Martha Ansara, recipient of the Australian Film Institute’s Byron Kennedy Award (1987), is a documentary filmmaker whose films on social issues have won international prizes and been screened in Australia, the UK, Europe and North America. A full member of the Australian Cinematographer's Society (ACS), She is the author of The Shadowcatchers: a history of cinematography in Australia published by the ACS in 2012. Martha has been a founding member of a number of cultural, women’s and industry organisations.

 She is a graduate of the Australian Film Television & Radio School (1978) and has an M.A. in Applied History (University of Technology, Sydney, 1994).  She is a life member of the Australian Directors Guild.
Martha has worked as a project officer for the Women’s Film Fund of the Australian Film Commission (AFC), as an assessor for the AFC and other film organizations, and as a lecturer in film, including at the Australian Film Television & Radio School and other tertiary institutions. Martha’s films as a producer and as a director have been broadcast in Australia by NITV, SBS and the ABC. Her most recent work as a researcher and consulting producer has been on the local Illawarra film Women of Steel (director Robynne Murphy,

Her films are distributed through www.balladfilms.com.au