News

$15m for films and TV

Screen Australia has announced an investment of $15m on 13 productions, including a German/Australian co-production directed by Cate Shortland and development for Bruce Beresford, Sarah Watt  and Phillip Noyce projects.

In terms of films, Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm – which began production without financial support from Screen Australia – is one of the beneficiaries.
Shortland’s co-production Lore will be produced by Liz Watts, Karsten Stöter, Benny Drechsel, Paul Welsh and Gabriele Kranzelbinder and set in 1945 Germany.

The third feature to receive support is Kieran Darcy-Smith’s debut Say Nothing, written in conjuction with Felicity Price and produced by Angie Felder.

TV series The Slap, Cleo and Blood Brother, as well as series two of Spirited. also received financial support.

The agency estimates that these projects will generate production worth $72m.

The projects are:

THE EYE OF THE STORM

Paper Bark Films EOS Pty Ltd

Executive Producers Jonathan Shteinman, Edward Simpson, Bob Marcs, James Vernon Producers Antony Waddington, Gregory Read, Fred Schepisi Co-producer Sally Ayre-Smith Writer Judy Morris (adaptation from novel) Director Fred Schepisi Sales & Distribution The Little Film Company, Transmission Synopsis Based on the novel by Nobel Prize–winning author, Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm is a savage exploration of family relationships – and the sharp undercurrents of love and hate, comedy and tragedy, which define them.

LORE

Porchlight Films

Producers Liz Watts, Karsten Stöter, Benny Drechsel, Paul Welsh, Gabriele Kranzelbinder Writers Cate Shortland, Robin Mukherjee Director Cate Shortland Sales & Distribution Memento Films International (Sales), Haut et Court (France), Transmission (ANZ) Synopsis In spring 1945, the German army collapses. As the Allied forces sweep across the Motherland, five children embark on a journey, which will challenge every notion we have of family, love and friendship.

SAY NOTHING

Aquarius Films in association with Blue Tongue Films

Producer Angie Fielder Writers Kieran Darcy-Smith, Felicity Price Director Kieran Darcy-Smith Sales & Distribution LevelK, Hopscotch Synopsis Four friends lose themselves in a carefree South-East Asian holiday. Only three come back. Dave and Alice return home to their young family desperate for answers about Jeremy’s mysterious disappearance. When Alice’s sister Steph returns not long after, a nasty secret is revealed about the night her boyfriend went missing. But it is only the first of many. Who amongst them knows what happened on that fateful night when they were dancing under a full moon in Cambodia?

TV Drama

BLOOD BROTHER

Playmaker Media Pty Ltd

Producers David Taylor, David Maher Writer John Misto Sales & Broadcaster ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Nine Network Synopsis A dramatic account of the Gilham family murders which occurred in Sydney in 1993.

CLEO

Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd

Producers John Edwards, Imogen Banks Writer Christopher Lee Director Emma Freeman Sales & Broadcaster Endemol Worldwide Distribution, ABC TV Synopsis The Whitlam era as seen through the eyes of Cleo magazine and its young editor, Ita Buttrose.

THE SLAP

Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd

Executive Producer Penny Chapman Associate Producer Christos Tsiolkas Producers Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon and Tony Ayres Writers Alice Bell, Kris Mrksa, Emily Ballou, Brendan Cowell, Cate Shortland (adaptation from novel) Directors Jessica Hobbs, Robert Connolly, Cate Shortland, Tony Ayres Sales & Broadcaster DCD Rights, Hopscotch, ABC TV Synopsis The Slap is a bold, provocative television drama series that forensically examines the mores and morality of contemporary middle-class life. Based on Christos Tsiolkas’ best-selling novel, The Slap traces the shattering repercussions of a single event upon a group of family and friends.

SPIRITED – Series 2

Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd

Producers John Edwards, Jacquelin Perske and Claudia Karvan Writer Jacquelin Perske Director Jessica Hobbs Sales & Broadcaster Endemol Worldwide Distribution, Foxtel Australia Synopsis Spirited 2 is the second series about a fantastical, eternal love story between a rock star ghost and a dentist who will fight the living, the dead and anything in between to stay together.

DANCE ACADEMY – Series 2

Werner Film Productions

Producer Joanna Werner Executive Producers Bernadette O’Mahony, Joanna Werner Writers include Samantha Strauss, Liz Doran, Greg Waters Sales & Broadcaster ZDFE, ZDF, ACTF, ABC  TV Synopsis Tara returns to the National Academy of Dance with the goal of representing Australia in the world’s most prestigious ballet competition. But perhaps she should be more focused on just surviving Second Year, where having climbed to the top in her first year at the Academy – in dance, in life, in love – she now has a very long way to fall.

LIGHTNING POINT

Jonathan M Shiff Productions Pty Ltd

Executive Producers Jonathan M Shiff, Julia Adams Producer Jonathan M Shiff Co-producer Stuart Wood Story Producer/Script Editor Chris Roache Associate Story Producer David Hannam Writers Simon Butters, Sam Carroll, Carine Chai, Max Dann, David Hannam, Anthony Morris, Chris Roache Directors include Director Block 1 Colin Budds, Director Block 2 TBA Sales & Broadcasters ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, Network Ten, Nickelodeon Australia Synopsis Zoey and Kiki are two irrepressible girls from another galaxy who become castaways in a small Australian surf town. But even with the help of local girl Amber, how long can these alien surf girls keep their identity secret?

Documentary

Big Stories Small Towns

Big Stories

Producers Anna Grieve, Martin Potter Interactive Producer Nick Crowther Filmmakers Jeni Lee and Sieh Mchawala Synopsis A collaborative, multi-platform documentary project that gathers local stories for a global audience. Featuring in Big Stories 2, Murray Bridge and Raukkan in South Australia and Ban Lung in Cambodia.

The Multicultural History Interactive Documentary

Chocolate Liberation Front

Producers Dan Fill and Frank Verheggen Lead Developers Charlie MacKenzie and Sam Howie Synopsis The Multicultural History Interactive Documentary is a series of innovative interactive components including an interactive documentary, digital editing tool, resource hub and asylum seeker simulation (serious game) that celebrates the diverse history of immigration to Australia.

Trafficked – The Reckoning

Fair Trade Films Pty Ltd

Producer Stella Zammataro Director Luigi Acquisto Synopsis The inspiring, courageous story of a young woman’s quest to bring the man who enslaved her in a Sydney brothel to justice.

Australia: The Land That Time Forgot

Essential Media

Executive Producer Chris Hilton Producer Andrea Gorddard Director Richard Smith Synopsis Takes us from the birth of the Solar System to the modern world, an amalgam of natural history, science and adventure, revealing the diversity of the Australian continent, meeting not only the creatures in question, but also the people unravelling their secrets.

Development

The Circus

Executive Producer Leah Churchill-Brown Producer Leanne Tonkes Writer Emily Ballou Director Emma Freeman Synopsis The Circus is a haunting story of a family’s struggle to triumph over adversity and rediscover the magic, hope and love that has escaped them. To the father and two children of his grieving family, the circus seems a world of magic and escape, but to a beautiful woman who has spent her entire life travelling in a dusty caravan, a family seems a world of stability and love. Set against the contrasting worlds of the harsh Australian outback and the fantasy magic of the circus, this powerful and unexpected love story will change both circus and family forever.

A Life Half Lived

Producer Paul Sullivan Writer/Director Denie Pentecost Synopsis When her best friend commits suicide, a 20-year-old girl, Nic, who can only feel emotion through others, realises that the secret to feeling is remembering a forgotten pain that they both shared as children.

No. 3

Hibiscus Films

Producer Bridget IkinWriter/Director Sarah Watt Synopsis No. 3 is a portrait of three generations of women in their evolving roles as daughters, mothers and grandmothers, set over various time periods from the 1970s to the present day.

The Rats of Tobruk

Executive Producer Jonathan Shteinman Producer Peter Clifton Writer Michael Thomas Director Phillip Noyce Synopsis The true 1941 story of the Rats of Tobruk during an eight-month siege when an Australian force took on and deferred the might of Rommel’s Afrika Corps told through Australian General Mushead.

The Right Hand

Southern Light Films

Producer Timothy White Writer/Director Julius Avery Synopsis A young man is sent to prison where he becomes the apprentice to public enemy number one.

Skin Deep

Producer Don Linke Writers James Melchior, Susan Yardley Synopsis Nicola, desperate to be loved for who she is, suddenly finds herself engaged to two men called Felix, which makes falling in love with Patrick more confusing.

Surrender

Producers Drew Thompson, Antonia Barnard Writer Michael Bond Director Bruce Hunt Synopsis Mulyan, NSW 1959. Anwell, a naive loner, meets Finnigan, the wild boy from the woods. The 12-year-olds form a unique friendship and make a pact, sealed in blood – Anwell will only do good, Finnigan promises to act out his bad. Finnigan’s actions take the pact far beyond Anwell’s intentions, soon the angel-child is dragged into a succession of acts of arson he has no control over. His only way out – beat his adversary at his own game. The conflict between the boys leads to a terrifying and violent conclusion.

Valve

Porchlight Films

Producer Vincent Sheehan Writer Liz Doran Director Andrew Lancaster Synopsis A young man discovers he has an exceptional gift – the ability to hear infrasonic sound ­– and must risk everything when he accidentally hears something he shouldn’t and uncovers a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

The White Mouse

Executive Producer Richard Stewart Producers Peter Glover, Sue Milliken Writer/Director Bruce Beresford Synopsis After living and working in Paris in the 1930s, Nancy Wake married a wealthy Frenchman and settled in Marseilles. Her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and her work with an escape-route network for Allied soldiers. Eventually Nancy had to escape from France herself to avoid capture by the Gestapo.


Innovation Program

Wrappingitup.tv

Producers Kelly Chapman, Della Churchill Writer Helen Wentland Wrappingitup.tv is a unique and comprehensive online community designed specifically for people faced with wrapping up someone’s life – now or in the future; or for planning their own estate. It will have global reach and be launched initially in Australia and soon after in the US. Dramatised re-enactments of real experiences of ‘wrapping up’ will inspire users to contribute their own stories, pictures and audio; and to offer support to others. Talking head mini-docs will provide expert advice by credible professionals. As well as offering valuable information, wrappingitup.tv is a virtual social community for the recently bereaved and estate planners: those who have already gone through the experience, those facing it, and those who are interested in what’s involved.

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