Score
Best Cinematography
Best Editor
UPCOMING FEATURE FILMS
LOVE IS A DOILY (2027)
Feature Film | Screenwriter, Director & Producer
In Pre-production | Filming April 2027
Love Is a Doily is an intimate, gently humorous drama about an older Lebanese migrant widow who makes handmade doilies and sells them at local markets — her one precious connection to the outside world.
When a new stallholder threatens her place at the market, she is forced to confront her loneliness and fight for the small world she has built.
Exploring ageing, invisibility, migrant identity and the universal need for human connection, Love Is a Doily places an older migrant woman at the centre of an Australian story.
An independently produced Australian feature film.
2 MOONS (2026–2027)
Screenwriter & Associate Producer
In Development
A screen project associated with Co Curious, Powerhouse Parramatta, Screen Australia.
STAGE
2026
Yalla to lebanon (Upgraded!) - Co Writer/ Co Producer/ Co Director
Seymour Centre
2025
Saints of Damour – Writer/ Producer
Presented by Qtopia Sydney & Sydney City CouncilYalla to Lebanon - Co Writer/ Co Producer/ Co Director
Bankstown Sports Club Theatre
Son of Byblos - Writer
Presented by Asamina Theatre Company Melbourne
2024
Karim – Writer & Co-Director
National Theatre of ParramattaHolding the Man – Assistant Director
Belvoir St Theatre
2023
Son of Byblos – Writer
Belvoir St Theatre 25A (2022) / Brave New Word
2021
Queen Fatima – Writer
National Theatre of Parramatta / Sydney Festival 2021
2020
Lady Tabouli – Writer
National Theatre of Parramatta / Sydney Festival 2020
2019
Lady Tabouli – Writer
Griffin Theatre Batch Festival / Green Door Theatre Co / Apocalypse Theatre CompanyOmar and Dawn – Writer
KXT Bakehouse / Apocalypse Theatre Company / Green Door Theatre Co
OTHER WORKS
2021 Red Stitch ‘Playlist Festival’
‘Lion Tattoo’.
A celebration. A gathering. Theatre’s choose-your-own-adventure is, this time, a three-night music and performance festival featuring an extraordinary line-up of Melbourne practitioners.
2020 Dear Australia
“The Flock”. Commissioned by Play Writing Australia 2020.
2020 STC Virtual
“Lebanese BBQ”, performed by Priscilla Doueihy. 2020
A THOUSAND WORDS. SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUM.
“Aleksy and the Metal Sheds”. 2020. Sydney Living Museums with the support of WestWords.
‘A picture tells a thousand words.’ This adage is the inspiration for an innovative new online exhibition, in which the public becomes the curator.
2020. ‘Come To Where I Am’.
“Violin”. Critical Theatre Travels. Produced in partnership with the UK’s Paines Plough. 2020.
2021. Eat Me.
NIDA/ Sydney Theatre Company