magazine FOR SCREEN CONTENT PROFESSIONALS ISSUE #203, NOV – DEC 2021 $7.95 AUD / WWW.IF.COM.AU
RISING
TALENT
2022 THE NEW NAMES
YOU NEED TO KNOW
INSIDE: FILM: We talk to Eva Orner about her Amazon documentary, Burning. REPORT: Has the pandemic made it easier to build a Hollywood career from Australia? TAKE TWO: Wife-and-husband team Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick talk Preppers. WELLBEING: How to make mental health a priority on your production. OPINION: NACO and AIMC executive director Michael Hawkins reflects on a tough year for cinemas.
ISSN 1447-2252
9 771447 225004
05
www.screenrights.org/screen-industry
NOV DEC 2021 SEP –– OCT
REMEMBER WHEN WE THOUGHT 2021 WOULD SEE THE WORLD GO BACK TO NORMAL?
This issue
Editor's letter
Well, not quite huh? So much happened this year it’s hard for me to summarise in this tiny letter. In the early months, it felt like we were riding a wave of optimism, with COVID almost in our rearview. There was an incredible international production boom sweeping our shores, and Australian films like The Dry, Penguin Bloom and High Ground dominated the box office. In April, the Federal Government walked back a decision to harmonise the Producer Offset, retaining a 40 per cent rebate for theatrical features. Then, as we all know, the Delta outbreak, combined with a slow vaccine rollout, put the brakes on. Cinemas in NSW and Victoria faced months of closures, and our major film festivals had to pivot once again. Production continued, but border closures and COVID-19 costs continued to make producers’ jobs tricky. Netflix’s Extraction sequel relocated to Europe, and Russell Crowe’s Poker Face shutdown due to a positive case. Yet as we stare down the end of the year, I feel there is some optimism again – Omicron willing. Cinemas are back open, and there is a strong pipeline of films on the way. In the final sitting week of the year, the government passed the 30 per cent Producer Offset for non-feature length content, and was forced to wind back its plan to raise the QAPE threshold and scrap the Gallipoli clause. In recent weeks, there have been many awards, and while red carpets now feature masks, it feels like we’re back to some sort of normal. As for us here at IF, we wanted to end the year positively too: by shining a light on who we see as exciting up-and-coming talent (page 12). These are names we hope you’ll be hearing a lot more of in the future. Thank you everyone – our readers, advertisers and contributors – for your ongoing support for our humble mag. It’s our joy to bring it to you. Have a safe and happy holiday, and we’ll see you next year.
REPORT
30 ✪ FEATURE
How much of the digital culture fostered during the pandemic is here to stay? What does it mean for emerging practitioners with aspirations of making it in Hollywood?
Published by: COMMUNICO MEDIA GROUP PTY LTD ABN 69 647 866 091 POST: PO Box 55, Glebe NSW 2037 Australia STREET: 41 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 Australia PHONE: 61 2 9660 2113 FAX: 02 9660 4419 WEB: www.if.com.au
©Copyright 2021
RISING TALENT 2022
New and emerging names we think you need to know!
10 ✪ FEATURE
Jackie Keast Editor jkeast@if.com.au
Executive Chair: Simon Grover Managing Director and Group Publisher: Mark Kuban Editor: Jackie Keast, jkeast@if.com.au Journalist: Sean Slatter, sslatter@if.com.au National Sales Manager: Cameron Boon, cboon@intermedia.com.au Senior Designer: Jacqui Cooper Prepress: Tony Willson Production Assistant: Natasha Jara IF was founded by David Barda and Stephen Jenner, co-founded by Martin Zoland.
✪ FEATURE
12 COVER STORY
Circulation and Subscriptions Australian Subscription Rates 1yr 6 issues for $43.50 2yrs 12 issues for $69.60 3yrs 18 issues for $91.35 To subscribe and to view other overseas rates visit www.intermedia.com.au or Call: 1800 651 422 (Mon – Fri 8:30-5pm AEST) Email: subscriptions@intermedia.com.au The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the editor and publisher. This magazine is not to be produced in whole or part without the express permission of the copyright owners.
6
Voice of the Industry Michael Hawkins, executive director of NACO and AIMC reflects on the disruption the pandemic has wrought on theatrical market. 8 Take Two Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick combine the personal and professional on ABC’s Preppers. 24 How to find the perfect mentor The right mentor can be life changing. Emmy and AACTA Award-winning producer turned executive coach Ellenor Cox explains
BURNING
In Amazon’s first Australian feature documentary, Burning, director and Academy Award-winning producer Eva Orner looks back at the fires of the 2019-2020 summer.
how to get the most of your relationship. 26 Bright faces This issue, the more talent the merrier. We talk to the CGA’s Rising Stars for 2021. 32 Adelaide Studios turns 10 The 10th anniversary of Adelaide Studios coincides with a period of increased production activity in South Australia. 34 Walking the talk Wakefield tackled the complexity of mental illness on screen, but behind-thescenes, the creatives driving the show also undertook
initiatives to care for the mental health of cast and crew. 38 GRC: Cybersecurity Media and entertainment organisations are particularly susceptible to cyber attacks and data breaches.
REGULARS
4 40 41 50
Letters, 15 Seconds If I Had a Gadget In Production What’s On
Environmental statement: The Intermedia Group takes its Corporate and Social Responsibilities seriously and is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. We continuously strive to improve our environmental performance and to initiate additional CSR based projects and activities. As part of our company policy we ensure that the products and services used in the manufacture of this magazine are sourced from environmentally responsible suppliers. This magazine has been printed on paper produced from sustainably sourced wood and pulp fibre and is accredited under PEFC chain of custody. PEFC certified wood and paper products come from environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests. The wrapping used in the delivery process of this magazine is 100% biodegradable.
www.if.com.au 3
LETTERS Heard on Twitter... Follow IF magazine at twitter.com/insidefilm.
Annabel Crabb @annabelcrabb
Kim Ho @kimho_au
My first AACTA nom is also my first screen credit. When gatekeepers stop pretending emerging artists are “too risky” and put the right support behind us, we can be a strength rather than a liability. Tara Moss @Tara_Moss
I will forever be grateful to Bert Newton for his kindness, friendship and the many opportunities he gave me in Australia. He was always on board to support charitable causes - from animal sanctuaries to UNICEF. A talent and force for good. Vale Bert Newton. Gentleman & legend x Stuart Page @ stupafication
Huge shout out to the brilliant women who wrote this season of #TotalControl - Pip Karmel, @LarissaBehrendt, @ AngelaBetzien1 & @nakkiahlui - and to Erin Bretherton, Rachel Griffiths, Miranda Dear and Celia Richards These amazing people are at the heart of it. Gabe Dowrick @GabeDowrick
Looking forward to the new 20th anniversary CHOPPER on blu. (I used to have it on DVD but I lent to someone in 2004 and never got the DVD back before I think it went out of print?) LilMax_49 @LilMax_49_49
I’m gonna say this about my experience with #Wentworth. I still love Bea Smith. Wentworth used her name throughout the seasons after S4, kept Allie alive, gave us the red blanket and the near death light at the finale. @daniellecormack take a bow, you did that sh*t! Holly Ringland @hollyringland
One of the most beautiful things to witness since the casting announcement and first look photos of the Alice Hart production has been the early outpouring of love and support from @DebnamCarey’s fans. Thank you so much to all. @Marie_O_FR florie @sarabeasleys
Every time I think an actor has a good Australian accent I find out they’re actually Australian. Philippa Bateman @PhilippaBateman
Watching #Burningthefilm by @evaorner @sydfilmfest… a MUST SEE. 59 million acres burnt in the Australian black summer. Greg Mullins is a brave and wonderful human. He tells it as it is and said at the screening he’s tired of keeping quiet:“This Government must go” #Climate
Written in response to ‘Vale Ian Dunlop, pioneering documentary filmmaker’, published September 14, 2021. I worked at the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1971 as a PA. Richard Moir, Peter Gailey, Esben Storm and I were the lowest of the low. The place was awash with the most amazing talent. The camera department headed by Bruce Hilliard, Academy Award winners Dean Semler and Don McAlpine, plus Leo Elia, a world-acclaimed macro photographer. The unit didn’t have directors as such; founder Stanley Hawes did not believe in them! They were some category of public servants, grade 1-6. Peter Weir was one of the grades, as was Ian Dunlop. He had a permanent cutting room down that long corridor and generally the only time you saw him was at lunchtime, when invariably he would be playing croquet on the lawn out the front of reception. One of my first jobs was syncing rushes. Meg Stewart had the unenviable task of teaching me. One of the first jobs I did was syncing Aboriginal leader Roy Marika on Ian’s Yirrkala job. Decades later I was directing a reconciliation doco with the biggest bands in the country donating their copyright to the film for the cause. We were shooting Yothu Yindi, and singer Manduwuy Yunupingu took us out to a camp to meet someone he thought might be interesting for the film. There in the shade of a beach side lean-to was old man Roy Marika! My first syncing job. I relayed the story and we laughed. His regard for Ian was evident. The work Ian produced was the filmic equivalent of pure research, its value to be truly understood much later. The recording of the people, ceremonies and culture was justified then as a social necessity. It wasn’t a Screen Australia application wherein it was reduced and polished and committeed ad absurdum to a observational mini-series. It did not have a dollar value assigned to it to give it validity. It was not turned into whatever style or construct was the “plat du jour” of the cultural authorities. It was serious, long-term, long-form work – the likes of which is hard to imagine in today’s commissioning process. Ian was a unique filmmaker and at the Commonwealth Film Unit he inspired others who knew the value of what he was doing. The films that Ian Dunlop made become more valuable as time passes. The croquet court is now a housing estate and the CFU is gone. The Irish have a saying, which I believe is true of Ian Dunlop and the people he recorded and worked with: “the likes of them will not be seen again”.
Haydn Keenan
(Photo credit: David Shields)
Coming up at the Sydney Film Festival ... great film by Jane Castle about her Mum Lilias... one of Australia’s first female cinematographers... When The Cameras Stopped Rolling #MsRepresented
Noticeboard
Hal Cumpston.
15
Seconds
Hal Cumpston has appeared in ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’, ‘The Walking Dead: The World Beyond’, and ‘Bliched’, which he also wrote and co-produced.
The biggest issue facing the Australian film or TV industry is:
I’m not old enough to have a significant informed opinion… but why not make a ridiculous ignorant one! I think it’s a matter of funding the right projects. Reading all scripts without bias and picking the right team of cast and crew from top to bottom to turn that story into an awesome movie or TV show. Bit more mongrel and passion... oh and money! Best movie quote of all time?
“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Do you Google yourself?
No.
If you could live inside one of your shows, would you?
No, I’m sick of zombies and I’m no longer interested in being a mushroom hallucination. Classics I would like to remake:
This is Spinal Tap, Weekend at Bernies, The Goonies. Favourite comedy film/show of all time:
Superbad.
Favourite comedian?
Norm Macdonald.
Favourite guilty pleasure?
Murder.
Worst filmmaking experience?
The hotel quarantines were straight up inhumane. Unsung Australian film/TV hero/heroine?
Murray Bartlett as Armond in White Lotus.
If I weren’t in the film/TV industry, I’d be…
Sad and bored.
If money were no object, what would your next film/show be?
Donny & Jazz. Anyone wanna fund my next film?
If a film about your life was made, who would play you?
Do I have to cast someone else? I wouldn’t mind another job.
Send your letters to publicity@if.com.au 4 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
I’d spend my last $20 on:
Charity.
STORYTELLING BEGAN HERE. WHERE IT GOES NOW IS UP TO YOU. From ancient campfire gatherings to modern worldwide workflows, stories bring our humanity to light. Our powerful infrastructure solutions are designed to give you creative flexibility, performance and control, so you can keep the tradition going.
Discover solutions for storytellers at dell.to/media
https:/ /w
ww.de lltechn ologie
s.com
/en-us
/event
s/med
ia/inde
x.htm
#tab0=
0
OPINION
VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY
Michael Hawkins.
THIS TIME LAST year, the world, and particularly cinema owners, were looking forward to 2021, and especially the 21/22 financial year, with hope and optimism. But as pandemics are wont to be, like the virus, our plans became unpredictable, and our hopes of short-term recovery became more illusory. This year, we have been grasping for any bit of good news. As I sit writing this piece, I have just learned the fabulous news that cinemas in New South Wales will be able to trade at 100 per cent capacity for fully vaccinated patrons from November 8 – in time for the opening of Bond! We will now hang out for our Victorian colleagues and hope for the best news for them too. In 2021, “hard and fast lockdowns” became part of our vernacular, but words that we dreaded to hear. For after each lockdown, there followed a slow and deliberate reopening, with the requirement to observe “density quotients” and “capacity limits”. In a couple of states, there were torturous extended lockdowns that challenged the strongest of our friends and colleagues and dampened already fragile hopes and dreams. I have been, and continue to be, in awe of the strength and resilience of our cinema owners across the country. Despite the crushing news of lockdowns, and film titles being delayed, our cinemas reopened immediately as they were able. Sometimes in conditions that made no sense at all – caps of 20 people per venue – but they reopened nevertheless, fulfilling a sense of social duty and responsibility to their loyal staff. The threats to the livelihoods of our independent cinema owners cannot be defined in words, and equally, the pressure on the executives of our major exhibitors, some of whom also balance 6 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Michael Hawkins, executive director of National Association of Cinema Operators – Australasia (NACO) and the Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC), and a Screen Australia board director, reflects on the disruption that the pandemic has wrought on theatrical market. multiple businesses in hospitality and tourism, I can’t fathom. Each and every one of them was required in some way to predict the future, for their banks, their landlords, their shareholders, the market, but perhaps most importantly, for their staff, patrons and their families. Impossible! And I won’t forget to mention our colleagues in distribution too – how many changes have been forced upon their schedules and strategies, and gambles they have taken with million dollar marketing campaigns. I know there have been many examples of a commitment made to open a film, supported by a marketing campaign, only for major markets to be locked down just before opening. As an association, NACO has tried to assist our members with the challenges that have been faced by our members. Last year, we had a seat at the table to negotiate the Rental Code. There were successful outcomes for most, but larger exhibitors were left to test the goodwill of their landlords on the strength of a few words in the code: “the Code shall apply in spirit to all leasing arrangements for affected businesses”. NACO provided guidelines to the industry as to how to negotiate with landlords and by and large, the vast majority of exhibitors were able to negotiate some form of relief. It is an understatement to say that JobKeeper was a saviour, and given that our industry was shut down, I don’t believe there was an exhibitor who didn’t qualify for it. As an industry, we expressed our appreciation to the Prime Minister, Treasurer and the government for that support, whilst not missing the opportunity to ask for more support! Earlier this year the Treasurer and Arts Minister announced some additional relief via the SCREEN Fund that
independent cinemas qualified to participate in. Gratitude was again duly expressed, as was our disbelief that it didn’t extend to the major exhibitors – the major employers of the industry’s 13,000 workforce, and whose rental obligations were no less diminished. NACO’s Sonia Deakin produced the Movie ConNect newsletter to keep the industry connected and appraised of news, and most recently, the constant stream of restrictions and relaxations as each state moved through their various stages of health orders. If there was any silver lining to the clouds that covered us, it was the success of Australian films during 2021. That can also be said for many smaller films, documentaries and short films that found a screen, and an audience, that they might not otherwise have found had so many studio titles not been delayed. Again, the resourcefulness of cinema owners must be acknowledged, and on their behalf, I thank the distributors who ventured into this space and supported our exhibitors. The management of Screen Australia responded magnificently this year to support Australian film production, and I am grateful to Graeme Mason for his leadership of the agency. I suspect that Graeme will be contributing to this magazine shortly, and so I will not engage in the many initiatives it undertook this year, except to mention one, which was the Our Summer of Cinema campaign. The campaign supported Australian films, including The Dry, Penguin Bloom and High Ground. In February 2021, these films made history, sharing the top three spots at the Australian box office, and collectively took more than $31 million. The campaign involved a variety of activities
OPINION
designed to encourage cinemagoers back into theatres. It was a genuine cross-industry collaboration with Roadshow, Madman, Icon, Village, Event, Hoyts, indie cinemas and industry bodies. NACO has engaged NixCo to create as much publicity as we can about the return to cinema as we come out of restrictions and into summer. We have been very pleased with the outcomes so far, as we are with the efforts of all exhibitors to drive attention to the fact that cinemas are reopened for business and are a safe environment to visit. Naturally, we were very disappointed to have to cancel the 2020 Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC), and probably more so frustrated when the 2021 Convention had to be postponed to May 2022. The convention is an important event for our industry, bringing all members of it together to celebrate successes and as importantly, to understand the slate of films coming our way in the following year (or years, depending upon the distributor) and the marketing that will be deployed to promote those films. I am also very pleased to see the advent of the Australian Feature Film Summit – there will be so many learnings from it for the entire industry. I would venture to suggest that square kilometres of print media have been dedicated to opinions about the future and survival of cinema, and in particular to the theatrical window. It would
come as no surprise to anyone that I am a strong advocate for the maintenance of the window just as it is! And we should not lose sight of that whilst there has been much talk of a reduction in its length, at present, there has been no agreed and documented change – there has been much experimentation under the cover of COVID, but all of it qualified as being because of COVID. Without an exclusive theatrical window, there have been unprecedented drop-offs from opening week to the second week and reputed increases in world-wide piracy. I was struck by a recent report entitled Piracy Has No Boundaries from content protection specialist Nagra. The report claimed that thieves steal tens of billions of dollars of content value annually and that more than 80 per cent of content theft is attributable to streaming. In addition, it says 8 per cent of US households subscribe to illicit internet protocol services for an estimated $1 billion in illegal subscription revenue every year. The report estimates Black Widow lost $50-$70 million because it lacked an exclusive theatrical window over its first ten days of release. It is comforting to read of the numerous film producers, directors and studio executives voicing their support for the exclusivity of the theatrical window. Much more will be written about this topic in the next little while, and by folk more learned than me, but I have the strongest resolve in the recognition
of cinema as an ever-evolving, fully immersive venue for social and community interaction and entertainment, owned and managed by the most inventive and creative business people, but who require support as we recover from this pandemic. Now is not the time to be changing models or experimenting – now is the time to be releasing as many films as possible with an exclusive theatrical window, to frustrate piracy, to entice the public back to cinemas (which they have proven they want to do after every single lockdown we have endured), and to generate the maximum revenue attainable to feed the production-distribution-exhibition ecosystem. Exclusive windows will always be as essential to the success of cinema as they will be to the industry as a whole. I was reminded of a quote I provided to this magazine early last year. It is as relevant today as then. “The cinema business has faced off against many adversaries over the years – world wars; depressions; the Global Financial Crisis; television, video and DVD; and piracy to name a few – and has not just survived but thrived, for one simple reason: the cinema experience is unique. The coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in its scale and impact, but this too shall pass – and when it is safe to reopen and populate our cinemas, there will be a raft of excellent movies for our patrons to enjoy which will deliver booming box office.”
next level security services
PROFESSIONAL AFFFODABLE
SECURITY SPECIALIST SECURITY FOR THE FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION INDUSTRY
www.nextlevelsecurityservices.com.au www.if.com.au 7
TAKE TWO
Gabriel Dowrick and Nakkiah Lui.
PAIR OF PREPPERS AACTA-nominated ABC comedy Preppers is created and written by multi-hyphenate talent Nakkiah Lui and Gabriel Dowrick, one of the industry’s most in-demand editors. The pair also happen to be husband and wife. Preppers isn’t their first project together, but it was their first time crafting story as a duo. Jackie Keast speaks to them both about the experience of combining the personal and professional. GABRIEL DOWRICK
We met on Black Comedy. Nakkiah came into the edit suite one day to look at some cuts on season one. She was very sweet and very nervous. Any time she was on screen, she’d look down and wouldn’t engage. I thought that was very funny. We didn’t talk that much then, but afterwards we started bantering backwards and forwards on Twitter. She’s such an incredibly smart, forthright and interesting person that it was hard not to be won over by her charms.
Film and TV is weird, and in a lot of ways, I’m not surprised that people who are in the industry end up with other people in the industry because it can be quite challenging – in terms of sometimes you have very odd hours, you have to go away to shoot or go overseas. The rigours of the job can often be quite demanding. It’s very easy to be sympathetic towards someone when you both understand that. We came up with the idea of Preppers years ago when we
were floating around the pool bar at a hotel in the Goldie. But we never went, “Oh, we want to write something together.” In this case it just – I hate the term – “developed organically”. I’ve written before, and Nakkiah is obviously an incredibly accomplished writer, so it’s hard for us not to jam on ideas we like and talk about story. In this case, we’re both interested in the subculture of doomsday prepping. One day over pina coladas and mojitos, we were talking about that. Gradually, the idea
formed: Why hasn’t anyone made a comedy series about this world? Then Nakkiah brought the really interesting specificity of the First Nations perspective to it. There’s obviously times when you might get a bit feistier defending a point of view about some story element than you might with a collaborator to whom you’re not married. But by and large, we were pretty good at negotiating that boundary. By that, I mean we were terrible at it. We’d just talk and
PROFFESSIONAL TECHNICIANS FOR THE FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY 8 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
61 (02) 9427 4444
AUSCREW@AUSCREW.COM.AU
WWW.AUSCREW.COM.AU www.auscrew.com.au
TAKE TWO
work at all hours. We’d be going on holiday somewhere and I couldn’t stop myself firing up the computer and being like “Hey! Let’s look at this scene.” But we’re still married! From my point of view, I was incredibly fortunate to get to work with one of Australia’s most exciting contemporary voices. For me, it was a dream job. There’s overlap in our skill sets. Nakkiah is incredible with dialogue and writing jokes, but also getting to what the heart of scenes and stories are, or what the element is that creates connection or pathos with an audience. I’m pretty good at gags and stuff like that, and because I’ve got an editing background, I suppose I was particularly good at structure and format; how scenes and sequences might build – not necessarily on the page, but on screen. In that regard, we have complementary skill sets that work really well together. That’s not to say that she’s not good at those things, obviously she is – she’s a superb dramaturg. We love pitching jokes to one another. Just sitting there spitballing gags is great. I must say, I never really knew how into and seriously she takes the idea of a potential Armageddon. She’d come up with things like: “Should we bury a cargo container out in the bush somewhere?” And it’s like “Wow, you actually take this pretty seriously”. I just thought it was a funny subculture to set a comedy in, but no, you’re worried about the big events! I’m super proud of the whole show. When you write anything, you’re never quite sure how it’s going to come out the other end. It’s weird on this because I co-wrote and cocreated it with Nakkiah, but I also cut it. So I was really on both ends of the sausage. But I really like it – I really like my own show! It’s funny, but it has some deeper themes. Love all of the actors we got, really proud of the way it looks. I just couldn’t be happier with the result. I’d love it if we could do a second season. This was really fun to work on and there’s tonnes more scope for story. As for a whole other thing, I don’t know, maybe... we don’t
www.motionthat.com.au
have any big, hard plans for that. We haven’t been sitting in any pool bars recently. But after this Christmas holidays, now that’s stuff’s back open, we might come back with some whole new idea.
NAKKIAH LUI
Gabe and I met filming Black Comedy season one; Gabe was editor on that. That was my first TV gig. We started talking on Twitter. Gabe’s mum came in and sent me some really nice messages. Gabe was like, “Mum, this is really embarrassing, stop tweeting.” He’s got a fantastic sense of humour; he’s a really funny guy and passionate about stories. We have very similar values in how we approach our work and the world. I’m pretty out there and maybe sometimes – to some people – I’m quite staunch in what I say. I’m quite upfront; I think it’s part of my voice as a writer. To have someone who is not afraid to laugh with me and to challenge me – Gabe did that from the get go, which I very much liked. We’ve had so many projects we’ve worked on in other ways for other people together. He edited Kiki and Kitty, Black Comedy, I’ve acted in stuff that he’s edited on, and he’s edited some of the shows that I’ve done some scripting work on. Our paths have crossed, but we’ve been really thoughtful about what’s our work life and what’s our home life. I don’t know if we really set out with a plan to write anything together. I do a lot of writers rooms and I always thought I was a nice presence to have in a room, that’s why people had me in. [Working with my husband] it’s like “Oh no, that’s all an act.” I’m actually a horrible, horrible blunt arsehole! We were probably a bit blunter with each other. He was pretty straight with me: “No, that doesn’t work. That’s not funny.” We’re in a two-bedroom apartment, and we have very different working schedules. He’s a lot more structured. I tend to mull over things a bit more. My work/life boundary isn’t great. So if something wasn’t working, I’d pull out the
storyboard at 9 pm, 10 pm, and rethink it. That was really good in the sense that I think it made things really tight script-wise. There was this level of access to your colleagues – you could easily exploit boundaries! We had to, towards the end, be a bit clearer with when we would stop working. But it’s really hard because I love talking about my job to people, which is probably one of the reasons we’re together. It’s actually really boring to hear about other people’s work, but I’m really interested in his work and he’s interested in mine and with this, we were working on the same thing. We make each other laugh a lot. There was a lot of back and forth on jokes. He just brings a completely different perspective to me sometimes in regards to some of the characters. Like archetypes or stereotypes that he’s more familiar with than I am, especially when it came to some of the representations of white preppers. What is the most cliche thing this white prepper can do? I’ve got my perception, but it’s like, “Oh yeah, I can just go ask the white guy!” He’s my cultural consultant. I think nearly all of my favourite lines are his. He’s really great at zany one liners. Some of the content that we’ve put in Preppers is about colonisation, genocide, the Stolen Generation. A lot of the show is centred around: What is the intimate, lived experience of being a colonised person within Australia today? I play with a lot of those themes in my work and try to use humour to do that. With this show, to find that tone was a lot of work. We really had to work at it, with producers, as a writing team, and then also with network. There would be times where, I would start to maybe doubt myself a little bit with my perspective as an Aboriginal woman. It was really great to have someone who would tell you to push it further. He appreciated it. When it is so close to your own lived experience, your family’s history, and then you have to have these esoteric conversations about story with maybe an investor
or something, it can be really hard to try and navigate that situation without taking it too personally. It was really great to have my partner as an ally – to really fucking believe, not just in the work, but in you. He also has a real generosity of spirit when it comes to the entire filmmaking process. Gabe understands that you’re a moving part in a big machine, and is very appreciative, kind and understanding of the role everybody plays. He’s not super precious about the script, abd really encouraging of actors. I hadn’t worked with him in a pre-production capacity before and seeing how excited he gets about things like costume and design was really exciting for me. It’s exciting when your partner gets really excited about something as well. It makes you take a step back and appreciate what you get to do. It really made me proud to be able to call him my partner and my husband. He’s very good at just being a good soul. We came out of the show and are still in love. So that’s great! My parents worked together, so that dynamic is really natural to me. We were working on the show for over four years. We achieved it and we did it together. It’s very Nakkiah and Gabe – or Gabe and Nakkiah. We’ll have our lawyers set out first billing. [I’m proud] to be able to create a show that hopefully is funny and heartfelt, has First Nations themes and leads, and has integrity with what it’s saying or the questions it’s provoking – but is inclusive with that discussion. We’d love to do a season two, if that opportunity came around. Gabe’s someone who, as a writer, I really like to have the room, especially as I am developing quite a few of my own projects now. Having written together, he understands my lack of words sometimes! He’s got a big, fantastic, robust brain. I’m a little bit biased – well no, I’m super biased – but he’s one of best editors in the country. I’d be a fool not to try and use the fact that he’s my husband to my advantage in any other project I do.
www.if.com.au 9
REPORT
SCREEN TIME
With the easing of international travel restrictions, those looking to work overseas are no longer bound to building connections via Zoom. But how much of the digital culture fostered during the pandemic is here to stay? What does it mean for emerging practitioners with aspirations of making it in Hollywood? Sean Slatter talks to creatives that have previously divided their time between Australia and the US, as well as LA-based industry figures, about what has shifted in the new normal.
Actor Mitchell Hope and producer Lucinda Bruce are used to dividing their time between LA and Australia.
L
eaving Australia for the bright lights of LA is a well-travelled path for creatives looking to take their careers to the next level, but it is far from an exact science. The question of how to stand out and remain relevant in Hollywood has taken on new dimensions during the pandemic, which forced meetings and industry events online. While Zoom brings convenience, there has been a readjustment for Australians who have spent years dividing their time between home and the US in order to establish themselves. Lucinda Bruce travelled to Vancouver from Australia in 2013 while she was in her early 30s to pursue acting, after a spinal injury in 2006 and a bout of cancer in 2009 prompted a renewed focus on her dreams of working in the film industry. Following a switch to producing, she contributed to feature film FSM, as well as shorts A Family of Ghosts, The Starlight Heist, and Killing Christmas, while also establishing her own company, Lady of the Light Productions. Bruce returned to her hometown of Ross Creek, Victoria just prior to the start of pandemic, and has since shifted her focus to making projects in Australia, including drama/thriller The Nowhere Man, an Indigenous story set against the backdrop of Cyclone Tracy that will begin shooting in March next year. While the pivot towards virtual and hybrid events has created more affordable points of access for emerging practitioners, she says there is a certain kind of je ne sais quoi that comes from being in a place where “anything can happen”. “The extra cost of flights, accommodation and 10 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
everything else associated with travel to these markets is definitely a huge roadblock for most Australian filmmakers breaking into the US or international markets,” she says. “I am fortunate to have experienced Cannes, AFM and the Berlinale in person and now online, and there are pros and cons to both formats. “Attending the event in person meant I had the physical interaction of networking, which can cement one’s standing in people’s minds better than an online meeting could and it gave me more chance of running into the people I actually wanted to speak to. “You can end up having coffee with the right people at a private yacht party or villa at 1am in the morning, that you somehow managed to get invited to because you randomly spoke to someone earlier that day.” Like Bruce, young Australian actor Mitchell Hope also set up base in Victoria during the pandemic. His return to Melbourne in February 2020 came after seven years of going between Australia and the US, where he booked roles in Disney’s Descendants, as well as films such as Let It Snow. Despite having his own place in LA from 2014-17, Hope spent the two years preceding the pandemic without a permanent home in either country, visiting California every two months for one-month stays, where he would crash on the couch of one of his co-stars. Still in Australia, he says he has no immediate plans to leave, adding he feels less pressure to travel to the US as a result of the ways the industry has pivoted during the pandemic.
“I used to constantly plan on going back to the US to be on the ground because with a lot of these jobs, when you meet people in person during casting, they are asking, ‘Do I want to work with this guy?’” he says. “If there are five of us going for the role and casting is happy with all of our performances, it comes down to whether they want to spend three months with you and whether you can build on their direction. “But since the pandemic, there is a big push into the digital age and so we’re getting used to the idea of doing everything through Zoom and online calls, so I haven’t made any plans to go back to the US just yet.” Hope’s assessment of the post-pandemic climate is backed up by JP Sarni, who heads up international content and worldwide content acquisitions for US-based production company Stampede Ventures. Sarni has more than 15 years experience working in LA, having spent time in the development department at HBO Films before moving on to aid+abet as an executive, and then working as VP of development and literary acquisitions at Sonar Entertainment. Prior to joining Stampede in 2018, he was head of development at Laurence Fishbourne’s company, Cinema Gypsy Production. The development executive and producer says the pandemic has created something of a double edged sword for emerging talent coming to Hollywood. “In one sense, the digital culture has opened up opportunities for people to meet very quickly,
REPORT
but also you want to be able to meet in person whenever possible,” he says. “For young and emerging talent coming into LA, there is a very nice opportunity to sometimes put pressure on people to take meetings because when you’re only in town for four days, there’s a window of time and so things happen with more immediacy. “I think we’ll get back to that as everyone eases back into the world.” He says there are now “real opportunities” to meet a lot more people in the business. “I think if you want to break in with Hollywood proper, who primarily works with Americans and people coming through LA, there has been a learning curve there with some of the studio executives [with regards to taking meetings online] but now the gates are open,” he said. Often one of the first steps for incoming talent wanting to establish themselves is securing representation. Talent manager Peter McGrath of the Beverly Hills-based Echolake Entertainment has helped a host of international clients break into the US market, including Australian actors Odessa Young and Felix Mallard. Having signed several clients via Zoom since the pandemic began, he does not believe video meetings are a detriment to getting to know each other properly, despite preferring
in-person communication. “In terms of looking for representation, I suppose the need to be in LA to meet in person has been mitigated,” he says. “With auditions, I did notice that there was a pre-pandemic trend towards the first rounds being self-tapes rather than being in person. “Meetings with reps and directors were still being done in person. It was not until COVID however, that everything shifted to Zoom.” So with international travel returning and digital culture seemingly here to stay, what is the best approach for artists hoping to conquer Hollywood? According to Bruce, there is no substitute for going over there and “getting amongst it”. “A lot of filmmakers/actors stick it out here in Australia for years first because they think it will help them over there but it doesn’t really work like that. “I believe that my small amount of success in North America has given me more opportunities both there and here in Australia than what I could have achieved here in the same amount of time. “Ultimately though, I always tell people that they need passion, perseverance and patience to survive in this industry, and instead of competing with one other, support each other even when there’s nothing to gain from it personally or professionally.”
Stampede Ventures head of international content and worldwide IP acquisitions JP Sarni.
www.if.com.au 11
RISING TALENT
RISING TALENT 2022
After a tough few years, we’re using IF Magazine’s last issue of 2021 to take a positive look towards the future – by shining a spotlight on new and emerging talent. People who are shaking things up, telling different stories, have exciting and new creative vision, or are just putting in the hard yards! Some people on this list are new faces, while others, like some of those we’ve highlighted working in VFX and animation, have recently gotten into positions of new leadership where they can make waves, or have changed specialty. All of them are people we think you’ll hear more about into the future. Thank you to everyone who helped us put this list together, including those who submitted via our public call out. We hope it hints at the future of the Australian screen industry.
ACTORS EVIE MACDONALD
MABEL LI
Evie Macdonald is an actor and activist from Melbourne. Having begun modelling at the age of six, she was given her first acting role at 11 in First Day, which follows the challenges that come with starting a new school for a 12 year-old transgender girl. McDonald has played the lead character of Hannah in both seasons of the ABC series, which has won a variety of international awards, including an International Kids Emmy, and sold around the world. She is involved with raising awareness about transgender young people, having appeared on television, radio and in newspapers and media articles fighting for the rights of trans and gender diverse young people.
Mabel Li was born in Auckland and grew up in Sydney, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. After graduating from the NIDA BFA Acting course in 2019, she was awarded 2019/2020 BBM Youth Award Scholarship for drama. Li made her television debut in the role of Ruby in the SBS series The Tailings, before taking on the role of Zhang Lei in SBS/ Goalpost Pictures’ goldrush drama New Gold Mountain. Her work in film also includes the art installation, Trechikoff ’s Chinese Girl, which was written by Viv Du’o’ng. Li was about to make her main-stage theatre debut at Belvoir in 2021 in Michelle Law’s new play, Miss Peony. However, the production had to close just before opening due to COVID-19 and has since been postponed.
JILLIAN NGUYEN Melbourne-based Jillian Nguyen will have a big year in 2022, starring in one of the lead roles in ABC surfing drama Barons, and the female lead in Ivan Sen’s sci-fi feature Loveland, opposite Ryan Kwanten and Hugo Weaving. She is a graduate of the 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne and holds a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Media Communication, from The University of Melbourne. Two weeks after she graduated, Nguyen secured her first feature film role as Molly Kane in Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, going onto also star in SBS’s Hungry Ghosts. She was most recently seen in the Netflix series Clickbait and Michelle Savill’s comedy feature film Millie Lies Low. Born Huyen Dieu at Sungai Besi refugee camp in Malaysia, both Nguyen’s parents are Vietnamese, with Chinese heritage on her mother’s side. She emigrated to Australia with her parents as a baby.
NATHALIE MORRIS Nathalie Morris is known for playing the lead role of Oly in Stan series Bump opposite Claudia Karvan and Angus Sampson. Born and raised in Canberra, Morris graduated from New Zealand’s leading Drama School, Toi Whakaari, with a Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree in 2018. Since then, she has appeared in the US feature film Black Christmas starring alongside Imogen Poots for Blumhouse Productions, US series Almost Paradise, and TVNZ and Great Southern Television web series The Basement. Morris is about to commence production on the third season of Bump and recently completed production on Alena Lodkina’s upcoming feature film Petrol, as well as the second season of TVNZ’s drama series One Lane Bridge. She also played the role of Nina in Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, which screened online during COVID.
SOPHIE WILDE Sophie Wilde is an Ivorian-Australian actress who grew up in Sydney. Upon graduating from NIDA, she made her main stage debut playing Ophelia in Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet, performing at the Opera House. This was followed by the role of Scout in Stan limited series Eden. In 2022, she will be seen in mini-series’ You Don’t Know Me for BBC1/Netflix and Tom Jones for ITV. Wilde will also make her feature film debut in The Portable Door, alongside Sam Neill and Christoph Waltz. 12 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
As soon as production for Tom Jones wraps, Wilde flies directly back to Australia to shoot her second feature film Talk To Me, which is being produced by Causeway Films. Her short films include the lead role in Arundati Thandur’s Bird and Eliza Scanlen’s Mukbang, which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival.
The most luxurious sound and post production studios, which we guarantee you just won’t want to leave….
DCP DELIVERIES PICTURE EDIT GRADING CONFORM Specialising in DOLBY ATMOS / IMAX / MIXING / SOUND EDITING / FOLEY / ADR
Our facilities four re-recording mixing stages are capable of all
These are just some of the tools we use every day, to provide rich,
popular mixing formats, including theatrical 3D Audio, 5.1, 7.1,
unique, quality production for every project we work on.
IMAX 5.0 & 12.0 and featuring 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos theatre which also includes ADR stage with Source Connect.
Pow Wow Film Studios are proud to announce that our very own Peter Purcell has been nominated in the category of “Best Sound”,
Our two on-line colour grading suites and Avid edit suites are built
for his outstanding work on the new Australian feature film
to take on any sized film, with high speed fibre NBN connectivity,
‘ASCENDANT’, directed by Antaine Furlong and mixed right here
DCP authoring and television mastering.
with the team in our Dolby Atmos theatre.
powwowstudios.com.au www.powwowstudios.com.au
190 Pacific Highway North Sydney NSW 2060 tel: +61 2 900 66 770 – email: chris@powwowstudios.com.au
MGM / NETFLIX / ARTE K2 STUDIOS / ABC DEFINITION FILMS
RISING TALENT
CINEMATOGRAPHERS
SHERWIN AKBARZADEH
EMMA PAINE
LEWIS POTTS
Sherwin Akbarzadeh is a Melbourne-based cinematographer working across film, television, documentary, commercials and music videos. In 2021, he shot the six-part comedy-musical series Stories From Oz, written by Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor and directed by Max Miller for the ABC. Other recent credits include feature documentaries Carbon, to be broadcast by Arte France and The Record, which premiered on Amazon Prime. Akbarzadeh is currently attached to the feature film SHAYDA to be directed by Noora Niasari and produced by Vincent Sheehan which is slated to shoot in mid-2022. Sherwin is the recipient of 13 Australian Cinematography Society Awards and a Shots Asia Pacific Silver Award for Cinematography. He is drawn to telling challenging stories, especially those which feature marginalised voices.
Emma Paine is a Sydney-based cinematographer with an eye for expressive lighting and composition. Since graduating with a Graduate Diploma in Cinematography from AFTRS l in 2011, she has worked extensively in drama, commercials and documentary. Paine won her first Gold Tripod at the Australian Cinematographers Society National awards for We Will in 2016. Her other works include feature film Zelos, short film Chlorine which had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and Sweet Tooth, which won Best Short Film at Cinema Des Antipodes 2019. Paine recently shot Northern Pictures comedy series Spreadsheet, starring Katherine Parkinson, for Paramount+ and is looking forward to more long form projects in 2022.
Lewis Potts is a Western Australian-based cinematographer, who discovered filmmaking and cinematography at a young age through skateboarding. He is now working in the commercial, narrative, doc and music video space with brands and artists such as Puma, Watches of Switzerland, Spacey Jane and Tame Impala. Potts is preparing to shoot his debut feature film, He Ain’t Heavy, in mid 2022. His past credits also include documentary Koko: A Red Dog Story. His work on short film We Were Here won Best Cinematography at the WA Screen Awards in 2016. Other projects have been showcased at numerous film festivals, including St Kilda Film Festival, CinefestOZ, Revelation Film Fest, The French Film Festival: Festivaldes Antipodes.
LUCAS TOMOANA
MEG WHITE
Lucas Tomoana is Queensland-based cinematographer with Samoan and Maori heritage. In 2013, he was one of 10 to accepted into AFTRS to study cinematography, and since then he has won 20 Australian Cinematography Society Awards, including seven golds and one National Award of Distinction. Tomoana’s career has spanned the UK, Europe, China, Cambodia, NZ, as well as various locations across Australia. In 2020, he turned his focus to camera operating in television drama and films, working on both seasons of NBC’s Young Rock and Joe Exotic, and Amazon’s The Wilds. Tomoana became Vice President of ACS Queensland in 2021 and also hosts a podcast called ‘Cinemapodgrapher’ to give career advice and help the next generation of filmmakers.
Meg White’s recent projects include ABC comedy series Preppers, and the International Emmy Award-winning First Day, which also won a Rose D’or, and was nominated for an AACTA. White was also recently 2nd unit DP on Seven Network series RFDS. She has shot many short form projects with prominent directors, two of which she won Australian Cinematography Silver Awards for: Marcia Hines music video Remedy, directed by Russell Crowe, and the AACTA Nominated short film I Want to Make a Film About Women, directed by Karen Pearlman. White’s documentary work includes Rachel Perkins’ Arrernte Women’s Project and Hawanatu Bangura’s I Am Black and Beautiful. White holds a BA in Media Arts and Production from University of Technology, Sydney. She is the recipient of ACS Drew Llewelyn Camerimage Scholarship and the Screen Australia Onbass Fellowship, which enabled her to attend the American Film Institute Conservatory under scholarship in 2019.
14 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
RISING TALENT
COMPOSERS
BRONTË HORDER
FREYA BERKHOUT
HELENA CZAJKA
Brontë Horder is a composer and vocalist who has written and produced both score and bespoke songs for film, TV and documentary projects. Horder has worked as a songwriter and session vocalist in both the US and Australia, with her voice featuring in the score for Robert Connolly’s The Dry. She also sang backing vocals and played the piano on the end titles song, Under The Milky Way. As part of The D.A’s Office, a bespoke music composition house, Horder frequently collaborates with creators Dinesh Wicks and Adam Gock, composing underscore and songs for TV shows, including Love On The Spectrum, Mirror Mirror and MasterChef. Her work has been nominated for Best Original Song Composed for the Screen at the APRAAGSC Screen Music Awards two years in a row – Bear’s Theme for the documentary Bear:Koala Hero in 2020 and Day by Day for the short film Fourteen in 2019.
Freya Berkhout is a composer, vocalist, writer and creative technologist. She is a graduate of Sydney University and AFTRS, winning the Kenneth B. Myer Award for Exceptional Talent upon graduation. In 2018, she completed a Masters in Computational Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, receiving the Humanitarian Scholarship. Berkhout has been awarded funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and holds an Exceptional Talent Artist Visa in the UK. She was nominated for a 2019 Screen Music Award for Best Music in a Short Film for Vanessa Gazy’s SHILOH. In 2021, Berkhout scored Thomas WilsonWhite’s The Greenhouse, as well as Cloudy Rhodes’ queer non-binary short Beautiful They, which had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival. She also scored Laura Nagy’s lauded Audible podcast Pillow Talk, and won the 2021 APRA Professional Development Award for Film and Television.
ARIA Award-winning composer Helena Czajka is known for blending her classical training from Australia and her experience working as an orchestrator in Tokyo, with a passion for experimental sound design and electronic textures. In 2021, Helena had three feature films at Sydney Film Festival: Blind Ambition, which won the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at both Tribeca Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival; Unseen Skies, for which she crafted a music score out of sound samples that NASA has recorded in outer space; and The Department, commissioned by SBS. Czajka won the ARIA Award this year for Best Children’s Album for her work as a writer/ producer on Bluey: The Album, which also made history as the first children’s album to reach #1 on the ARIA Charts. Helena won Best Original Score at the 2020 Florence Film Awards for ABC series Revelation, and received an APRA Screen Music Award nomination for Best Music in a TV Series for her work on Australian Survivor.
THOMAS E ROUCH
CHIARA COSTANZA
Thomas E Rouch is a screen composer whose scores span multiple genres and formats. Since 2019, Rouch has frequently collaborated with Cornel Wilczek, with their credits including TV shows Stateless, The Newsreader, Clickbait and Fires, titles which earned them multiple AACTA and Screen Music Award nominations. Rouch’s film scores include The Will To Fly, The Reckoning, and the Amazon sci-fi thriller The Gateway, while his documentary scores include the AACTA-winning The Australian Dream and Eva Orner’s Burning, now streaming on Amazon. He is currently working on action feature film Avarice and Binge/Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia’s Love Me, alongside Cornel Wilczek.
Chiara Costanza is a classical and electronic film and TV composer who was born and raised in Torino, Italy, but is now based in Australia. Costanza composed the original soundtrack for Cannes Film Festival 2018 Short Film Palme D’Or winner All These Creatures, and more recently, for Josh Lawson’s 2021 feature Long Story Short. She has also composed the original music for TV series for Stan’s The Other Guy, SBS mini-series The Unusual Suspects and ABC’s Preppers. Her latest composition for contemporary dance company Chunky Move will premiere at the Sydney Festival in January 2022 at Carriageworks.
www.if.com.au 15
RISING TALENT
COSTUME DESIGNERS
SABINA MYERS
ELLEN STANISTREET
VALENTINA SEREBRENNIKOVA
Sabina is a set and costume designer for stage and screen. Originally from Brisbane, where she studied art history at the University of Queensland, she is now Sydney-based and graduated from NIDA in 2017 with an MFA in Design. Myers recent design credits for screen include costume design on Tanith Glynn-Maloney’s short film Finding Jedda, production design on Emily Avila’s Fitting and costume design on AFTRS project Sweet Tooth, directed by Shannon Ashlyn. She has also worked as a costume assistant on Foxtel’s Picnic at Hanging Rock series, as costume digital assets manager on Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi an the Legend of the Ten Rings, and as costume design assistant on George Miller’s upcoming film Three Thousand Years of Longing. Myers is currently working as costume designer on Orontea for Pinchgut Opera and on The Barber of Seville for Opera Australia’s 2022 national tour.
Ellen Stanistreet is a Melbourne-based costume designer for film, TV and theatre. She spent ten years working in fashion, building a small business, then managing and designing at one of Australia’s last couture bridal houses. In 2016 she moved to Sydney to complete the MFA in Design for Performance at NIDA. Her first feature film as costume designer was queer drama The Greenhouse by writer/director Thomas Wilson-White. This year she designed the costumes for Moja Vesna, written and directed by Sara Kern. Her short-form work includes the drama St. Augustine, which premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2019 and documentary Only Different, on ABC iview in 2018. Stanistreet has worked widely in costume teams on TV series and films since graduating, including as costume buyer on upcoming feature film Woody Woodpecker 2 for Universal Studios. Other credits include The True History of the Kelly Gang; Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Playing for Keeps, My Life is Murder and Mr Black.
Valentina Serebrennikova is a cross disciplinary costume and production designer. She has worked across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Russia on various scales of productions across film, TV, theatre shows and music videos. In 2021, she won the APDG Award for Best Costume Designer for a Short Film, Web Series and Music Video for I Want To Make A Film About Women. She has worked in the art and costume department on various films and TV shows The Whistleblower, Judy & Punch, Measure for Measure, Disclosure, Glitch and Rostered On. In addition to 13 years of training at various art universities in Russia, Serebrennikova holds a Master of Production Design from VCA, and won Best Production Design at the graduating film awards.
LIEN SEE LEONG
EMILY PIRES
After a number of years working on sets across Australia, Lien See Leong was key costume stand-by on Crazy Rich Asians before returning home to Western Australia to design ABC’s The Heights. Her costume design credits include the feature films Paper Planes, I Met A Girl, Blueback and television series Itch. Lien See is a graduate of the WA Academy of Performing Arts (Costume for Performance) and is committed to mentoring emerging WA crew.
Emily Pires, a proud Tubba-gah, Wiradjuri and Gumbaynggirr woman based in Western Sydney, graduated from NIDA in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Costume). She was the first Indigenous student to graduate from the Costume course. Since then she has not stopped working, first in the costume department on the production of Wakefield, then in the main costume section of Thor: Love and Thunder, and then onto Pinchgut Opera productions. She is currently working on costumes for Bangarra’s Wudjang: Not the Past, an epic-scale contemporary corroboree in co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company. It debuts in early 2022 and brings together 17 dancers, four musicians and five actors for Banagrra’s largest stage production to date.
16 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
RISING TALENT
DIRECTORS
MADELEINE GOTTLIEB
SAMUEL VAN GRINSVEN
ISAAC ELLIOTT
Madeleine Gottlieb is a director, producer and screenwriter based in Sydney. In 2020, Gottlieb completed her fourth short film as writer/director, You and Me, Before and After, which stars Yael Stone, Emily Barclay and Tracy Mann. The film played the Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an AACTA Award. Gottlieb is in active development on a slate of long-form projects, including Teething, an autofictional Jewish diaspora dramedy series. She is also developing an anthology web-series, Masc, made by an all-female production team and seven female and non-binary writer/directors. Gottlieb made her short film directorial debut with the AWGIE-winning I F***ed a Mermaid and No One Believes Me. In 2018 she directed, wrote and produced her second short film Snare, which was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Short Film and premiered in competition at SXSW. In 2019, Gottleib was a director’s attachment on Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, and wrote feature film Panyee for Revlover Films. Her third short, Laura, premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival 2020.
Samuel Van Grinsven is New Zealand-born screenwriter and director. He is currently in development on his second feature film Went Up The Hill, an Australia/New Zealand co-production with Causeway Films and POP Film, as well as his first television series with an Australian broadcaster. His debut feature film Sequin In A Blue Room premiered at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film, before going on to screen at Palm Springs International Film Festival, Outfest LA, TIFF Next Wave, BFI Flare and Melbourne International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for an AACTA Award, Australian Directors Guild Award and German Independence Award as well as being released theatrically in Australia, Germany and the UK. In 2018 Van Grinsven completed a Masters of Directing at AFTRS, with a research area focused on the New Queer Cinema movement of the ‘90s. His short films have been selected for both domestic and international film festivals. He is repped by RGM Artists.
Isaac Elliott is a director and producer. He grew up in Alice Springs and began making films in 2007 after he became a paraplegic in a motorcycle accident. He graduated from Deakin University in 2015, with his graduating film, A Static Wind, awarded Best Tertiary Short Fiction at the 2016 ATOM awards. Since graduating, he produced and starred in feature documentary Finke: There and Back with Brindle Films, and directed Burlesque Boys, a documentary exploring the life of a male stripper, which won Screen Australia and VICE’s Pitch Australiana initiative. He also directed a short TV special, The Legend of Burnout Barry, which earned him a nomination for Best Direction in a Children’s program at the 2020 Australian Directors Guild awards. In 2021, Elliott directed two episodes of ABC/ Netflix series Maverix, which he created with Rachel Clements and Sam Meikle, as well short film Don’t Come In… Yet! He is in pre-production on a documentary about disability and sex for SBS called We Are Sexual Beings to be shot in early 2022.
KATIE FOUND
DAVID O’DONNELL
Katie Found is a Melbourne-based writer and director, who made her feature debut with My First Summer. Currently streaming on Stan, the AACTA-nominated coming-of-age drama, starring Markella Kavenagh and Maiah Stewardson, will soon be available on VOD in the US, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Brazil, Spain and Japan. It has also screened at Adelaide Film Festival, BFI Flare, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Inside Out, MQFF and Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival. Found completed her Masters of Screenwriting at VCA in 2020 and received development funding from Film Victoria for her psychological horror, Down Came the Rain. Most recently, she was selected as part of the Film Victoria, Arenamedia and SBS initiative Originate along with co-writer Markella Kavenagh to develop her next feature, Into the Blue. Found is represented by Zero Gravity Management.
David O’Donnell is a West Australian director/writer based in the US. After graduating from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), he worked for several years in Australian theatre, film and TV, with credits including Blue Water High, Underbelly, and Cops LAC. O’Donnell made his feature directorial debut with 2020’s Under My Skin, which he wrote, directed and produced. The film was nominated for an AACTA and an Australian Directors’ Guild Award. Under My Skin screened at NewFest, Santa Barbara, Mardi Gras, and Raindance, and is available on Stan. His other projects as a director include short film Picture Wheel, which screened at Palm Springs, Rhode Island, Cinequest, Santa Monica - where it won Best Short Film - and numerous other festivals. It was sold to Gunpowder & Sky. His projects in development include Sons of Salt and Tick. www.if.com.au 17
RISING TALENT
EDITORS
CHRISTINE CHEUNG
RACHEL GRIERSON-JOHNS
GRACE EYRE
Sydney-based editor Christine Cheung grew up with a love of animation, MGM musicals, Alfred Hitchcock, and Bill Collin’s Golden Years of Hollywood. She began her film career as an assistant editor on Happy Feet, Australia, Animal Kingdom and The Great Gatsby. Continuing on her path to editing she cut shorts Red Rover; Shiloh, for which she was nominated for an Ellie Award in 2019; the AACTA-nominated Chicken and Madeleine Gottlieb’s You and Me Before and After, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this year and was nominated for an AACTA Award. Her first feature film as editor was the indie Zelos, which she followed up with the Roache-Turner brothers’ Nektrotronic, and Thomas Wilson-White’s The Greenhouse. The highlight of Cheung’s career so far has been cutting ABC children’s series First Day, recently won an International Emmy Kids Award. She is currently working on the second season of First Day, as well as another ABC kids series, Aquarius Films’ Born To Spy, and was assembly editor for Jen Peedom’s River.
Rachel Grierson-Johns’ career has spanned Australia, the UK and the US. She started as an in-house editor in Brisbane, cutting corporates and low budget documentaries/drama features, before getting her first big break on music videos for bands like Silverchair. After moving to London, Grierson-Johns worked in news briefly before working on programs such as Big Brother UK; Famous, Rich and Homeless; Don’t Tell The Bride and Cherry Healy’s Drinking With The Girls and Cherry Has A Baby. After working in LA for a few years, she edited Aquarius Films feature documentary Roller Dreams. She has gone on to work on a steady stream of documentary and factual programs in Australia, such as Emmy-winning series Go Back To Where You Came From, Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl, Dumb, Drunk and Racist, Murder in the Outback and War on Waste. Recently she has worked on a number of Northern Pictures projects, including Employable Me, Love on the Spectrum, for which she won an Ellie Award with Simon CallowWright, See What You Made Me Do and feature documentary, Strong Female Lead.
Originally from the US, editor Grace Eyre moved to Australia in 2013, and joined The Editors, where she continues to work. Based in Melbourne, her career spans commercials, drama, and documentary, with a focus on storytelling and authenticity. She has been thrice nominated for an ASE Ellie Award for Best Editing, most recently for her work on the AACTA-winning SBS short drama series, The Tailings. Her other credits include shorts Groundhog Night and Joy Boy, which won Best Australian Short at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Her commercial work has been shortlisted for a Cannes Glass Lion. Passionate about the creative role of the editor and the vibrancy of the Australian screen community, Eyre recently served as chair of the ASE Victoria and organised the Screen and Stage Summer Party which brought together 400 industry professionals across all disciplines.
PIP HART
JESSIE HILDEBRAND
Editor Pip Hart studied Film and Television at Griffith QCA, graduating in 2010. After university, she honed her technical skills as an assistant editor on films such as Predestination and Return To Nim’s Island. More recently, she assembly edited for Christmas On The Farm and The Possessed. Hart began editing in children’s television for broadcast programs such as Imagination Train, BrainBuzz, Totally Wild and You’re Called What?!, before moving to edit documentaries such as My Body Says, Wildest Places, Just Animals Season 2, Fight To Live and Belonging, which won Best documentary at Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2020. Hart’s greatest passion lies in narrative storytelling, and telling unique stories about people who aren’t typically on our screens. She is currently editing for a children’s drama series and recently had two short films screen at Brisbane International Film Festival: The Moths Will Eat Them Up and Our Greatest Escape. In 2019, Hart was awarded Best Editing at Tropfest for Crush, and received an Ellie Award nomination for The Mother Load.
Jessie Hildebrand is an editor with experience across drama, documentary and music videos. Her recent work includes Brietta Hague’s Baltasar, winner of Best Australian Short Film at the 2021 Melbourne International Film Festival, and the 2019 AACTA-nominated Yulubidyi: Until the End, winner of Best Australian Short at Flickerfest. Hildebrand was also an assembly editor on The Letdown’s second season as well as on the feature film We Are Still Here. She also served as an associate editor on the feature film Here Out West which premiered Opening Night at the Sydney Film Festival, and is currently editing her first feature film, Unravelling. Additionally, Hildebrand has cut music videos for Cloud Control and corporate videos starring people such as Robin Williams and Elijah Wood. She has more than 30 credits as an assistant editor.
18 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
RISING TALENT :/ tp ht /w .ne ww m .c o ve ati re dc an oll wh
http://www.altvfx.com
RISING TALENT
PRODUCERS
TARYNE LAFFAR
HANNAH NGO
NIKKI TRAN
Writer and producer Taryne ‘Pinky’ Laffar descends from the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations of the West Kimberley and is also of a Filipino and European background. In 2019, she was named one of Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch, going on to win the SBS First Look grant, and was selected for Screen Australia’s Indigenous Producer Program and Developing the Developer. Following on from producing standalone doc Our Law for NITV, Laffar launched her own company, Pink Pepper in June 2020. It has received production funding to take Our Law to a full sixpart series for NITV with Periscope Pictures, and has a development slate that includes Old Mate, with Aaron McCann and Gary Hamaguchi, feature anthology Red, with Ramu Productions, and with Lois Randall, TV dramedy Tata Detective, which Laffar also created and wrote. Laffar is also among the producers of Ryan Griffin’s upcoming VR project, Lustration, funded by Facebook Reality Lab’s Media Studios.
Originally hailing from WA, Hannah Ngo’s credits include SBS short-form series Iggy and Ace, which premiered at Seriesmania, and screened in competition at C21 International Drama Awards, CinefestOz and Bilbao Seriesland. The series was funded via Screen Australia and SBS’s Digital Originals program. In her work, Ngo wants to help make creative decisions that bring original and significant projects into being, and draws on her heritage to help drive stories in an unexpected and uplifting way, including in her short films, which include Tribunal, Rift and Carnal Privilege. Ngo is one of Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch cohort for 2021, and is a Screenwest Breaking the Celluloid Celling recipient, mentored by Tess Novak of Lingo Pictures. Ngo was a producer’s attachment on The Heights, and her slate includes web series Me (And Herpes), short animation Bird Drone, and Let Me Help, also being developed via Digital Originals.
Nikki Tran is a writer and producer based in Melbourne who looks for the light-hearted and subtle intersections of migration, community and storytelling through her work. In early 2021, Tran joined Fremantle Australia as a development assistant in its scripted drama team, with an eye on supporting underrepresented voices and emerging talent in screen. She cut her teeth as one of the inaugural recipients of the 2019 Film Victoria Screen Development Internship, working across Film Victoria, Matchbox Pictures, Tony Ayres Productions and the ABC. Tran’s credits as a producer include Lil CEEBS; ABC iview factual series Can You Hear Me?, AACTA-nominated web series Girl, Interpreted, and web series FRESH!, which premiered at Series Mania Melbourne. The latter is currently in development for adaptation into a halfhour series. Tran holds a Master of Producing from Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) and Bachelor of Communication (Media) from RMIT University.
CODY GREENWOOD
HAYLEY ADAMS
Cody Greenwood’s feature documentary, Under The Volcano, premiered at SXSW and was nominated for the Documentary Australian Foundation Award for Best Australian Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival. The film is being distributed globally by Universal Pictures and tells the story of the Beatles producer Sir George Martin’s Caribbean recording studio. Greenwood also produced Frances Elliott and Samantha Marlowe’s documentary Girl Like You, which recently premiered on the ABC and was recognised at the WA Screen Culture Awards. Named one of Screen Producers Australia’s Ones To Watch in 2018, Greenwood is the founder of Rush Films. Her credits also include short film Sparkles, Tooly, Abduction and Mystic Pines. In 2020, she was accepted into the narrative feature lab Attagirl, to develop Zoe Pepper’s feature film Fads and Miracles, and in 2021 named a recipient of Screenwest’s Breaking The Celluloid Ceiling, being mentored by Liz Watts.
Hayley Adams is a producer at Unless Pictures, supported by Screen Australia’s Enterprise People Program. She was among Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch cohort in 2020, and won the SBS First Look Development Grant. Adams produced and directed narrative TikTok series Love Songs, which amassed over 20 million views. The second season was released in partnership with Tinder. Her next TikTok series, Scattered was funded by Screen Australia and Film Victoria, with 2 million views and over 50,000 followers. Her upcoming slate includes I Could Make That, a 1 x 30-minute program for SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand with art history TikTok star Mary McGillivray. Adams previously produced the MIFF Accelerator 2019 and Flickerfest 2020 short film There’s a Mobster Under My Bed!
20 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
RISING TALENT
PRODUCTION DESIGNERS
ARA NURI STEEL
LAURA ANNA LUCAS
CELESTE VELDZE
Ara Nuri Steel co-founded Sydney-based film studio ARACOURT alongside Courtney Westbrook, with the pair working as a design and production duo. Since graduating from NIDA’s production design course in 2016, Steel has worked as a design assistant on large scale productions such as Shang-Chi: And the Legend of the Ten Rings, Thor: Love and Thunder, Pieces of Her, Nitram and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, as well as a number of independent films. She also has experience as a buyer and onset dresser At the 2021 Australian Production Design Guild awards, ARACOURT won the AFTRS Emerging Designer for Screen Production Award for their independent short film, CNUT. In 2022, Steel is aiming to focus her attention on ARACOURT, which specialises in a distinct style of handmade content that combines stop-motion animation with live action.
Laura Anna Lucas is a Sydney-based production designer from Greece. In 2012 she moved to Australia to study a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts in Stage Design at NIDA and then went on to complete a Masters of Screen Arts in Production Design at AFTRS. She has designed awardwinning films that have screened in film festivals worldwide, including Semaine de la Critique at Cannes Film Festival, BFI London, Tribeca, Berlinale, Melbourne International Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival Since 2019, she has moved into large scale film and television productions, working alongside production designers such as Grant Major, Annie Beauchamp and Melinda Doring. She is currently assistant art director on Amazon’s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, and has been a design assistant on projects like Pieces of Her, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Babyteeth.
Celeste Veldze is a Melbourne-based production designer and art department all-rounder. After graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts (cinema studies major), she quickly switched focus to practical filmmaking, completing an Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media at Swinburne in 2014. Veldze got her first post-student film role on The Legend of Ben Hall and has since worked her way up in the industry, designing and crewing on a range of shorts, commercials, music videos and independent feature films for the past seven years. In 2020-21, Veldze participated in the APDG mentorship program, where she was paired with set decorator Lisa Thompson, and recently won an APDG design award for her work on the short film Henry Needs a New Home. Veldze is currently crewing on Ticket to Paradise in Queensland and aims to keep pursuing work on long-form productions.
COURTNEY WESTBROOK
MAYA COOMBS
Courtney Westbrook is a Sydney-based director/designer and co-founder ARACOURT Studio with Ara Nuri Steel. Westbrook has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design) from NIDA and has studied in a range of complementary fields, including interior architecture, graphic design, illustration, directing, screenwriting and animation. She was also awarded an APDG Mentorship with art director Michelle McGahey and received the 2021 Australian Production Design Guild AFTRS Emerging Designer for Screen Production Award for her directorial debut short film, CNUT. Also in 2021, she worked in the art department on Matthew Reilly’s Interceptor, Russell Crowe’s Poker Face, and the Netflix Heartbreak High reboot.
Maya Coombs is an emerging Yankuntjatjarra production designer from Adelaide. Since graduating with Honours in Creative Arts (Screen) from Flinders University, she has worked on several productions in South Australia. Coombs has just completed her first head of department role as production designer on Rolf de Heer’s The Mountain, a position she described as a “big stepping stone” in her career. “To design a feature film at 25, a Rolf de Heer film at that, is something that I never could have imagined even a year ago,” she said. Her prior roles have included working under designer Scott Bird on the Stan Original series, The Tourist, as well as assisting Naaman Marshall on Mortal Kombat, and Melinda Doring on Stateless. Coomb’s other screen credits include Closer Productions’ The Hunting and Screentime’s Pine Gap.
www.if.com.au 21
RISING TALENT
VFX AND ANIMATION
LUKE GRAVETT
HEIDY VILLAFANE
FRANCESCA MILDE
Luke Gravett has more than seven years’ experience in the VFX industry, having held a variety of roles both in Australia and overseas. He joined Animal Logic in 2015 as an FX artist and most recently was the associate FX supervisor on Peter Rabbit 2. Gravett is working as FX, character FX and crowd supervisor on the Netflix animated feature, The Magician’s Elephant, where he oversees a team of over 30 artists and leads across all three departments. With a passion for pushing the boundaries of style, as well as providing the simplest experience for artists, Gravett has helped develop many of the pipeline tools built in Houdini and USD, most recently redesigning the crowd workflow to enhance user experience and functionality. Additional credits include Captain Marvel, The LEGO Movie 2, Peter Rabbit, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Heidy Villafane is the head of layout at Method Studios, Melbourne. As a visual effect artist and supervisor with nearly two decades of experience, she specialises in layout and previsualsation, as well as stereoscopic on live-action, hybrid and fully CG animated feature films. She has worked on over 25 feature films across her career, more recently in visual effects on Mortal Kombat, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Tomorrow War, both Peter Rabbit, The Great Gatsby and Gods of Egypt. Her work in 3D animated feature films can be seen in The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, Walking with Dinosaurs in 3D. She was also director of photography of Flying Bark Productions’ 100% Wolf. Villafane has collaborated with a range of acclaimed directors including Zack Snyder on the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole, Chris Mckay on The Lego Batman Movie and Charlie Bean on the The Lego Ninjago Movie.
Francesca Milde is a compositor with five years of experience in the visual effects industry, who approaches her work from an artistic and filmmaking background with a passion for the overall world-building capabilities of visual effects. She studied at the Digital Animation and Visual Effects School in Orlando, Florida, after which she returned to Adelaide to study for the Graduate Certificate of Visual Effects – a joint program at the University of South Australia and Rising Sun Pictures. Following her completion of the program, she was hired as a junior compositor at Rising Sun Pictures, where she worked on films like Logan, Alien: Covenant and Thor: Ragnarok, which included work on villain Hela and the Asgard Palace. In 2020, Milde joined Luma Pictures as a compositor, where she’s worked on projects like The Tomorrow War, Candyman, SpiderMan: No Way Home and Far From Home, where she was a part of the team for the Molten Man fight sequence.
ROY MALHI
CHRISTINA RYAN
Roy Malhi is a creative and technical visual effects supervisor. Malhi has spent time as a CG supervisor at Fuel VFX, technical director at Animal Logic, and CG supervisor at Iloura. More recently, he was head of CG at Method Studios Sydney before moving on to his current position VFX supervisor at Fin Design & Effects, where he is responsible for managing large teams across hundreds of shots. He has a hands-on approach, continuing to create art and write pipeline. In addition to designing and writing the Houdini pipeline at Fin, Malhi is the company’s resident FX guru, solving its biggest visual challenges, such as the water simulation in the Ta Lo map sequence in Shang-Chi. Over his two decades in the industry, he has worked on films like Prometheus, Thor, Ghost in the Shell, Spider-Man: Homecoming, John Wick: Chapter 2, Bright, Outlaw King, The Lego Movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.
Christina Ryan is a senior texture artist at Industrial Light & Magic in Sydney. She is originally from Adelaide, where she previously worked at Rising Sun Pictures. Ryan’s role incorporates both creative and technical skills to apply colours and material properties to models. She works to refine the overall look so that models respond to 3D environments just as they would in real life. The types of assets she works on varies, but has included everything from environments and props, to creatures and human digital doubles. Her credits include Thor: Ragnarok, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. In addition to production work, Ryan involves herself in the student community through teaching, and being an active judge/ambassador for The Rookies, which is a community for upcoming creatives.
22 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
RISING TALENT
WRITERS
PHILIP TARL DENSON
ENOCH MAILANGI
KIM HO
Philip Tarl Denson is a screenwriter and producer living in Darwin, Northern Territory. Denson has had several original screenplays optioned in the US and has a number of feature film and television projects in development including his NT Literary Award winning script Lucid, with Eric Heisserer’s company Chronology, and sci-fi feature Singularity set up with Scott Free. Denson has also been hired to write a feature animation for Like a Photon and Universal, as well as a horror feature for Brad Fuller. In 2019, he was selected to take part in Imagine Impact for his original sci-fi series titled Anomaly, which has since attached Groundswell Entertainment producer Michael London and set up at Legendary Studios. The project also won the Australian Writers’ Guild 2020 Monte Mille Award. In 2020, Screen Producers Australia named Denson among its Ones to Watch. He has produced web series such as Mining Boom, Fracketty Frack: It’s the Frackpocalypse, and wrote Zero-Point. Denson is represented by Management 360 and Verve Talent and Literary Agency in the US.
Enoch Mailangi is the creator/writer of five-part ABC iview comedy, All My Friends Are Racist. Mailangi’s pitch for the series saw them win 2017’s RAW initiative, a First Nations writers workshop conceived by Artology with the support of Leah Purcell, Wayne Blair and Kyas Hepworth. It won the 2021 AACTA award for Best Short Form Comedy. Mailangi is an alumni of Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group and currently an Urban Theatre Project resident artist. They are in the writing team for ABC children’s series Crazy Fun Park, have just wrapped their debut short film, Blackfellas Who Can’t Dance, with Noble Savage Pictures, funded via the Screen Australia/NITV No Ordinary Black initiative, and their podcast Solidarity, Whatever will be available online soon. Mailangi hopes to work in television development of new works which platform voices from emerging Queer, Black and Pasifika writers.
In 2021, Kim Ho was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television for an episode of ABC’s The Newsreader, which he co-wrote with Michael Lucas – his first screen credit. Ho was also script coordinator for the series, and more recently for Northern Pictures/ Paramount+ comedy, Spreadsheet. He has several TV projects in development, and is co-writing YA feature Trailblazers, with disability advocate Emily Dash. In March 2021, Ho was awarded production funding for his web series project Melbourne Vice via AFTRS’ National Talent Camp. A Chinese-Australian writer, Ho’s work explores genre subversion, magic realism and stories of cross-cultural encounter. He is also a passionate advocate of empowering marginalised voices. His 2013 short film, Language of Love, was in the Official Selection for the Sundance Film Festival YouTube Showcase in 2014. Ho is represented by HLA management.
CAITLIN RICHARDSON
CLARE SLADDEN
Tasmanian Caitlin Richardson is the creator and writer of the AACTA and AWGIE award-winning SBS series The Tailings, produced by Good Lark, in association with 2Jons and Roar Film. Starring Mabel Li and Tegan Stimson, the story follows two very different young women on the west coast of Tasmania that are drawn together by a terrible accident. Richardson holds a Bachelor of Arts with first class Honours in Creative Writing from the University of Tasmania and her series of plays were nominated for a Tasmanian Theatre Award for Best Writing in 2016. Her theatre work has been produced in nipaluna/ Hobart, Launceston and Sydney, and adapted for ABC Radio National. Richardson, who also works as a high school English teacher, is excited to continue telling Tasmanian stories.
Clare Sladden is a writer and director with a passion for female-driven stories. She recently penned an episode of the Stan/ Every Cloud Productions series Eden, and wrote, directed and co-produced Winding Road, a narrative podcast funded by Audible and Screen Queensland. Sladden is in development on half hour comedy/drama The Lead, which received development funding through a joint Stan/Screen Queensland initiative. She was selected for the 2020 SPA Ones to Watch program and was also chosen to lead a room for her project, Pathological, as the successful participant of Screen Queensland’s Bradford Winters Lab. Her first feature-length screenplay, Always the Dressmaker, was a finalist in the Cinestory Fellowship in 2014. She won the inaugural Byron Bay Film Festival International Screenplay Competition in 2017 with Broken Head, for which she was also a semifinalist in the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowship.
www.if.com.au 23
FEATURE
HOW TO FIND YOUR PERFECT MENTOR The right mentor can be life changing. Emmy and AACTA Award-winning producer turned screen sector executive coach Ellenor Cox provides some practical advice on how to secure one and get the most out of your relationship.
W
ouldn’t we all love to have someone we admire professionally set aside time to meet with us to provide advice and feedback, share their insights into how they achieved their goals and to cheer us on when we step up and out of our comfort zones? This is the role of a mentor. Finding and cultivating the right mentoring relationship can be a game-changing tool for your professional growth.
HOW TO FIND A GOOD MENTOR
“There are no magic words to get a stranger to mentor you. Don’t waste your time.” In her book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg likens asking strangers to be mentors to the behaviour of the baby bird in the children’s book Are You My Mother?. The little bird leaves its empty nest and proceeds to ask everyone it meets whether they’re her mother or not. The recurring “No!” is what you’ll experience if you ask a 24 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
stranger to mentor you. Potential mentors need to believe in you already. They need to know that you’ll put their input and feedback to good use, and respect the time that they’re giving you. You need to have demonstrated your potential to them first. Don’t despair though if you don’t feel like you’ve had enough faceto-face time to impress your ideal mentor. There are various ways to get on their radar by showing first how you can be of service to them. Foster relationships. If you’d like someone to be your mentor, follow their social media posts, share their updates, comment in a positive and constructive way on their blogs, engage in detail within social media groups that they’re active in, and acknowledge their contributions to the industry to your wider circle. Many years ago, I was taught the art of starting my working day by sending notes of encouragement and congratulations to others in the industry. This gesture of unconditional support – without a follow up sentence suggesting
‘coffee or a catch up’ – serves two purposes. You get to bring a smile to the face of someone you’re keen to foster a relationship with, and you start your day from a place of gratitude and generosity. It’s a ‘win-win’. It’s also great practise for cultivating the habits of patience and consistency, which are crucial for securing your perfect mentor relationship. Knowing what your goals are, both in the short and long term, is key. The more specific you can be about these then the easier it is to find the right mentor. A typical mentor relationship is usually 4-6 months (although some can last a lifetime!) so get clear on what you want to accomplish during this time and who would be best placed to assist you. Creating this clarity can lead you to realise that there are already those within your existing network acting as informal mentors that you could ask to formalise a relationship with. Don’t expect your mentor to be your sponsor. It’s important to recognise the difference between a mentor and a
sponsor and not to have unrealistic expectations. A mentor can give you advice, but can’t necessarily give you a new job or promotion, which is what a sponsor can do. Mentors can certainly provide key introductions, but that’s not the key objective of a mentor/ mentee relationship.
MAKE THE “ASK”
Don’t ask for a person to “be your mentor” right off the bat. Instead, ask for an initial meeting, perhaps over video or an informal coffee. While you can make it apparent that ideally you’re seeking a mentor, set this introductory session up as a way to get to know one another. Perhaps have just a couple of advice questions on hand and a couple of practical offerings that you could do for them in order to show your willingness to give back to this relationship. Make sure you’ve done your research on their career to date, as this shows initiative and diligence. When it’s time to make the ‘ask’, here are some things to do: • Circle back to the initial conversation and reflect on what
FEATURE
you learnt or actioned • Tell them what you know about them, their career and what they stand for, and why you think that this would make this person the right fit for you • Be clear about your goals and what would be an ideal outcome from this mentorship • Suggest what would be an ideal length of time for this relationship, how often you’d like to meet and for how long • Reassure them that you’ll put agendas together, create follow up notes and promise to take full responsibility for actioning any suggestions or feedback that they’d be willing to provide • Spell out what you’re willing to put into the relationship and what you’re able to offer in return for this commitment from them, if appropriate • Finally, make sure they see this request as an option and not an obligation. If they do say no, then thank them for their time and say how much you admire their career path. Keep the door open!
HOW TO MAKE YOUR MENTOR RELATIONSHIP WORK
Be clear on the basics and then stick to upholding these commitments. Meet consistently. Figure out how often, how long and how you want to meet and make it consistent. Have an end date in mind as well that’s aligned with your clearly outlined goals. Set an agenda. Before each meeting, send your mentor an agenda so they’re clear on what you want to achieve with their time. Take notes and follow up. Send meeting minutes or action lists through after each meeting. This helps a busy mentor stay on track and keep their focus on how to help you achieve what you’re after. Be open to feedback: positive or constructive. Encourage feedback that challenges you. This is the growth opportunity in a mentoring relationship. Stick to business only. This relationship is not a therapy session. Remember to make and
keep boundaries and keep personal lives and opinions separate.
BE SOMEONE WHO IS A DELIGHT TO MENTOR
The key to attracting empowering mentoring is to mirror in your own life all the key attributes of what attracted you to your mentor in the first place. Are you respectful, open and flexible? Are you committed to growth and challenging yourself? Here are some final points that will not only enable you to attract a great mentor, but to be someone who is a delight to be mentored. Be up for more responsibility. Have specific ideas for how you can contribute in deeper, more expansive ways. Constantly be looking to stretch yourself and do not fear failure. Be great at what you do. Practise a role model mindset of excellence, as this is the most important thing you can do to get noticed. Don’t be a wallflower. Participate in all meetings and department or company initiatives.
Volunteer your time and be prepared so that you can always meaningfully advance the discussion. Promote the success of others. Your generosity and openness are critical to your success, and will be remembered. Foster and build your support network. There are so many groups and guilds within our industry. Be an active and generous member. Learn from them and contribute often. Finally, consider establishing your own personal board of mentors. If organisations can have a board of directors, why can’t you! No one mentor can help you achieve all your dreams so look to surround yourself with a variety of people who do. Realising who these often informal mentors are in our lives helps us to navigate the more formal relationships. Our personal trainer, accountant, coach, motherin-law... all these people are there to champion our case, and our dreams and aspirations, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them.
Special Effects Design & Supervision All Physical & Mechanical Effects Call David Trethewey 0418 699 873 Email dt@dtfx.net www.dtfx.net dt@dtfx.net www.dtfx.net
www.if.com.au 25
FEATURE
BRIGHT FACES In this issue, we’re taking the view of: the more talent, the merrier. Every year for the past seven years, the Casting Guild of Australia (CGA) has identified a group of up to 10 actors it believes has the potential to break out on the world stage, deeming them ‘Rising Stars’. Here, we profile 2021’s cohort.
ALBERT MWANGI Credits include: Blueback, The Moth Effect, Bump
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in a family that was obsessed with film and TV and always had dinners in front of the TV screen – our dining table was merely a dust collector. I’d say that was the subconscious foundation that sparked an interest in acting. But it was always in awe of the actors doing it and more of wishful thinking for myself… UNTIL (trailer guy’s voice) I got to 25 years of age, finished my Masters in Marketing and International Business, got a job but felt like a zombie. I had no fire under my belly to get up and go to work and it all felt like a chore. It was at this point where I discovered the big WHY. It was a dark moment but it changed everything for me. I would think about being on a film or a stage and it excited me in a nervous kind of way and I just knew I needed to do something about it, so I auditioned for Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, which was a failure of an audition, but that is where my journey begun. Long story short, I decided I wanted to act because I was unhappy with what I was pursuing. I knew in my gut I was in the wrong profession.
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
I would very much love to work with the likes of Jordan Peele, Conor McPherson, Damien Ryan, Anton Fuqua, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, my fellow Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o, Ryan Coogler, George Miller, Anthony Hopkins, Joel Coen, Vince Gilligan, Seth Rogen, Shaka King, Maggie Betts, Issa Rae, Lesean Thomas, Ari Aster, Steven Knight, Francis Lawrence, Rick Famuyiwa… the list is endless, but I do have a list.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
Trust more in the process and everyone around you. It’s not about you. Everyone on the team/ production – whether it’s a short film, play, a scene – is there to create the same art. You’re all beautiful pieces that make up a gorgeous picture.
CLARENCE RYAN Credits include: Blueback, Moon Rock for Monday, Stateless, Wanted, Wrong Kind of Black, Cleverman
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
I love entertaining and bringing characters to life. I was 10 years old when I told my mother I wanted to do acting and she was very supportive, mixed and surprised.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
All of my roles are my favourite. I believe it’s still to come.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
The things you experience are all a part of the plan for you… pain, loss, love, gain, rejection, etc.
LAST FILM OR TV SHOW YOU REALLY LOVED?
If I had to choose one, I recently watched Lucifer. I love their take on the devil – they don’t make him like we are told… it was very refreshing! 26 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
BEBE BETTENCOURT Credits include: Escape From Spiderhead, Eden, The Dry.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
Well, I was chosen to play Mrs. Claus in a school play when I was in the 4th grade. Those candy cane striped tights really changed my life – I was hooked. No, in all honesty I was such an avid reader, and it felt like the only way I could jump in and live inside these stories I loved so much was through acting. Although my mum would say it’s just because I’m a drama queen.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
Mrs. Claus for sure! It’s tough to choose a “favourite” because they have all fulfilled me in various ways. Every experience of storytelling is distinct and wonderful for different reasons! Characters become a part of you because you are giving yourself over to them. Playing Ellie in The Dry absolutely changed my life though. It was my first time on a set and I was terrified, partly because I had no idea what I was doing, but also because I was so worried I wouldn’t love film acting after wanting to do it for so long. I had no reason to fear – everybody on that set completely nurtured me with patience and love. On the first day when they finally called, “Action!”, my body settled and it honestly felt like I was home.
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
There is a very long list of fabulous people of whom I am a big fan and would love to work with and learn from! But something I’m realising is how important it is to be working with people you align with creatively and are good humans, regardless of experience or name. If I could work in an environment of people who challenge and support each other as well as having a good time, I’d be pretty stoked.
FEATURE
JACOB JUNIOR NAYINGGUL Credits include: High Ground
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
I was curious to see what it would be like to act in a film.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
High Ground has been one of my favourite experiences. When I knew the landscape behind the film I knew that I had to be part of this story. I loved working with the director, Stephen Johnson, who has become a friend and mentor to me.
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
I look forward to working with many different directors and on projects that tell a great story.
CLAUDE JABBOUR Credits include: Eden, Stateless, The Unlisted, On The Ropes
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
Ever since I could walk and talk I was impersonating people and putting on a show to my family and friends – whether they asked for it or not. It took me a long time to pursue acting professionally but I knew from a very young age I wanted to be an actor.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
When I started I did get all the advice I needed. It was simply my Uncle saying that I must be part of this story and landscape. It’s an important role to do (High Ground). So I said “YES, I’m in!”
LAST FILM OR TV SHOW YOU REALLY LOVED?
I love all Marvel films.
YERIN HA Credits include: Sissy, Halo, Reef Break
WHERE DID YOU STUDY OR LEARN YOUR CRAFT?
I’m a big believer in trying as many schools and techniques as possible but I spent the majority of my time training at the Melbourne Actor’s Lab with Peter Kalos. I loved the character work and the community of incredibly dedicated actors that I met there.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
My favourite role so far would have to be Farid from Stateless. He was such a friendly and joyful character and being able to bring that vibe to set made the experience even better.
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
Growing up I always wanted to be on sketch shows like Full Frontal and Fast Forward and my favourite actor was Eric Bana. I loved his comedy work, and I’d love to work with him on a comedy one day.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
Make at least 10 terrible short films before doing anything else! Seriously though, every short film I made was a huge learning experience and the best preparation for working professionally. Don’t try and be perfect, fail spectacularly and you’ll be better for it.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
When I was younger, my parents would do their best to get to Korea each year, visiting family. Whenever I got to go with them, I’d always end up getting to watch whatever theatre show my grandma was in at the time. I loved the whole experience. Going to the theatre, seeing the journey that you get taken on and the way the audience gets to interact and experience the story together. The theatre is a special place, and for me that’s where it began from a very young age for me.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
Kwan, in Halo. Despite her age, she’s a fighter – Photo credit: Nick Walters truly standing up for what she believes in, willing to do almost anything for her people. I learnt so much from her, and finding that strength within myself was liberating and also so much fun to discover as well!
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?
I would love to work with Bong Joon-ho. 100 per cent. The films he creates and what he brings out of each and every actor is phenomenal.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
Know how to ground yourself. Spiritually, mentally and physically. Whether that be surrounding yourself with people you love, doing activities that bring you joy, understanding what makes you tick or frustrated and how you get out of that. Ultimately, I think being the best version of you, allows you to do your best work. www.if.com.au 27
FEATURE
GEORGIE STONE Credits include: Neighbours
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
I’ve always loved acting, I think partly because it’s fun and partly because it absolutely terrifies me! It’s such a wonderful thing to partake in – to play, explore, create, connect. But also to be vulnerable in front of other people. I’ve always been excited by that. But it was when I realised how acting could also help tell stories that are often erased and ignored, like my own experience as a trans girl, that I decided I wanted to pursue it.
WHERE DID YOU STUDY OR LEARN YOUR CRAFT?
On the set of Neighbours! This is my first job (in fact the first thing I ever auditioned for!) so I’ve had to learn on the fly. It is such a wonderful training ground. A fast-paced job such as Neighbours really forces you to be efficient, flexible and listen to others. You learn so quickly about how to work on sets, especially amongst cast and crew who have been in the industry for decades. It is such an eye-opening job.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
So far I’ve only played one character, so I’ll have to say Mackenzie! She’ll always have a special place in my heart because she is a character I helped create. She is the first transgender character on a longrunning TV show in Australia, so I’m honoured to have the opportunity to play her. But my favourite thing about her is she is a fully-realised, nuanced character – not just a token.
WHO WOULD YOU HATE TO BE TYPECAST OR PIGEONHOLED AS?
Oh, there are so many things! I would hate to only play characters whose sole trait is that they’re transgender. Regardless of a character’s gender identity, I want to play roles that are interesting and complex. Not every role I play has to be transgender, but the trans characters I do play need to be threedimensional. There are many tropes that are used in telling trans stories that I definitely want to avoid.
MARLO KELLY Credits include: Joe Exotic, Dare Me, Patricia Moore
WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO ACT?
I honestly don’t recall there being a distinct moment when I decided to be an actor. I think as soon as I understood that living inside stories and your imagination could be a career I latched onto it and there was no other option. Nothing has ever brought me as much joy or felt as natural as losing myself in a character and their world.
WHERE DID YOU STUDY OR LEARN YOUR CRAFT?
I’d like to think I’m still studying. I didn’t go to drama school and have been fortunate enough to mostly learn on the job. I’ve always been adamant about trying as many different classes and techniques as possible. I believe education to be an evolving process that we should constantly tend to. There’s no one way to be human, meaning there’s no one way to approach a character. So, I think it’s important to have numerous tools at your disposal and acknowledge that what works for one character or job may not work for another.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
Beth Cassidy in Dare Me. She was fierce and mercurial but with a secret tenderness that I loved.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
This quote by Maya Angelou: “Find a beautiful piece of art… fall in love… admire it… and realise that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.” 28 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
NGALI SHAW Credits include: RFDS
WHERE DID YOU STUDY OR LEARN YOUR CRAFT?
I learned a lot of my craft at a dance studio called Dubbo Ballet Studio. At the studio, we did acting workshops. I’ve also picked up a lot from watching multiple movies and observing some of my favourite actors in the industry. I still have a lot more to learn and a long way to go, but I am still very happy where I am right now too.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
My favourite role so far has been playing Ryan in RFDS, because it was my first major acting role and working with Rob Collins has inspired me. It had me thinking that I could get to a big level of acting one day if I just commit and work hard.
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
To save plenty of money because relocating from the country to the city is challenging.
WHO WOULD YOU HATE TO BE TYPECAST OR PIGEONHOLED AS?
I wouldn’t like to be typecast as just an Aboriginal specified role. I would like my acting roles to be global and broad.
FEATURE
ELIZABETH CULLEN
It had always been a dream of mine to play a mythical creature – I was obsessed with Lord of the Rings and the Jim Henson universe as a kid, so playing an elf is pretty much a life goal ticked off. I really miss those ears! I also had a small part in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis set earlier this year, and it was an extraordinary experience to step onto such a complex, large and prestigious set. I also had a couple of interesting character opportunities this year that unfortunately fell through due to COVID, so I am looking forward to playing complex adult characters in the future that give me the opportunity to grow even further.
Credits include: Elvis, All My Friends Are Racist, The Bureau of Magical Things
WHERE DID YOU STUDY OR LEARN YOUR CRAFT?
I was very fortunate to have access to a lot of creative outlets and incredible support whilst growing up – my family, incredible teachers and likeminded peers who encouraged my creativity and ambition. Many school holidays were spent rehearsing and making sets and costumes, or doing short drama courses including at NIDA in Sydney. I even got the opportunity to travel to London in Year 12 to do a 2-week summer school at RADA – that was an incredible experience. I was lucky to receive a first round offer in the VCA acting course at the end of Year 12, but the same weekend I learned I had won a full scholarship to Bond University to study Film & Television. I’ve always made short films and am very passionate about writing and directing, so I figured taking the scholarship would give me invaluable skills for both filmmaking and acting. The opportunities to write, direct, edit and produce work and be part of creative teams has been invaluable to me on every set I’ve worked on, as well as for doing self-tapes! I grew so much there, and made wonderful connections and friendships. It was all a blast,
ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D GOTTEN WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
so I’m very glad I made the decision to take the alternative path.
FAVOURITE ROLE SO FAR AND WHY?
Imogen, the feisty elf in TBOMT, has definitely been my favourite to date. She’s a tough nut of a character, but once you crack her shell there’s a lot of complexity bubbling just below the surface.
Life is embarrassment, mess and mistakes, and if we are to authentically embody character and story we need to lean right in to that chaos. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is an invaluable skill for an actor, and something I’m slowly getting better at. And don’t be scared to make things! Tell your own stories, make mistakes, nurture your resilience. It’s very important to feed and strengthen your creativity and remind yourself why you’re doing this, especially when things slow down and opportunities fall short. There is no set path – only your own.
www.antennafestival.org www.if.com.au 29
FEATURE
BURNING ISSUE
‘Burning’.
In Amazon’s first Australian feature documentary, Burning, director and Academy Awardwinning producer Eva Orner looks back at the fires of the 2019-2020 summer to address Australia’s lack of political will on climate change. She speaks to Jackie Keast.
I
n 2019, Eva Orner spent Christmas back in Australia with family. By then, the director had already spent the last few months in LA watching the news in horror as bushfires engulfed her native country’s east coast. However, being at home underscored the severity of the situation. Driving around, she realised ABC Radio had essentially become a 24-hour emergency station. She was aghast as the temperature in Melbourne approached 47 degrees – hotter than she could recall in her lifetime. By the time she and her partner boarded a flight back to the US from Sydney in January – with watery eyes, a blocked nose and coughing due to the dense layer of smoke that covered the city – she started to think she had to make a film about the fires. When she saw the global outpouring of financial support, and the fires started to appear on the cover of the New York Times daily, she realised this was a story that could sell globally. “The world was watching Australia in horror,” she tells IF. “People love Australian wildlife so much. It was so decimated, it really captured something internationally.” Already, Orner knew she didn’t want to make a film “just” about the fires. There had been a lot of projects about California’s Paradise 30 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Fires, and she suspected that there would similarly be many Australian fire films. Rather, she wanted to use the lens of the fires to talk about climate change, particularly the lack of political will in Australia to address it. “To me, you can’t tell the story about the fires without talking about climate change,” she says. “We knew this was going to happen and we consistently did nothing to prevent it.” In early March 2020 – just before COVID shutdown the world – Orner’s agents at WME sent her on a ‘go see’ meeting with Propogate Content. She wasn’t sure they were going to gel with her types of projects, but by the time she left, they were onboard her ‘fires film’. Within a short space of time, they put together a deck and pitched to Amazon, who commissioned it. Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films also came on board the production as an executive producer. In Burning, interviewees tell the story and push forward the narrative; bringing to life archive footage. Finding subjects wasn’t straightforward, given Orner was in LA and restricted to Zoom. Oftentimes, she didn’t get to meet people before the day of shoot in Australia. However, it was clear to her almost immediately that scientist Tim Flannery and former fire commissioner Greg Mullins would be key interviewees. Others include
survivors of the fires in Cobargo and Mallacoota, young climate activist Daisy Jeffrey and Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, a backer of the Sun Cable solar farm project. “I was looking for people who are different; young, old, country, urban. People who had different experiences, conservative and liberal, who all came together in this collective horror,” she says. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was the only politician she approached for an interview, but he refused. However, after her previous film Chasing Asylum – about Australia’s refugee policies, made, when Morrison was immigration minister – she assumed he would. “To be perfectly honest, it’s the sort of thing you have to do to show that you tried. But I have zero interest in talking to him. He’s had so much opportunity to speak… His policies are terrible. I think a lot of Australians disagree with them. Why give him more airtime? I’d prefer to use his archive. “I made a really conscious choice… not to have politicians in the film, because I feel like they’ve had ample time to talk, and people haven’t had enough time to talk and enough platforms.” When it came to the stories of those who had witnessed and survived the fires, Orner took a “less is more” approach. “You don’t want it to be melodramatic. It’s stronger when
you see someone like Greg Mullins welling up with tears and then stopping, because he’s a tough guy and he doesn’t cry.” Similarly, Orner wanted the fire footage to be a character of its own, though was conscious to avoid into ‘fire porn’. With editors Kimberley Hassett and Forrest Borie, both of whom she worked with on her previous film Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, as well as Dave Shulman, she worked hard to find the tone. “If you just keep getting hit by horrendous imagery, you become a bit dead to it in a way. It was really important to us to just find the right tone and balance, and to lead up to it, which is why we did some history at the beginning [of the film]; some context for international audiences,” she says. “You want people to come along on the journey with you. You want people to relate to and bond with the characters. It’s a tricky film because it’s an essayistic kind of film.” However, Orner believes it still packs an emotional punch. When the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it was only the second time she’d seen it on the big screen. To her surprise, it affected her, despite having seen the footage countless times. “I was quite shocked by how harrowing it was seeing it with an audience on a big screen. But I think that’s a good thing. It’s important. You can’t gloss over this stuff. This is life or death.” The director is happy to see her film, which also recently played COP26, go out to a global audience via Amazon Prime Video. She knows the industry talks about the pros and cons of working with streamers, but having also made Bikram for Netflix, she is in the ‘pro’ camp. “If I can pitch a film, get it fully financed and turn it all around in a year and a half, taht’s pretty amazing… Both Bikram and Burning, I turned around in 12 months, which is really fast for a feature doc. They are things that need to be made quickly. They’re not films that you’d spend six years on because they’re topical and they’ve got a shelf life to a degree,” she says. “At the end of the day, the kind of films that I currently make, I want as many people to see them as possible from different demographics and different
FEATURE
Eva Orner.
countries. They’re global issues, and I think they’re important. And so to me, the fact that they go out everywhere is amazing.” Orner is known for exploring heavy hitting subject matter in her work. She started her career as a documentary producer, winning an Oscar in 2008 for Taxi to the Dark Side, about the American military’s use of torture. Burning is her fifth film as a director, and directing is where she is increasingly placing her focus.
Until Bikram, which launched on Netflix 2019, she was driving her own projects. However, she’s now also enjoying the experience of being offered work. “I say this so gratefully because I’ve been doing this for 25 years; I know the lean times. It’s such a boom time for documentary now. There’s so much good material. There are so many platforms and networks. I feel like I get good material sent to me weekly, and I turn down 90 per cent of it. I can’t have more than maybe
three or four things going at a time, because I want to make sure I do a good job. It’s really weird; you just know if you’re into something or not. Sometimes you get things from the unbelievable people sent to you, [but] you can’t fake it. You know if that’s your world or if that’s something you’re interested in. You just react viscerally to things,” she says. When Orner speaks to IF, she is in South Dakota working on a Discovery+ series about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). It follows what has happened after since FLDS president Warren Jeffs was jailed in 2006. “We’ve got incredible access to a bunch of what we call apostates; people who have left the religion mostly on their own bat. One of them was Warren Jeffs’ 66th wife. They’ve had the strength to bust out of this horrendous religious cult that they were born into, and start a new life. They’re also doing quite a lot to stop the church as well,” she says. As for her films about Australian political issues, Burning and
Chasing Asylum, she reflects that she started making those films almost a decade after leaving the country. “Having lived in America for over 15 years, it’s made me realise how great Australia is. My parents aren’t Australian. They came from Eastern Europe. So I don’t have these deep roots in Australia, but I grew up there. It’s all I knew for the first 34 years of my life. I love Australia. The longer I live in America, the more I realise how good Australia is and how much we’re screwing it up by decimating things that I grew up with and was so lucky to have like subsidised healthcare and education, and I don’t know, an environment to live in that’s not boiling, and water to drink. “I see it being pissed away and I get so angry. I think it sometimes maybe takes you to leave a place to realise how great it is and how important it is. For some reason, I just felt like maybe I should try and tell some of these stories. I didn’t in any way plan to make these films. They all happened really organically.”
www.aidc.com.au
www.if.com.au 31
FEATURE
The exterior of the clocktower building at Adelaide Studios.
ALL ALONG THE CLOCKTOWER The 10th anniversary of Adelaide Studios coincides with a period of increased production activity in South Australia. With the SAFC fielding robust demand for both filming and tenancy space, Sean Slatter talks to CEO Kate Croser and operators about the historical architecture and collaborative culture that characterise the site.
F
rom Jennifer Kent’s horror classic The Babadook to New Line Cinema’s blockbuster reboot of Mortal Kombat, the South Australian Film Corporation’s (SAFC) Adelaide Studios has catered to a broad cross section of the country’s production pipeline throughout the past decade. Ten years on from its launch in October 2011, the facility at Glenside has helped contribute to the state’s production boom. The studios are currently being used to film parts of AMC Studios/See-Saw Films vampire series Firebite, while production on Rolf de Heer’s The Mountain, Netflix-commissioned young adult drama series Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance, feature documentary Embrace Kids, ABC children’s series Beep and Mort, and season two of docuseries Aussie Snake Wranglers are underway in other parts of the state. Three major TV series are also currently in post-production in SA: BBC, HBO Max and Stan series The Tourist, from Two Brothers Pictures and Highview Productions; ABC and Netflix series MaveriX, from Brindle films; and season two of ABC children’s series First Day, from Epic Films and KOJO Studios. Highview Productions are one of several new tenants at Adelaide 32 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Studios, following a recent expressions of interest campaign from the SAFC. Producer Lisa Scott founded the company in 2019 and has spent the past two and half years working on The Tourist, while also producing Christiaan Van Vuuren’s A Sunburnt Christmas. Her business moved onto the site at the start of November, joining other companies such as 57 Films, Adelaide Film Festival, Closer Productions, Monkeystack, SBS Media, and Triptych Pictures. Having been a part of previous production shot at the studio, such as The Hunting, Pine Gap, and ANZAC Girls, Scott says the heritage setting and the ease of collaboration with other filmmakers formed the basis of its appeal. “I love the old building,” she says. “I really like having the high ceilings and it’s also been really nice to connect to other filmmakers. “I have projects in collaboration with Rebecca Summerton and Sophie Hyde at Closer Productions and Kristian Moliere from Triptych Pictures, all of whom I am literally within cooee of, so you can just pop up and down. “It’s a real hub of producers. [SAFC CEO] Kate Croser has really wanted to get people back in the building.” The history of the clock tower
building is intriguing enough to fill the pages of any script. Its origins can be traced back to the late 1860s when the SA Government had its architect Robert George Thomas design what would be known as the Parkside Lunatic Asylum. A century later, it was renamed Glenside Hospital, with the original site subdivided by the mid-1970s and parcels of land sold off. At that time, the SAFC was only newly established, commencing operations as a production company in 1972 under an act of parliament from then Premier Don Dunstan. The organisation moved from its original home in Norwood to Hendon Studios in 1984, where it would remain until the opening of the $43 million Adelaide Studios in 2011. As part of a purpose-built restoration, the heritage-listed 1800s sandstone buildings were fitted with two sound stages, edit rooms, a Foley stage, screening theatre, production offices and a Dolby Premier mixing studio. The infrastructure was a big drawcard for Noise Kingdom owner Cliff Jones, who relocated his company to Adelaide Studios in 2019. A double BAFTA Award-winning audio engineer, Jones’ career includes more than 30 years in
London, where he spent time as a dubbing mixer, recording engineer, studio technical director and recording facility owner and operator, while also holding senior positions at Thames Television, Air Studios, The Sound Store and Sound Monsters. He says the editing rooms at the facility, coupled with being able to connect to Adelaide’s GigCity network, made the location well suited to his company. “As soon as we got to Adelaide, we looked at a couple of places, including Hendon, which wasn’t really suitable because it was a bit old and out of the way,” he said. “We called into Adelaide Studios and met studio manager Alan Lloyd, who had some edit rooms there that were the right size for the type of work I was doing, because I’m only working in TV. “One of the main criteria for me has always been having really good internet connection and given they are on the GigCity network, we really have the fastest internet available. “It’s important for me because although I’ve relocated to Adelaide, most of my clients are spread across London and Sydney.” Of the 26 tenants, the longest running is Heesom Casting, run by mother-daughter duo Angela and Louise Heesom. Having started at Hendon in 2000, the agency has since worked series such as The Hunting, Wolf Creek, Deadline Gallipoli, ANZAC Girls and Pine Gap, as well more than 50 feature films, including both Wolf Creek films, Look Both Ways and Mortal Kombat. Angela describes the relocation from Hendon to Glenside as a “rags to riches” story. “The place [in Glenside] took my breath away, and I silently thanked the government each and every day for years for realising the incredible opportunity for our industry to raise our collective professional image and potential to a worldwide stage,” she says. “This new environment elevated all of us and allowed us to start seeing ourselves quite differently as filmmakers. “One could not compare it with the rudimentary working environment of Hendon, where I worked on my first film 25 years earlier.” She adds that the historic
FEATURE
One of the mixing rooms at Adelaide Studios.
layout contributes to the sense of community at the site. “Being a 1870s building we all have our own offices around a central courtyard,” she says. “Mine was actually the old general nursing ward. “The courtyard is a popular meeting place for various writers, producers, arts management folk, filmmakers all talking over their projects, current productions or doing deals. Whilst the majority of my clients are off-site, I’ve cast work for many of the tenants as well.” There is the possibility that Heesom may soon have more company, with SAFC exploring options for approximately 1,200 square metres of unrenovated space on the unused upper floors of the main administration building. CEO Kate Croser says the
response to the EOI campaign indicates demand for business space goes beyond what is available, meaning the organisation has to be strategic about who they select to be onsite tenants. “They’re very favourable conditions,” she says. “The subsidies are designed to attract the kind of businesses that are going to bring diversity and complement the offering of the production facility.” The demand extends to production space, with the current level of activity forcing projects to be based at other locations in the state. According to Screen Australia, SA captured 15 per cent of national drama expenditure in 2019/20, with a record spend of $146 million representing an annual increase of 34 per cent, and marking five
consecutive years of growth. That figure included Mortal Kombat, the largest production ever undertaken in the state. Croser says the blockbuster reflects the “massive ramp up” of production volume and scale that’s been occurring at the studios across the past few years. “Each year, it feels like we’ve got a record production, in terms of budget and South Australian spend,” she said. “A few years ago, that was Hotel Mumbai, and then Mortal Kombat obviously blew everything out of the water from a feature film perspective. “In the past 18 months, we’ve had The Tourist and Firebite, which are high-value international television series.” With Firebite taking up the majority of studio space at Adelaide Studios, other locations within the state have been called into action, including Adelaide Showgrounds, which is housing Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance!. Croser says it’s important to note
that the facility was not the only option for those wanting to film in the city. “The SAFC has a facilities deck, which we promote to producers, line producers and location managers, she says. “That really outlines all the options in town because as much as we love seeing Adelaide Studios thriving and pumping, we absolutely love seeing all of the other facilities in town that are operated by South Australian screen business being full and in active operation as well.”
Angela and Louise Heesom of Heesom Casting.
www.roardigital.com.au post@roardigital.com.au www.if.com.au 33
WELLBEING
(Photo credit: Mark Rogers)
Creator and co-showrunner Kristen Dunphy, director Jocelyn Moorhouse, and co-showrunner Sam Meikle on the set of Wakefield.
WALKING THE TALK
Wakefield tackled the complexity of mental illness on screen, but behind-the-scenes, the creatives driving the show also undertook initiatives to care for the mental health of cast and crew. Kicking off IF’s new ongoing series on wellbeing, creator and showrunner Kristen Dunphy and Jungle Entertainment COO and executive producer Chloe Rickard share with Jackie Keast how they made mental health a priority in the workplace.
W
hen interviewing heads of department to work on Wakefield, creator and showrunner Kristen Dunphy was struck that almost everyone was drawn to work on the show for its subject matter. The ABC and Jungle Entertainment series is set within a Blue Mountains psychiatric facility and follows nurse Nik (Rudi Dharmalingam) as he begins to lose his grip on his own sanity. It is drawn from Dunphy’s own experiences as a patient in a psych ward and the mental health challenges she has faced throughout her life. That the show was personal meant many HODs were similarly open with Dunphy about their own mental health experiences, or that of close friends or relatives. While she wasn’t necessarily surprised by the stories she heard, Dunphy was conscious that many screen workers are vulnerable to mental health concerns. She wanted to support cast and crew through the making of a show on this subject matter. Victoria University and Entertainment Assist research has found anxiety symptoms for those working across the entertainment industry are 10 times higher than for the general population, sleep disorders seven times higher, and symptoms of depression five times higher. Suicide attempts in the entertainment industry are double the national average. “I was really mindful that we were making a 34 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
show about mental illness,” she tells IF. “How will that affect the cast and crew who are involved in producing it? How can we help them to manage it?” Together, Jungle Entertainment, Dunphy and co-showrunner Sam Meikle set about to integrate positive mental health practices into production. That meant changes in working that ranged from the “really small to the really big”, and all were done with a broader eye to lifting industry standards “There was a lot of awareness and want in the group to do the subject matter justice. That was a great launching pad for us to really examine all our processes,” Jungle COO and EP Chloe Rickard tells IF. It turned out to be a remarkably prescient initiative, given the show would go on to face numerous obstacles: production was delayed by the 2019-20 bushfires, would be later shutdown by COVID-19, and there were mental ill health events on set. “Everything that could have happened, happened,” Rickard says. “It was good that people felt comfortable to be able to openly talk about things. We attacked the problems with a people-centric approach.”
DIFFERENT WAYS OF WORKING
Jungle and the creative team leant on the expertise of mental health sector in their endeavours, in particular government peak body Mindframe, who consulted on the scripts and provided a liaison point for support.
Representatives from the organisation and the Black Dog Institute also attended and spoke at a mandatory script read. There, Dunphy also openly shared with the cast and crew her own experiences. Such candidness was one of the most important elements for Dunphy. By leading by example, she could create a safe space for staff to open up too, and break down stigma. Effectively, she wanted to walk the talk. “I got t-shirts made in pre-production that say ‘batshit crazy’ on the front and Wakefield on the back. I gave them to whoever wanted one in the cast and crew, because I thought, ‘You know what? I’m not going to die if people know that I’ve been in a psychiatric hospital three times. So what? Does that make me less of a person?’ No, it doesn’t.” Dunphy was also conscious about who she hired; there was a strict ‘no arseholes’ policy in recognition that a respectful working environment was crucial to wellbeing. She also sat with each cast member to discuss their character’s mental health relative to their own, and had one-on-one discussions with HODs about how crew be best supported. The series of Wakefield is imbued with music and dancing. It followed that Dunphy also encouraged the cast and crew to sing together, bringing in a choir master at script read, and over the course of production. “When people sing in harmony, when they dance to the same rhythm, it increases
www.oddstudio.com
info@oddstudio.com
WELLBEING
connection with other people, which really assists in mental health. Anyone who’s ever sung in a choir to harmony will understand that it’s the most incredibly uplifting experience; it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being completely in harmony with other people,” Dunphy says. Rickard agrees it brought the whole crew and cast together and was a stress relief. “It was just little things like that – out-of-thebox ideas – that don’t cost much, but actually can have a huge impact.” On set, the unit nurse was trained in mental health first aid, a basic practice Rickard intends to continue on all future Jungle productions. The team also brought in psychologists and counsellors, so they were accessible for cast and crew during difficult filming weeks. During post-production, all staff were able to access a counselling tele-service. Dunphy notes that she and Meikle were also at pains to ensure they weren’t “remote producers”; they wanted to be responsible and ensure the buck would always stop with them. “We were never off set,” she says. “There were two of us, so we could divide into the two different crews. The number of people who would sidle up and chat sideways about their own experience in relation to whatever was going on was amazing. I think checking in with every individual, and just being there with people is more important than anything.” Beyond this, the call sheet also had daily mental health messages, as well as numbers for support. It was a small gesture, Rickard says, but one that meant “the conversation about mental health was front and centre to everyone.” When the production was shutdown by
COVID, Jungle advocated for cast and crew to receive JobKeeper - Wakefield was one of the few productions in Australia to receive this. “We were able to maintain a consistent income for pretty much all of the crew and then some of the cast that were eligible. I think that financial stability helped with mental health as well,” Rickard says. To check in with everyone during the shutdown period, Dunphy and Miekle also created a WhatsApp group. “We had three people from overseas having to go back, not knowing if they’d ever get back into the country or whether the thing would be finished. It was pretty devastating and pretty scary. But we were able to restart, at significant cost. We overcame all those various obstacles. In a way, it galvanised people, made them closer, made them more determined,” Dunphy says. Finally, after production was finished, the creative team sent out a cast and crew survey about their mental health and how it was impacted by the content of and working on the show.
LOOKING FORWARD
Any producer will tell you the biggest obstacles to working differently are always time and money. While Jungle had a dedicated staff member on Wakefield who served as a conduit between production and mental health stakeholders, many initiatives were not expensive. However, Rickard recommends other producers recognise this work requires lead-in time to be done effectively. “Start early and be really open-minded about how to better approach the subject. Talking about it and putting it at the centre de-stigmatises the whole conversation.”
WHAT’S THE COST? Actor and filmmaker Ben Steel directed 2019 documentary The Show Must Go On, which explored the prevalence of mental ill health in Australia’s creative industries. He collaborated with the Wakefield team in their endeavours, and is currently running mental health first aid training for the screen industry. Here, he shares his insights. Mention wellbeing in the workplace, and a common reaction from many time-poor producers and other screen sector leaders is to ask: ‘What’s the cost?’. This is a completely valid question. The idea of creating mentally healthier workplaces is a relatively new concept. When we step onto a set, or into an edit suite or production office, we expect a physically safe workplace, and we respect there are legislated health and safety guidelines to follow. It is also common practice to employ a safety supervisor to mitigate risk. However, it’s rare in the screen sector for productions to fully embrace their workplace obligations for the psychological health and safety of cast and crew, especially to the extent that the team achieved on Wakefield. A very common reason for this that I’ve come across is the misperception that creating a mentally health workplace takes a lot of time and money. But this isn’t true. There are some very simple shifts that every production in Australia can start implementing today that cost nothing and take very little time. 1. Make a personal pledge that: ‘Improving wellbeing in our workplace is important to me’. 2. Openly speak about wellbeing in the workplace, check in on colleagues, and encourage others to do the same. 3. Provide mental health helpline numbers on every call sheet. 4. Include psychological risk mitigation in any safety reports, safety inductions and safety briefings. 5. Be mindful that some content that we are filming might be traumatic to cast and crew. Provide a short trigger warning on script cover, sides, schedule, and call sheets so that all workers are aware. The above suggestions aren’t all that we need to do to improve wellbeing in our beloved industry, but they are some practical steps we can all implement today.
36 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Wakefield.
Going forward, Jungle intends to continue many of the practices undertaken on Wakefield. It will also give all future employees and contractors employment packs that outline its values as a company, including its mental health policies and the support available. It will also assign a contact person - beyond the line producer or unit production manager - who cast and crew can go to around these issues. “I don’t know of other companies that necessarily do that for freelance-type employees, because it’s very seasonal work. You just come in for the job and then go again. I don’t know whether a lot of set up or time is given to making sure employees feel comfortable and a part of a corporate entity who is employing them,” she says. “We’re going to do a lot more work in making sure the employees know it’s a two-way communication channel.” Rickard argues that when the statistics around mental health in the arts are “horrific”, employers should consider extending duty of care beyond the standard. “That’s to care for our employees, but also to get the best results for what we’re doing. It’s a commercial and a duty of care imperative. Having people that are healthy and able to do their jobs produces great work, or better work.” Since Wakefield has wrapped, both Rickard and Dunphy have done mental health first aid training. Ultimately, Rickard would like to see all staff at Jungle do the same. She’d also love to see greater communication in the industry about mental health management. Looking forward, Dunphy is similarly passionate about reducing stigma in the screen industry, arguing there is so much more work to do to promote better mental health, “Within our industry, the pressures are so high and perfectionism is rife. I suffer from it. We drive ourselves. I want to find ways to make changes that are going to improve things for everybody on the mental health front, and find ways that people can manage mental health challenges and keep working and keep contributing.”
One last heist...
All the makings of a great story. Bring your creative vision to life on the Gold Coast. Get access to diverse filming locations, world-class production crews and the internationally renowned Village Roadshow Studios. Plus, with financial incentives and fast-tracked permit approvals, your next project is now even easier.
wMake ww.cityobelieve fgoldcoastit.chere. om.au/scree cityofgoldcoast.com.au/screen n
TECHNOLOGY
GRC: CYBERSECURITY GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE Media and entertainment organisations are particularly susceptible to cyber attacks and data breaches. Groundwire Security founder, owner and CEO James Bourne outlines steps you can take to protect your business.
Y
ou have all heard about cybersecurity, right? It pops up in the news or on social media regularly. Another business or organisation has been hacked, and their confidential information, client and employee data has been leaked. Clearly, cybersecurity is a big deal. No business is immune from cyber attacks or breaches. However, media and entertainment (M&E) companies are particularly susceptible for various reasons, including short production timelines, generally relaxed security, large production budgets, and high-value content. So how does cybersecurity apply to you, your projects or your crew? How is it going to affect your production or facility? Will you go broke implementing cybersecurity protections? What does being “hacked” really mean? Hopefully this article will answer those questions and give you a few pointers on how to go about implementing cybersecurity in your organisation. Let’s get started with a definition. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines cybersecurity in its simplest form as art (high art even!): “Cybersecurity is the art of protecting networks, devices and data from unauthorised access or criminal use. It’s the art of maintaining information confidentiality, integrity and availability.” Every organisation involved in M&E is dependent on technology, irrespective of whether it’s a small VFX facility or a large studio. Therefore, every organisation needs to understand the risks
involved in operating and using technology. If you’re a facility owner or head of production, you need to ask yourself questions such as: Does my business, facility, or production, fully understand the technology in use, the risks involved, and the consequences of the misuse or abuse of those systems? Can I afford the loss of confidential information or content? Can my business afford to pay a ransom? Can my business afford to have its reputation tarnished for not taking cybersecurity seriously? What would my clients think? Would they ever want to work with my facility again if it was compromised? Now, this might all sound dramatic and alarmist, but the risks are genuine. In March 2021, the Nine Network suffered a cyber attack. It was the most significant cyberattack on a media company in Australia’s history. The attack brought down their entire live broadcast and corporate news production systems for over 24 hours. Employees were forced to work from home while the company mopped up. The recovery process took weeks. Industry experts identified MedusaLocker Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) as the culprit. How could this happen? The specifics have never been publicly disclosed, but it would appear that “state actors” infiltrated Nine’s networks, allowing the ransomware’s detonation on their production networks. Let’s be crystal clear: this was a targeted criminal attack designed intentionally to disrupt Nine’s newsgathering and newsmaking operations severely. The goal was to cause maximum damage and extract a ransom – a fee paid to the hackers to decrypt Nine’s files. Nine eventually recovered their systems and did not
pay the ransom. Nine were never able to identify the actual attackers. Nevertheless, the attack made national and international news headlines and forced Nine to seek help from the Federal Government’s Australian Signals Directorate, which assists in overseeing the nation’s critical infrastructure. In August, a version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was leaked online, which Sony tried fruitlessly to remove. Imagine that your production company was responsible for delivering that specific pre-theatrical content? How would you explain to Sony how that happened? How would you explain that to your other clients when they found out? What would happen if Sony sued your business for breach of contract as a result? “With public-facing platforms being the centre of business for much of the media and entertainment industry, companies in this space are uniquely vulnerable to cyber threats from hackers” – ZeroFOX Media & Entertainment Digital Threat Report, 2020 M&E is particularly vulnerable by virtue of its high profile. Productions produce desirable, high value, sensitive content ripe for exploitation (i.e. piracy/illegal sharing and subsequent monetisation). In addition, major motion picture production budgets can be large, while actors and directors are often high profile and often wealthy individuals. These factors make for clear extortion targets. Cleaning up from cyber incursion also presents a whole raft of issues and costs, whether it be loss of productivity due to widespread facility disruption, having to pay specialists to help in the recovery process or being forced to pay a ransom. The good news is that the M&E industry has been working tirelessly over the last decade (especially since the Sony Pictures hack in 2014) to assist facilities in minimising production risks from a technological standpoint. Two industry associations offer free information technology security and risk mitigation cybersecurity “frameworks” – that being the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA), representing the bulk of the major US and European studios. A cybersecurity framework is a collection of best practices that a facility should follow to manage its cybersecurity risk. The MPA and CDSA offer ratified frameworks designed to assist you in measuring risk in a meaningful way and offering “controls” or defences that your facility can use to mitigate risk. The controls are separated into logical topic areas, including facility governance, physical facility security, digital security, secure content handling
Location services for the film, TV stills and events industries.
38 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
catolocationservices.com.au www.catolocationservices.com.au
TECHNOLOGY
and application and cloud security, and offer implementation guidance. So how do you get started in implementing your facility’s cybersecurity program? The first step is to understand the concepts of cybersecurity governance, risk and compliance (GRC). Cybersecurity governance is your organisation’s strategy to protect its information assets and IT infrastructure from cyberattacks or data breaches. This typically manifests itself in standards and policies, as well as committees or working groups to oversee their successful implementation in your business. Cybersecurity risk is the process of calculating the probability of exposure and size of loss from a cyber-attack or data breach. Risk assessments are typically used to determine the likelihood and magnitude of risk and loss, and what defences should be put in place to protect information and assets. This selection of defences is called “treating” the risk. Cybersecurity compliance is the process of determining whether your defences are robust enough to minimise or eliminate cyber attacks or breaches. Compliance is usually tested using a series of passive techniques, including cybersecurity and content workflow audits, drills and tabletop exercises and active techniques such as penetration tests, social engineering testing and vulnerability assessments. The next steps are to form the teams in your organisation that will be responsible for managing or implementing cybersecurity. These teams would typically choose a relevant information security management system (ISMS) framework, such as the MPA Content Security Best Practices or CDSA App and Cloud Security Control Framework, for implementation. The teams would also typically define and establish human resources, implementation and technology budgets. You might need to get some professional advice from your IT team, vendor, the content owner or cybersecurity specialist regarding setting up and maintaining the ISMS. After you have spent some time preparing and rolling out your ISMS implementation, it’s a good idea to liaise with your clients or content owner security teams (e.g. Netflix, Disney etc.) to ensure your implementation is appropriate and robust. It’s also worthwhile pointing out that maintaining the ISMS is an ongoing business activity. Therefore, it needs continual review and tweaking. In our next instalment, we will look at production challenges and risks in the era of COVID, especially in relation to remote working and distributed content workflows.
The trailer for Sony Pictures’ ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ leaked online in August.
A CULTURE SHIFT THE PAST COUPLE of years have brought a great deal of evolution in media workflows. While many new processes offer long-term value, some have been implemented rapidly and a little haphazardly. For example, during the pandemic, many companies were forced to respond quickly to restrictive policies associated with remote workforces, often cutting corners to retain business productivity. However, according to a recent IABM survey, security is back as a top-three business consideration, recovering from a significant drop in 2020. This indicates that media companies are once again prioritising the protection of content and associated media workflows. But there is still a long way to go. Another survey commissioned by Hiscox, an insurance firm in partnership with Forrester Consulting, found that over half of M&E firms experienced three or more cyber attacks over the last 12 months. This is concerning but not unexpected, as the industry creates and distributes highly desirable products. What is concerning, however, is that in the same survey, 79 per cent stated they were confident in their cybersecurity strategy, despite apparent risks. Our Media and Entertainment team at Dell works every day with companies around the world, giving us a first-hand view of unfortunate situations that, in many instances, have nothing to do with underlying technologies. In one example, a customer lost a substantial sum of money when paying a supplier due to poor email hygiene. The CFO’s email was breached via a phishing attack, as the customer used O365 with weak passwords and no multifactor authentication. Bad actors monitored the account for months and injected false banking details into emails about high-end equipment purchases. When the customer attempted to pay their supplier, they paid directly into the bad actor’s bank account! The mispayment wasn’t noticed until a month later when the vendor called the customer asking why they had not remitted payment. Ultimately, the money was completely unrecoverable. What’s worse, the business had previously engaged third party cybersecurity consulting to assess their security posture, but much of the advice had been dismissed as it was seen as too hard to implement, or not needed. WHAT WENT WRONG HERE? • No email system governance – no authority specifying how email systems should be managed • No checks and balances on payments – lack of process, controls, or checks and balances in the accounting processes before making a payment over certain thresholds to offshore accounts • No proactive email protections • Ignored all professional advice • Didn’t understand the financial risks associated with the use of the technology • Didn’t train staff in security awareness • Didn’t enforce strong passwords • Didn’t enforce multifactor controls for accounts In this example, much of the business risk didn’t come from a technology gap but rather from a culture lacking security awareness. Cybersecurity goes beyond just deploying the right tools and requires a culture shift of awareness and good governance, which doesn’t require a significant capital investment. There are a range of security best practices, including the industry-focused MPA and CDSA frameworks, which area great place to get started. Alex Timbs, business development and alliances manager - media and entertainment, Dell Technologies.
www.if.com.au 39
TECHNOLOGY
IF I HAD A GADGET
IF MAGAZINE TAKES A LOOK AT SOME OF THE LATEST EQUIPMENT BEING USED BY THE SCREEN INDUSTRY.
Panasonic LUMIX BS1H
Panasonic has unveiled its new Lumix BS1H full-frame box-style camera, designed for video professionals and combining the cinematic video performance of the Lumix S1H with advanced live stream functionality in an easily-deployable boxstyle body. The Lumix BS1H provides the flexibility to support and deliver the creative vision of industry professionals, with industry standard connections and interfaces – such as SDI, HDMI, Genlock IN and Timecode I/O – as well as offering LAN with PoE+ for power and control.
Canon RF 5.2mm F2.8L Dual Fisheye lens
The Canon RF 5.2mm F2.8L Dual Fisheye lens is Canon’s first ever interchangeable VR lens, designed to simplify the set-up and capture of 180° VR video and stills with the EOS R52 – all while retaining the high optical performance of the EOS R System. This makes 3D content creation more practical for existing VR content creators, professional production companies, as well as professionals looking to break into the VR market.
Panalux Power i-Series
Panalux have introduced the Panalux Power i-Series range of portable lithium-ion battery arrays, providing the eco-conscious all-electric power for a variety of on and near-set applications. Panalux Power i-Series comprises the i2 and i4 240V portable power units. The units’ compact form factor makes them unobtrusive in studio or location environments, and all-terrain wheels and an IP55 rating make them equally suitable for the most remote outdoor locations. The i2 and i4 each feature a 32A inlet for charging or use as a UPS, along with 16A, 13A and USB outputs to allow a variety of devices to be connected without the need for adaptors or stage boxes. All inputs and outputs are RCD protected. Both units also incorporate an LCD display indicating power consumption and battery level.
8K Apple ProRes RAW now available from the Ninja V+ & Canon EOS R5 Firmware announced earlier in 2021 for the Ninja V+ to support 8K ProRes RAW from the Canon EOS R5 is now available to download. Apple ProRes RAW 8K provides real-time, multi-stream editing performance and image quality preservation. The recently announced new features of white balance (WB) and ISO in Final Cut Pro gives creators greater flexibility and control over their image processing during post-production. The Atomos Ninja V+, coupled with the benefits of the Canon EOS R5, is designed to offer creators an affordable 8K solution.
40 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
The FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II offers a constant F2.8 maximum aperture, AF performance, versatile control, and solid reliability. The new lens was designed to reduce focus breathing, focus shift, and axis shift when zooming so that there is minimal unwanted image movement and angle of view variations. For easy video-use operation, the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II features independent control rings for focus, zoom, and aperture (iris), allowing precise manual operation. The aperture ring also has a click ON/OFF switch. Additionally, Sony’s Linear Response MF ensures responsive, low-lag manual focus control. The supplied lens hood also features an opening that allows convenient operation of circular polarising filters or variable ND filters for more creative flexibility.
Atomos AtomX CAST
The AtomX CAST is a modular companion for the Atomos Ninja V monitor-recorder that uses the AtomX expansion port on the Ninja V to transform it into an advanced multi-input switcher. Small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, AtomX CAST is designed to answer to the needs of a small crew or one-man multi-camera productions. With this announcement, users can now also benefit from the Ninja CAST bundle..
IN PRODUCTION
For full production listings see www.if.com.au and click “In Production”. If you have a new project you would like included, email: publicity@if.com.au
✪ FEATURES: 6 FESTIVALS
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Bucket-listing six music festivals
over six months before they lose one of the crew to brain cancer, three young best friends are helped by an up-&-coming artist to face the reality from which they’re running. DIRECTOR: Macario De Souza PRODUCERS: Shannon Wilson-McClinton, Blayke Hoffman, Jade Van der Lei, Michael Wrenn WRITER: Macario De Souza CAST: Rory Potter, Yasmin Honeychurch, Rasmus King, Kyuss King, Stevie Jean, Guyala Bayles PRODUCTION COMPANY: Hype Republic, Invisible Republic DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount+
BLACKLIGHT
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A troubled off-the-books fixer for
the FBI tasked with pulling undercover agents out of dangerous situations. DIRECTOR: Mark Williams PRODUCER: Mark Williams WRITER: Mark Williams CAST: Liam Neeson STATE: VIC, ACT
BLACK SITE
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A group of officers based in a
labyrinthine top-secret CIA black site must fight for their lives as they come up against Hatchet, an infamous high-value detainee whose deadly agenda has vast consequences. DIRECTOR: Sophia Banks PRODUCERS: Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Mike Gabrawy, Todd Fellm WRITERS: Jinder Ho, John Collee CAST: Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, Michelle Monaghan, Uli Latukefu, Pallavi Sharda, Phoenix Raei, Fayssal Bazzi STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Asbury Park Pictures, Story Bridge Films
BLAZE
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: After accidentally witnessing a
woman being brutally raped, a teenaged girl is left catatonic with shock, and struggles to make sense of what she saw, ultimately finding renewal in the inestimable world of her own imagination. DIRECTOR: Del Kathryn Barton PRODUCER: Samantha Jennings
WRITERS: Del Kathryn Barton, Huna Amweero CAST: Simon Baker, Yael Stone, Josh Lawson,
Julia Savage, Morgan Davies, Bernie Van Tiel, Remy Hii, John Waters, Heather Mitchell, Rebecca Massey STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Causeway Films
BLUEBACK
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Based on the best-selling novel by
Tim Winton, Blueback is Robert Connolly’s follow up to his award-winning family film Paper Planes. It is a timely tale about the ocean, a beautiful marine creature, and a young girl’s power to change the world. DIRECTOR: Robert Connolly PRODUCERS: Liz Kearney, James Grandison, Robert Connolly WRITER: Robert Connolly CAST: Mia Wasikowska, Ariel Donoghue, Ilsa Fogg, Radha Mitchell, Liz Alexander, Clarence Ryan, Pedrea Jackson, Erik Thomson, Eric Bana STATE: WA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arenamedia
CARMEN
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A modern day reimagining of one
of the world’s most celebrated operas. DIRECTOR: Benjamin Millepied PRODUCER: Dimitri Rassam, Rosemary Blight WRITERS: Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Benjamin Millepied, Loic Barrère CAST: Paul Mescal, Melissa Barrera PRODUCTION COMPANY: Chapter 2, Goalpost Pictures
THE COST
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A tale of vengeance that spirals
out of control across a 48-hour period. DIRECTOR: Matthew Holmes PRODUCER: Matthew Holmes, Russell Cunningham WRITER: Matthew Holmes, Gregory Moss CAST: Jordan Fraser-Trumble, Damon Hunter, Kevin Dee, Joshua Jaeger, Cait Spiker, Sotiris Tzelios, Nicole Pastor, Adam Willson, Nadia Fragnito, Mark Redpath STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Two Tone Pictures, RLC Motion Picture Entertainment
ELVIS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: The film will explore the life and
music of Elvis Presley, charting his rise to fame and impact on the world, while also delving into his complicated relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
DIRECTOR: Baz Luhrmann PRODUCERS: Gail Berman, Catherine Martin,
Patrick McCormick, Schuyler Weiss, Baz Luhrmann WRITERS: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce CAST: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Luke Bracey, Richard Roxburgh, Helen Thomson, David Wenham, Dacre Montgomery, Natasha Bassett, Xavier Samuel, Leon Ford, Kate Mulvany, Gareth Davies, Charles Grounds, Josh McConville, Adam Dunn STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Warner Bros. Pictures, Bazmark Films
ESCAPE FROM SPIDERHEAD
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Set in the near future where con-
victs opt to reduce prison time by participating in experimental drug trials. DIRECTOR: Joseph Kosinski PRODUCERS: Eric Newman Hemsworth; Oren Katzeff, Geneva Wasserman, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Tommy Harper, Jeremy Steckler WRITERS: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smolett STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Screen Aracde; The New Yorker Studios
FURIOSA
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: The origin story of renegade
warrior Furiosa before she teamed up with Mad Max in ‘Fury Road’. DIRECTOR: George Miller PRODUCER: Doug Mitchell WRITER: George Miller, Nick Lathouris CAST: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Kennedy Miller Mitchell Films
THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A mother and daughter deal with
an ambiguous and uncertain threat that binds them closer together. DIRECTOR: Mark Hartley PRODUCER: Antony I. Ginnane WRITERS: Terence Hammond, Nicolette Minster CAST: Radha Mitchell, Vince Colosimo, Ella Newton STATE: VIC
HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: 50-something woman Gina who
has a business idea to launch an all-male house-cleaning service. However, when her business grows out of control, Gina must acknowledge her own appetite if she is to make a new life for herself. DIRECTOR: Renee Webster PRODUCER: Tania Chambers, Judi Levine WRITER: Renee Webster CAST: Sally Phillips, Erik Thomson, Alexander England, Caroline Brazier, Tasma Walton, Roz Hammond, Cameron Daddo, Josh Thomson STATE: WA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Feisty Dame Productions, Such Much Films
INTERCEPTOR
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: An army lieutenant must utilise
her tactical training and military expertise to save humanity after 16 nuclear missiles are launched at the US, and a violent coordinated attack simultaneously threatens her remote missile interceptor station. DIRECTOR: Matthew Reilly WRITER: Matthew Reilly, Stuart Beattie PRODUCERS: Matthew Street, Michael Boughen, Stuart Beattie CAST: Elsa Pataky, Luke Bracey STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Ambience Entertainment
IT ONLY TAKES A NIGHT
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Four best friends on a girl’s night
out end up learning their own worth, redefine their destinies, and support each other despite their differences. DIRECTOR: Callan Durlik PRODUCER: Callan Durlik, Josh Horneman, Megan Wynn, Kara Pisconeri WRITER: Callan Durlik CAST: Eliza Taylor, George Pullar, Sana’a Shaik, Arielle Carver-O’Neill, Charles Grounds, Jaime Ureta, Ana Ika STATE: WA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Rookies Ambush, Wynn Media, Star Shadow Media.
KID SNOW
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: When a washed-up tent boxer
gets one last shot to make a name for himself, he’s forced to choose between old dreams and new love. DIRECTOR: Paul Goldman PRODUCERS: Lizzette Atkins, Megan Wynn, Bruno Charlesworth WRITERS: John Brumpton, Phillip Gwynne, Shane Danielsen, Stephen Cleary STATE: WA www.if.com.au 41
IN-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION COMPANY: Unicorn Films
LEGACY
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Six individuals receive an alluring
invitation for a summer retreat from an enigmatic host but find themselves trapped by a mysterious force in a surreal psychological test. DIRECTOR: Daniel Askill PRODUCER: Jamie Hilton, Isabel Stanfield, Rachel Ford Davies, Olivia Hantken WRITER: Daniel Askill, Lucy Bidwell, Gregory Stern CAST: Isabel Lucas, Hunter Page-Lochard, Lily Sullivan, Bobbi Salvor Menuez, Priscilla Douiehy, Kirin J Kallahan, Trevor Jamieson STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: See Pictures, Collider
LOVE IN BLOOM
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Chicago florist Amelia Hart returns
to the small Australian town of Primrose River to help plan her sister’s wedding. When her soon-to-be-married little sister and fiancé become marooned at a mountain retreat days before their wedding, Amelia and the best man, Grayson Tanner, are tasked with stepping in to save the wedding. DIRECTOR: Rogue Rubin PRODUCER: Spencer McLaren, Steve Jaggi, Kylie Pascoe, Kelly Son Hing WRITER: Georgia Harrison CAST: Susie Abromeit, Melina Vidler, Julian Haig, Monette Lee, Steven Tandy, Joey Vieira, Jason Wilder STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: The Steve Jaggi Company
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: A bittersweet remembrance of
Grace Puddle; a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails living in Canberra. DIRECTOR: Adam Elliot PRODUCERS: Liz Kearney, Adam Elliot WRITER: Adam Elliot
STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arenamedia
MOJA VESNA
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: The story follows ten-year-old
Moja who, after the sudden death of her mother, becomes the unexpected grown-up of her immigrant family in suburban Melbourne, seeking to reconcile her troubled, pregnant older sister, Vesna, and disconsolate father, Milos. DIRECTOR: Sara Kern PRODUCERS: Gal Greenspan, Sharlene George WRITER: Sara Kern CAST: Loti Kovacic, Mackenzie Mazur, Gregor Baković, Flora Feldman, Claudia Karvan STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Sweetshop & Green
THE MOUNTAIN
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: BlackWoman is abandoned in a
cage in the middle of the desert. Following her escape, she travels across lands and walks through pestilence and persecution, to find those who left her to die. DIRECTOR: Rolf de Heer PRODUCERS: Rolf de Heer, Julie Byrne, Ari Harrison WRITER: Rolf de Heer PRODUCTION COMPANY: Vertigo Productions, Triptych Pictures
NUDE TUESDAY
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: An absurd dramedy about a
suburban couple who spends a week at a newage retreat in a bid to save their marriage. DIRECTOR: Armagan Ballantyne PRODUCERS: Virginia Whitwell, Nick Batzias, Emma Slade WRITER: Jackie van Beek CAST: Jackie van Beek, Damon Herriman STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Good Things Productions, Firefly Films
www.screenwest.com.au
info@screenwest.com.au
OF AN AGE
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Summer, 1999. An unexpected
and intense twenty-four-hour romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old Serbian ballroom dancer and his best friend’s older brother. A decade later the pair meet for a bittersweet reunion. DIRECTOR: Goran Stolevski PRODUCERS: Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings WRITER: Goran Stolevski STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Causeway Films
PETROL
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: An idealistic film student is drawn
into a shadowy and intoxicating world when she befriends an enigmatic performance artist. DIRECTOR: Alena Lodkina PRODUCER: Kate Laurie WRITER: Alena Lodkina CAST: Nathalie Morris, Hannah Lynch, Bobby Downie, Daniel Frederickson, Inga Romantsova STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arenamedia
PHOTO BOOTH
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Photo Booth is the story of Jean
Bouchet, a renowned performance artist past her prime childbearing years who desperately wants to be a mother, even if it means adopting the child born of her husband’s infidelity. DIRECTORS: Spencer Harvey, Lloyd Harvey PRODUCERS: Sarah Shaw, Anna McLeish, Cathy Konrad WRITERS: Spencer Harvey, Lloyd Harvey STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Carver Films, Treeline Films
POKER FACE
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Jake, a tech billionaire, gathers
his childhood friends to his Miami estate for what turns into a high stakes game of poker. Those friends have a love hate relationship with the host, a master game-player/planner, and he has concocted an elaborate scheme designed to bring a certain justice to all of them. DIRECTOR: Russell Crowe PRODUCER: Addam Bramich, Jason Clark, Gary Hamilton, Ryan Hamilton, Keith Rodger, Jeanette Volturno, Matt Williams, Ying Ye WRITER: Stephen M. Coates CAST: Russell Crowe, Elsa Pataky, Liam Hemsworth, RZA STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arclight Films
THE PORTABLE DOOR
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Paul Carpenter and Sophie
Pettingel are the lowly, put-upon interns 42 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
who begin working at the mysterious London firm J.W. Wells & Co. and become steadily aware that their employers are anything but conventional. Charismatic villains Humphrey Wells, the CEO of the company, and middle manager Dennis Tanner are disrupting the world of magic by bringing modern corporate strategy to ancient magical practices, and Paul and Sophie discover the true agenda of the vast corporation where they work. DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Walker PRODUCER: Todd Fellman, Blanca Lista WRITER: Leon Ford CAST: Christoph Waltz, Patrick Gibson, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto, Chris Pang, Jessica De Gouw, Rachel House, Arka Das, Damon Herriman, Sophie Wilde STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Jim Henson Co., Story Bridge Films
THE REEF: STALKED
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Four girlfriends go on a kayaking
and diving adventure that goes horribly wrong. DIRECTOR: Andrew Traucki PRODUCER: Neal Kingston, Michael Robertson, Jack Christian WRITER: Andrew Traucki CAST: Teressa Liane, Ann Truong, Kate Lister, Saskia Archer STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Thrills & Spills
RUN RABBIT RUN
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: A fertility doctor is frightened by
her young daughter’s inexplicable memories of a past identity. DIRECTOR: Daina Reid PRODUCERS: Sarah Shaw, Anna McLeish, Elisabeth Moss, Lindsey McManus WRITER: Hannah Kent CAST: Sarah Snook STATE: SA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Carver Films
SERIOUSLY RED
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Red is a vivacious and hilarious
red-headed woman grappling with high expectations and low self-esteem, who trades her job in real estate to take up a new career as a Dolly Parton impersonator. DIRECTOR: Gracie Otto PRODUCERS: Jessica Carrera, Robyn Kershaw WRITER: Krew Boylan CAST: Rose Byrne, Krew Boylan, Bobby Cannavale, Daniel Webber, Celeste Barber, Thomas Campbell, Jean Kittson, Wayne Blair, Todd Lasance, Sarah Su, Sophia Forrest, and Rarriwuy Hick, Tony Barry, Nell Campbell, Dustin Clare, Bangarra dancer Waanega Blanco, Jack Thompson STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Dollhouse Pictures
Camden is the obvious choice.
For more information contact the Tourism and Visitor Services Officer on
02 4658 1370 or filming@camden.nsw.gov.au www.visitcamden.com.au
Located less than an hour’s drive from Sydney, Camden is the perfect blend of rural Australia and urban convenience. With a diverse array of locations from rural farming properties, to wineries and a village style main street, Camden is the obvious choice.
IN-PRODUCTION SISSY
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Sissy is the teen BFF of Emma.
The two were going to grow old together and never let anything come between them, until Alex her bully and tormentor ruined all of that. Twelve years later, Cecilia is a successful social media influencer living the dream - until she runs into Emma for the first time in over a decade. Invited away on Emma’s bachelorette weekend, Sissy finds herself stuck in a remote cabin with her high school bully… and a taste for revenge. DIRECTOR: Hannah Barlow, Kane Senes PRODUCER: Lisa Shaunessey, John De Margheriti, Jason Taylor WRITER: Kane Senes CAST: Aisha Dee, Emily De Marghertiti, Yerin Ha, Lucy Barrett, Daniel Monks, Hannah Barlow, Kane Senes STATE: ACT PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arcadia, DEMS Entertainment
SWEET AS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Set in the Pilbara region in
Western Australia, Sweet As follows troubled 15-year-old Indigenous girl Murra who finds herself abandoned after an argument with her mother. When an unusual lifeline is thrown her way by her Uncle Ian, a local cop, in the form of a travelling Photo Safari, Murra finds herself careening down a dusty highway with a bus full of ‘at risk’ teens and two peculiar team leaders. DIRECTOR: Jub Clerc PRODUCER: Liz Kearney WRITER: Jub Clerc, Steve Rodgers CAST: Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Tasma Walton, Mark Coles Smith, Ngaire Pigram STATE: WA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Arenamedia
THIRTEEN LIVES
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Thirteen Lives follows the true
story of the 2018 Tham Laung cave rescue of a boys’ soccer team, trapped in a cave by heavy rain and flooding. DIRECTOR: Ron Howard PRODUCERS: Brian Grazer, P.J. van Sandwijk, Gabrielle Tana, Karen Lunder WRITER: William Nicholson CAST: Joel Edgerton, Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Weir Sukollawat, Thiraphat Sajakul, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Vithaya Pansringarm, Teeradon “James” Supapunpinyo, Nophand
Boonyai), Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Lewis Fitz-Gerald STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Imagine Entertainment
THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A scholar, content with life,
encounters a Djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. Their conversation, in a hotel room in Istanbul, leads to consequences neither would have expected. DIRECTOR: George Miller PRODUCER: George Miller, Doug Mitchell WRITER: George Miller CAST : Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: FilmNation Entertainment, Kennedy Miller Production
TICKET TO PARADISE
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Wren Butler, a recent University of
Chicago graduate, accompanies her best friend Lily to a post-graduation jaunt to Bali. Lily’s abrupt decision to marry a Balinese local triggers her parents to team to try and stop her from repeating their mistake from 25 years ago. Wren stays in Bali for the engagement/ wedding festivities and, in the process, finds her own love with a local doctor. DIRECTOR: Ol Parker PRODUCER: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Sarah Harvey, Deborah Balderstone WRITER: Ol Parker, Daniel Pipski CAST: George Clooney, Julie Roberts STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Working Title, Smokehouse Pictures, Red Om Films, Universal Pictures
TRANSFUSION
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Ryan Logan, a former Special
Forces operative is battling to cope with life after the loss of his wife and is thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him. DIRECTOR: Matt Nable PRODUCERS: John Schwarz, Michael Schwarz WRITER: Matt Nable CAST: Sam Worthington, Phoebe Tonkin, Matt Nable, Edward Carmody STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Deeper Water Films
TRUE SPIRIT
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: The story of Australian teenager,
Jessica Watson, the youngest person ever to sail solo, non-stop around the world. DIRECTOR: Sarah Spillane PRODUCER: Debra Martin Chase, Andrew Fraser WRITER: Sarah Spillane, Cathy Randall CAST: Teagan Croft, Josh Lawson, Anna Paquin, Cliff Curtis STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Martin Chase Productions, Sunstar Entertainment
THE UNKNOWN MAN
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Two strangers Henry and Mark
meet and strike up a friendship. But what Henry doesn’t know is that Mark is a seasoned undercover officer working to convict Henry for an unsolved murder committed years earlier. DIRECTOR: Thomas M. Wright PRODUCERS: Joel Edgerton, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Rachel Gardner, Kim Hodgert, Kerry Roberts WRITER: Thomas M. Wright CAST: Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris STATE: SA PRODUCTION COMPANY: See-Saw Films, Anonymous Content, Blue-Tongue Films
UNTITLED
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: An LA wine-company executive
who travels to an Australian sheep station in an attempt to land a major client. While working as a ranch hand, she forms a connection with a rugged local. DIRECTOR: Stuart McDonald PRODUCERS: Deborah Glover, Tracey Vieira, Robyn Snyder, Deborah Evans WRITERS: Elizabeth Hackett, Hilary Galanoy CAST: Adam Demos, Victoria Justice STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Hoodlum Entertainment
VOICES IN DEEP
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: An Australian humanitarian
becomes connected to the lives of two orphaned refugees following a tragedy at sea. DIRECTOR: Jason Raftopoulos PRODUCER: Alexandros Ouzas, Tessa Mansfield-Hung, George Linardakis, Jason Raftopoulos WRITER: Jason Raftopoulos
CAST: Hannah Sims, Angeliki Papoulia, Christos Karavevas, Kostas Nikouli, Michael Hilane STATE: VIC COMPANY: Exile Entertainment, Small Village Films
WE ARE STILL HERE
STATUS: Post-production DIRECTORS: Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Danielle
MacLean, Tracey Rigney, Chantelle Burgoyne, Miki Magasiva, Renae Maihi, Tim Worrall PRODUCERS: Mitchell Stanley, Toni Stowers, Mia Henry Teirney WRITER: Tiraroa Reweti, Renae Maihi, Mario Gaoa, Samuel Paynter, Tracey Rigney, Danielle MacLean, Dena Curtis, Richard Curtis CAST: Meyne Wyatt, Megan Wilding, Clarence Ryan, Robert Taylor, Sean Mununggurr, Leonie Whyman, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Villa Lemanu, Lisa Flanagan, Calvin Tuteao, Evander Brown, Willow Rupapera, Bas Te Hira, Deborah Brown, Serene Dubs Yunupingu, Oriini Kaipara PRODUCTION COMPANY: No Coincidence Media, Mārama Productions
WOODY WOODPECKER 2
SYNOPSIS: The next chapter in the Woody
Woodpecker movie franchise is a CGI animated and live-action hybrid production that brings back the titular character’s signature laugh, wacky antics, and wisecracks. STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Universal 1440 Entertainment
WOG BOYS FOREVER
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Steve Karamitsis returns, working
as a taxi driver and still single. His life takes a turn when he becomes the target of a revenge plan hatched by Brianna Beagle-Thorpe, the Minister for Immigration, and her brother, who blame him for destroying their mother Raelene’s political career. DIRECTOR: Frank Lotito PRODUCER: Nick Giannopoulos WRITER: Nick Giannopoulos CAST: Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo, Sarah Roberts, Annabel Marshall-Roth, Liam Seymour PRODUCTION COMPANY: G.O. Films, Forever Productions
YOU, ME AND THE PENGUINS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: The romantic comedy follows Tilly
Monterey, a compliance and outreach manager
Connecting Crews. Supplier of Radio Communication for the Film Industry. 44 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
1800-261-633
IN-PRODUCTION
at the Animal Discovery Institute in San Diego, who realises her dream to work in the field after hearing the Crystal Bay Penguin Sanctuary is threatened with closure and its colony of Little Blue Penguins is scheduled to be relocated 2,500km away. After receiving a begrudging welcome from head zoologist Fletcher, she joins the group in their efforts to turn the sanctuary around within the space of a week. As Fletcher teaches Tilly more about the sanctuary’s needs and the Little Blue penguins that they house, his belief in people, and even love, is reignited, while Tilly realises she has never felt more at home. In the end, she must decide between leaving Crystal Bay or staying with Fletcher and the Little Blue Penguins he loves so much. DIRECTOR: Christine Luby PRODUCERS: Steve Jaggi, Spencer McLaren, Ian Whitehead, Graham Ludlow WRITER: Annelies Kavan CAST: Tammin Sursok, Jason Wilder, Stuart Lumsden, Madeleine West, Nick Hardcastle STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: The Steve Jaggi Company
YOU WON’T BE ALONE
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: In an isolated mountain village in
19th century Macedonia, a young witch is left
to go feral in the woods. Curious about life as a human, she accidentally kills a peasant in the village, then takes her shape to see what life is like in her skin. This ignites her deep-seated curiosity to experience life inside the bodies of others. DIRECTOR: Goran Stolevski PRODUCERS: Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings WRITER: Goran Stolevski CAST: Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud, Sara Klimoska STATE: VIC (post) PRODUCTION COMPANY: Causeway Films
✪ SERIES: 100% WOLF: THE BOOK OF HATH STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: In The Book of Hath, Freddy
travels back through time to 825AD where he must help his ancestors defeat the Werelock Hath. DIRECTOR: Jacquie Trowell PRODUCERS: Barbara Stephen, Alexia Gates-Foale WRITERS: Tess Meyer, Fin Edquist PRODUCTION COMPANY: Flying Bark
Productions
NETWORK: ABC
AFTERTASTE (SEASON 2)
Status: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: After throwing away his last chance at fame, Easton West has settled into obscurity rather well. Telling himself he’s far happier away from the kitchen and a ‘PC’ world gone mad, he’s living a quiet life with his sister Denise and her far too forgiving partner Brett. When Brett and Denise decide to make things official and tie the knot, however, it coaxes back the prodigal pastry chef Diana from her new life in London. Still furious with her family’s secrets and lies, Diana’s desperate to prove to them how much better off she is without them. But old tensions rear their ugly heads, and soon Easton and Diana are bickering, wrestling and wielding a shotgun. PRODUCERS: Rebecca Summerton, Erik Thomson CAST: Erik Thomson, Natalie Abbott, Susan Prior, Wayne Blair STATE: SA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Closer Productions NETWORK: ABC
AFTER THE VERDICT
STATUS: Pre-production
SYNOPSIS: Four very different Australians who have just finished jury duty on a highprofile murder trial. As they return to normal life, they begin to question their verdict and take matters into their own hands, investigating the murder themselves as they juggle the pressures and impacts on their personal lives. CREATORS: Ellie Beaumont, Drew Proffitt DIRECTORS: Peter Salmon, Lisa Matthews, Fadia Abboud PRODUCER: Jo Rooney WRITERS: Ellie Beaumont, Drew Proffitt, Romina Accurso CAST: Sullivan Stapleton, Magda Szubanski, Lincoln Younes PRODUCTION COMPANY: Subtext Pictures NETWORK: Nine
ANYONE’S DAUGHTER
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: About the police investigation into
the disappearance of young women. DIRECTOR: Peter Andrikidis PRODUCERS: Kerrie Mainwaring, Peter Andrikidis, and Jamie Hilton WRITERS: Michaeley O’Brien, Justin Monjo NETWORK: Seven
BAD BEHAVIOUR
STATUS: Pre-production
Insurance. Uncomplicated.
1300 880 768 wwmidlandinsurance.com.au w.midlandinsura nce.com.au
TheProductionBook_HalfPage 205x137 - Half Page - Oct 2021.indd 1
1/10/2021 9:55:58 AM
www.if.com.au 45
IN-PRODUCTION SYNOPSIS: Based on the book by Rebecca Starford, Bad Behaviour promises an emotionally and physically intense glimpse into the lives of teenage girls at the wilderness campus of an exclusive girls’ boarding school. DIRECTOR: Corrie Chen PRODUCER: Amanda Higgs WRITERS: Pip Karmel, Magda Wozniak STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Matchbox Pictures NETWORK: Stan
BARONS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A group of surf-crazy hippy friends
turn their backs on the world in search of their ideal patch of surfing paradise. Little do they know that their desire for ultimate freedom and the perfect wave, will take them from the beach to the boardroom, creating billion-dollar empires. But in selling their surfing dream to the world, these best friends will become fierce rivals and the question for this found family is – once you sell paradise can you ever get it back again? CREATORS: Michael Lawrence, John Molloy, Liz Doran DIRECTORS: Shawn Seet, Taylor Steel PRODUCERS: Justin Davies WRITERS: Liz Doran, Marieke Hardy, Matt Cameron CAST: Sean Keenan, Ben O’Toole, Jillian Nguyen, Hunter Page-Lochard, George Pullar, Lincoln Younes, Sophia Forrest, Vivienne Awosoga, Nicholas Burton, Karina Banno, Megan MacKenzie, Kick Gurry, Catherine VanDavies, Alexander England, Ione Skye STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fremantle, Micanical Media, 2Jons NETWORK: ABC
BARRUMBI KIDS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Based on books from Territory
author Leonie Norrington, the 10 x 30-minute series follows the adventures of Tomias and Dahlia, two best friends that are growing up in a remote Northern Territory community Through fishing, hunting, and schooling, the children learn about themselves, each other, and living in both Aboriginal and nonAboriginal cultures. DIRECTORS: Grant Brown, Deb Brown, Ismail Khan PRODUCERS: Danielle MacLean, Monica O’Brien, Julia Morris WRITERS: David Woodhead, Danielle
46 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
MacLean, Fin Edquist STATE: NT
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Aquarius Films NETWORK: ABC
BAY OF FIRES
STATUS: Pre-production CREATOR: Kelsey Munro PRODUCERS: Claudia Karvan, Dan Edwards,
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Tamarind Tree Pictures, Ambience Entertainment NETWORK: NITV STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Single mother of two Stella
Heikkinen experiences a spectacular and life-threatening fall from grace. CREATORS: Marta Dusseldorp, Andrew Knight, Max Dann PRODUCER: Marta Dusseldorp WRITERS: Marta Dusseldorp, Andrew Knight, Max Dann, Sarah Bassiuoni CAST: Marta Dusseldorp STATE: TAS PRODUCTION COMPANY: Archipelago Productions, Fremantle NETWORK: ABC
BEEP AND MORT
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: The story of two best friends from
different worlds, solving their daily dilemmas and unexpected challenges through invention, play and adventure. DIRECTOR: Rosemary Myers PRODUCER: Rosemary Myers, Kaye Weeks WRITERS: Hunter Page-Lochard, Amy Stewart, Simon Butters, Lorin Clarke, Charlotte Rose Hamlyn, Wendy Hanna STATE: SA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Windmill Pictures NETWORK: ABC
BORN TO SPY
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Yu Na and Min Park want more
excitement in their lives. However, they don’t realise just how crazy their lives will become when they discover their once unremarkable parents are actually international spies and have disappeared in suspicious circumstances. CREATOR: Justine Flynn DIRECTORS: Nick Verso, Chase Lee, Hyun Lee, Darlene Johnson, Neil Sharma, Justine Flynn PRODUCERS: Angie Fielder, Polly Staniford, Naomi Just WRITERS: Justine Flynn, Michelle Lim Davidson, Andrew Lee, Tiffany Zehnal, Melissa Lee Speyer, Tristram Baumber, Sophia Chung, Hyun Lee, Alice McCredie-Dando, David Park CAST: Hannah Kim, Ocean Lim, Lulu Quirk, George Holahan-Cantwell, Alex Kis, Eduard Geyl, Danny Kim, Julia Yon, Nicholas Hope STATE: NSW
BUMP (SEASON 3)
John Edwards
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Roadshow Rough
Diamond
NETWORK: Stan
CLASS OF ‘07
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: When an apocalyptic tidal wave
hits during the ten-year reunion of an all-girls high school, a group of women must find a way to survive on the island peak of their high school campus. DIRECTOR: Kacie Anning WRITER: Kacie Anning PRODUCTION COMPANY: Matchbox Pictures NETWORK: Amazon
CRAZY FUN PARK
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Best friends Chester and
Mapplethorpe are a duo so inseparable, not even death can pull them apart. CREATOR: Nicholas Verso DIRECTORS: Nicholas Verso, Adrian Russell Wills PRODUCER: Joanna Werner WRITERS: Nicholas Verso, Magda Wozniak, Craig Irvin, Enoch Mailangi, Fury PRODUCTION COMPANY: Werner Film Productions STATE: VIC NETWORK: ABC
DARBY AND JOAN
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: A retired Australian policeman
with a dog as his only company meets a widowed English nurse, and they embark together on an epic odyssey in the outback of northern Australia. CREATORS: Glenys Rowe, Phillip Gwynne DIRECTOR: David Caesar PRODUCER: Pino Amenta WRITERS: David Hannam, Beck Cole, Andrew Anastasios, Giula Sandler, Ainslie Clouston, Adam Zwar, Paul Bennett. CAST: Bryan Brown, Greta Scacchi STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: CJZ NETWORK: Acorn TV
DEADLOCH
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: The Kates’ latest creation is a
feminist noir comedy set against a bucolicbackdrop with a rising body count WRITERS: Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan STATE: TAS PRODUCTION COMPANY: Guesswork Television, OK Great Productions, Amazon Studios NETWORK: Amazon
FIRST DAY (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: This series follows Hannah in her
second year at Hillview High as she sets out to change the culture at the school, and finds it’s only through working together that meaningful change can be achieved. DIRECTOR: Julie Kalceff PRODUCERS: Kirsty Stark, Kate Butler WRITERS: Julie Kalceff, Eloise Brook, Martine Delaney STATE: SA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Epic Films NETWORK: ABC
FISK (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: The lady in brown returns. Helen
Tudor-Fisk is back, along with solicitor Roz & Ray Gruber and of course, everyone’s favourite probate clerk/webmaster, George. With Roz stepping aside to start her own mediation business (within the Gruber offices) Helen is determined to take on a more senior role Gruber & Associates. However, Helen’s grand vision to become partner soon becomes unstuck when she’s featured in a current affairs show hit piece, and her main focus becomes trying to repair her damaged reputation. CREATOR: Kitty Flanagan DIRECTOR: Kitty Flanagan, Tom Peterson PRODUCER: Vincent Sheehan WRITERS: Kitty Flanagan CAST: Kitty Flanagan, Julia Zemiro, Marty Sheargold, Aaron Chen STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Origma 45 NETWORK: ABC
FIVE BEDROOMS (SEASON 3)
STATUS: Post-production CREATORS: Michael Lucas, Christine Bartlett DIRECTORS: Peter Templeman, Fiona Banks,
Craig Irvin
PRODUCER: Andy Walker
IN-PRODUCTION
WRITERS: Michael Lucas, Christine Bartlett, Alisha Hnatjuk, Mithila Gupta CAST: Stephen Peacocke, Roy Joseph, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Kat Stewart STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Hoodlum Entertainment NETWORK: Paramount+
GINGER & THE VEGESAURS
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Set in a world dominated by
Vegesaurs, the freshest and most delicious creatures ever to rule the planet. Ginger, a young plucky Tricarrotops, and her three baby Pea-Rex pals share adventures in a valley populated by a host of other Vegesaurs – some friendly, some not so much. CREATORS: Gary Eck, Nick O’Sullivan DIRECTOR: David Webster PRODUCER: Celine Goetz, Patrick Egerton WRITERS: Gary Eck, Sam Carroll PRODUCTION COMPANY: Cheeky Little Media NETWORK: ABC
GYMNASTICS ACADEMY: A SECOND CHANCE
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Kyra Berry is a 14-year-old
African-American gymnast whose dream to compete in the Olympics comes undone when she injures her knee. Maddy Cornell (Emily Morris), the ex-world champion Australian gymnast turned coach, sees Kyra’s potential and invites her to join Australia’s Elite Gymnastics Program on a trial. CREATOR: Clay Glen DIRECTORS: Clay Glen, Kelly Schilling, Stephen de Villiers PRODUCERS: Clay Glen, Sally Clarke WRITERS: Clay Glen, Kristian Leadbeater CAST: Jada Lee Henry, Emily Morris, Stella Shute, Akira Van, Eva Grado, Zoe Burns, Luciana Valdez Tirado, Ava Maios, Jett Gazley, Alexander Lloyd, Melanie Munt, Trung Le, Justina Ward, Michelle Nightingale STATE: SA NETWORK: Netflix
HEARTBREAK HIGH
STATUS: In-production SYNOPSIS: Amerie becomes the school pariah
following a discovery that also causes a public rift with her ride-or-die Harper. With her new friends – outsiders Quinni and Darren – Amerie must repair her reputation, while navigating love, sex, and heartbreak. CREATOR: Hannah Carroll Chapman DIRECTORS: Gracie Otto, Neil Sharma, Jessie
Oldfield, Adam Murfet PRODUCER: Sarah Freeman EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Chris OliverTaylor, Carly Heaton, Jeroen Koopman, Tarik Traidia WRITERS: Hannah Carroll Chapman, Matthew Whittet, Marieke Hardy, Meyne Wyatt, Thomas Wilson-White, Natesha Somasundaram CAST: Ayesha Madon, James Majoos, Chloe Hayden, Asher Yasbincek, Thomas Weatherall, Josh Heuston, Will McDonald, Gemma Chua-Tran, Rachel House, Chika Ikogwe, Sherry-Lee Watson, Bryn Chapman-Parish, Brodie Townsend PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fremantle Australia, NewBe NETWORK: Netflix
IRONSIDE
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: A crime drama inspired by the
true story of the AFP’s use of the encrypted ANOM app to track and trap criminals. DIRECTOR: Gregor Jordan PRODUCERS: Dan Edwards, John Edwards WRITERS: Gregor Jordan, Nick McKenzie PRODUCTION COMPANY: Roadshow Rough Diamond NETWORK: Stan
IRREVERENT
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: A criminal on the run from his life
of crime back in New York, is forced to hide out in a reef town in Far North Queensland, posing as the new church Reverend. CREATOR: Paddy Macrae DIRECTORS: Jonathan Teplitzky, Lucy Gaffy PRODUCERS: Paddy Macrae, Tom Hoffie WRITERS: Paddy Macrae, Andrew Knight, Andrew Anastasios, Angela McDonald, Darlene Johnson CAST: Kylie Bracknell, Calen Tassone, Briallen Clarke, Tegan Stimson, Ed Oxenbould, Wayne Blair, Russell Dykstra, and Jason Wilder, Susie Porter, Bridie McKim, Martin Sacks, Ursula Yovich STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Matchbox Pictures, NBCUniversal International Studios NETWORK: Netflix, Peacock
JOE EXOTIC
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Based on the hit Wondery podcast
depicting the true events surrounding Carole Baskin, a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe “Exotic” Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit, and sets out to shut down his
SPECIALIST COSTUME HIRE FOR FILM & TV Everyday clothing and work-wear from 1800 to modern. Est. 1992
Looking to the Next Generation - Expressions of Interest -
Hero Frock Hire, Australia’s specialist film and television costume hire facility is calling for expressions of interest in taking the business into the future. For further information contact: Mark Lucas - General Manager / Finance Director mark@herofrock.com.au Unit 4, C anal Road Film Cen tre 1 Canal Road, LEI C HHAR DT NEW S OU TH WALE S 20 40, A US TRALI A
ww w.herof rock. com.au
www.if.com.au 47
IN-PRODUCTION venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry WRITER: Etan Frankel EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Etan Frankel, Hernan Lopez, Marshall Lewy, Aaron Hart, Kate McKinnon CAST: Kate McKinnon, John Cameron Mitchell, Kyle MacLachlan, Marlo Kelly, Will McNeill, Jack Scott, Nic English, Benedict Hardie, Shereena Clanton, Alexandra Jensen, Anthony J. Sharpe, Aliandra Calabrese STATE: QLD NETWORK: NBC, USA Network, Peacock
LAST KING OF THE CROSS
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Based on the best-selling
autobiography of John Ibrahim Last King of The Cross is an operatic story of two brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim, one worshipped by his father and the other scorned. In organising the street, they lose each other across their ascent to power. DIRECTOR: Kieren Darcy-Smith PRODUCER: Mark Fennessy WRITER: Kieren Darcy-Smith PRODUCTION COMPANY: Helium NETWORK: Paramount+ NETWORK: NITV, ABC
THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Based on the novel by Holly
Ringwald. After a family tragedy in which she loses both her abusive father and beloved mother in a mysterious fire, nine-year-old Alice is taken to live with her grandmother June on a flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past. DIRECTOR: Glendyn Ivin PRODUCER: Barbara Gibbs WRITERS: Sarah Lambert, Kirsty Fisher, Kim Wilson CAST: Sigourney Weaver, Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frankie Adams, Alexander England, Charlie Vickers, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Alyla Browne STATE: NSW, NT PRODUCTION COMPANY: Made Up Stories, Endeavor Content, Amazon Studios NETWORK: Amazon Prime Video
MAVERIX
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A group of junior motocross riders
are selected for the first ever MaveriX Academy in Alice Springs, the home of dirtbike racing in Australia. The series will follow the six teens as the program pushes them to their limits, and ultimately gives them the chance to join a professional racing team. CREATORS: Rachel Clements, Sam Meikle, Issac Elliot DIRECTORS: Isaac Elliott, Ian Watson, Geoff Bennett PRODUCERS: Rachel Clements, Trisha 48 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
Morton-Thomas WRITER: Sam Meikle, Fin Edquist, Michelle Offen, Kelly Schilling CAST: Darcy Tadich, Tatiana Goode, Sam Winspear-Schillings, Tdjiirm McGuire, Sebastian Tang, Charlotte Maggi, Jane Harber, Rohan Nichol STATE: NT PRODUCTION COMPANY: Brindle Films NETWORK: ABC, Netflix
THE MESSENGER
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: An adaptation of Markus Zusak’s
novel. Ed Kennedy’s life is one of peaceful routine until playing cards inscribed with cryptic tasks start to arrive in the mail. Ed makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains – who is behind Ed’s mission? PRODUCERS: Jason Stephens WRITERS: Sarah Lambert, Kirsty Fisher, Kim Wilson, Magda Wozniak STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Lingo Pictures NETWORK: ABC
MYSTERY ROAD: ORIGIN
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Set in 1999, the series will see
Constable Jay Swan as young charismatic officer at his new station. Fresh from the city and tipped for big things, Jay might be the new copper, but he’s not new to this town. His estranged father Jack lives here, as does the woman who will change his life forever, Mary. DIRECTOR: Dylan River PRODUCERS: David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin, Penny Smallacombe WRITER: Blake Ayshford, Steven McGregor, Kodie Bedford, Timothy Lee CAST: Mark Coles Smith, Toby Leonard Moore, Daniel Henshall, Lisa Flanagan, Clarence Ryan, Steve Bisley, Caroline Brazier, Hayley McElhinney, Dubs Yunupingu, Kelton Pell, Leonie Whyman, Salme Geransar, Nina Young, Jayden Popik, Tuuli Narkle STATE: WA PRODUCTION COMPANY: Bunya Productions NETWORK: ABC
NAUTILUS
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Based on Jules Verne’s 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea, telling the origin story of anti-hero Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine, The Nautilus. An Indian Prince robbed of his birth right and family, Nemo is a prisoner of the East India Company and a bent on revenge against the forces which have taken everything from him. But once he sets sail with his ragtag crew on board the awe-inspiring The Nautilus, he not only battles with his enemy, but he also discovers a magical underwater world, learns to take his place as leader of the crew, and goes on an unforgettable adventure beneath the sea.
CREATORS: Xavier Marchand, Anand Tucker WRITER: James Dormer STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Moonriver TV,
Seven Stories NETWORK: Disney+
THE PM’S DAUGHTER
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Catalina Parkes Pérez is like any
other teenager who wants to fight the powers that be. There’s just one complication: her mother is the Prime Minister of Australia. CREATORS: Tristram Baumber, Matthew Allred DIRECTORS: Julietta Boscolo, Erin White, Alana Hicks PRODUCERS: Alice Willison, Kieren Hoyle WRITERS: Tristram Baumber, Lou Sanz, Hannah Samuel, Angela McDonald, Craig Irvin, Gemma Bird Matheson, Magda Wozniak CAST: Cassandra Helmot, Claire Fearon, Natalie English, Jaga Yap, Nya Cofie, Amelie James-Power, Anthony Brandon Wong, Tim Yeung, Gemma Bird Matheson, Renee Lim STATE: NSW, ACT PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fremantle Australia NETWORK: ABC
PIECES OF HER
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Based on the 2018 Karin
Slaughter novel, the series is set in a sleepy Georgia town where a random act of violence sets off an unexpected chain of events. DIRECTOR: Minkie Spiro PRODUCER: Charlotte Stoudt WRITER: Charlotte Stoudt CAST: Toni Collette, Bella Heathcoate, David Wenham, Colin Friels STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Made Up Stories NETWORK: Netflix
ROCK ISLAND MYSTERIES
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Taylor Young has been
fascinated by the phenomena surrounding a mysterious island ever since her uncle’s disappearance there. With a gang of friends, including Nori, a wisecracking local rebel; Meesha, a tough-as-nails thrill seeker; Ellis, a hypochondriac and born worrier; and Taylor’s stepsister Lila, an aspiring vlogger, Taylor is determined to get to the bottom of the secrets and inexplicable events of the island. CREATORS: Matt Cooke, Vince Lund, Michael Ford PRODUCER: Tim Powell, Jonah Klein WRITERS: Stephen Vagg, Sam Carroll, Alix Beane, David Hannam, Marisa Nathar, Natesha Somasundarum, Trent Roberts, Hannah Samuel STATE: QLD NETWORK: Nickelodeon International, Network 10, Nordic Entertainment Group
SAVAGE RIVER
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: When Miki Anderson returns to
her hometown in rural Victoria after eight years in prison, she’s determined to finally move on with her life. But the close-knit community of Savage River is not about to let her forget the past that easily. When a murder rocks the town, Miki immediately becomes the focus of everyone’s suspicion. With the police closing in, she sets out to prove her innocence, uncovering long-buried secrets that will cast doubt on everything she thought she knew. DIRECTOR: Jocelyn Moorhouse PRODUCERS: Angie Fielder, Polly Staniford WRITER: Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty, Giula Sandler CAST: Katherine Langford STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Aquarius FIlms NETWORK: ABC
THE SECRET SHE KEEPS (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Set two years after Megan
Shaughnessy’s son was kidnapped by Agatha Fyfle. Now the two women’s lives collide again, unleashing new secrets and sparking shockwaves for their families. DIRECTOR: Jennifer Leacey PRODUCER: Helen Bowden, Diane Haddon WRITERS: Sarah Walker, Sarah Bassiuoni, Michael Robotham CAST: Jessica De Gouw, Laura Carmichael, Michael Dorman, Ryan Corr STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Lingo Pictures NETWORK: 10, BBC, Sundance Now
SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Catastrophe strikes on a morning
swim. Sarah, the single mother of two teenagers, vanishes beneath the waves. The mystery of her disappearance is the catalyst that hurls her fractured family back together. At first her siblings, Ursula, Den and Claire, fear their shambolic sister’s vanishing could be her latest stunt. They arrive to discover she has bulldozed half the house. Problem is: it’s their house too. A house full of childhood laughter and haunted memories that start to unravel as they embark on life in the rubble, attempting to parent two kids who are desperately hoping their mum will return. The family rages against the purgatory of not knowing their loved one’s fate. Was Sarah drawing up plans for a bright future, or trying to erase a troubled past? There are stories this family never opens but now they must. CREATOR: Tommy Murphy PRODUCER: Matt Reader EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Chris Oliver-Taylor, Justin Davies STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fremantle
IN-PRODUCTION
Australia
NETWORK: Netflix, ZDFE
SUMMER LOVE
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A disgraced ex-cop Ted Conkaffey
NETWORK: ABC STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: An anthology series which sees
eight very different sets of people rent the same beachside holiday house. Eight different writing teams bring eight different stories to life, each connected through the house and the theme of love. CREATORS: Robyn Butler, Wayne Hope PRODUCERS: Robyn Butler, Wayne Hope WRITERS: Kodie Bedford, Bjorn Stewart, Alison Bell, Patrick Brammall, Harriet Dyer, Robyn Butler, Wayne Hope, Nazeem Hussain, Kate Mulvany, Miranda Tapsell, James Colley, Nath Valvo, Jayden Masciulli STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Gristmill NETWORK: ABC
THE STRANGE CHORES (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Two wannabe warrior-heroes and
a spirited ghost girl master the skills they need to replace an ageing monster-slayer by doing his strange, supernatural chores. SHOWRUNNER: Daley Pearson DIRECTOR: Scott Vanden Bosch PRODUCERS: Charlie Aspinwall, Colin South WRITERS: Anna Barnes, John McGeachin, Luke Tierney, Rhianna Malezer CAST: Charlotte Nicdao, Michael Philippou, Nick Tate STATE: QLD, VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Ludo Studio, Media World Pictures NETWORK: ABC
SURVIVING SUMMER
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Summer, a fierce Brooklyn teen is
sent Down Under to live with family friends in a tiny coastal town on the Great Ocean Road. CREATORS: Joanna Werner, Josh Mapleston DIRECTORS: Ben Chessell, Sian Davies, Charlotte George PRODUCER: Joanna Werner WRITERS: Josh Mapleston, Marieke Hardy, Magda Wozniak, Keir Wilkins, Gemma Crofts, Kirsty Fisher CAST: Sky Katz, João Gabriel Marinho, Kai Lewins, Savannah La Rain, Lilliana Bowrey STATE: VIC PRODUCTION COMPANY: Werner Film Productions
DIRECTORS: Erica Glynn, Steven McGregor WRITERS: Erica Glynn, Steven McGregor,
TROPPO
is mismatched with eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell to help uncover the whereabouts of a missing Korean family man and tech pioneer. As they begin to uncover a string of bizarre deaths, the unlikely duo is thrust into a mutual fight for survival and sanity in the wilds of Far North Queensland. CREATOR: Yolanda Ramke DIRECTOR: Jocelyn Moorhouse, Catherine Millar, Grant Brown, Yolanda Ramke, Ben Howling PRODUCER: Karl Zwicky WRITERS: Jane Allen, Blake Ayshford, Penelope Chai, Kodie Bedford, Craig Irvin, Andrew Lee CAST: Thomas Jane, Nicole Chamoun, David Lyons, Sun Park, Simon Lyndon, Yerin Ha, Kate Beahan, Angela Punch McGregor, Thomas Weatherall, Damien Garvey, Cramer Cain, Ling Cooper Tang, Peta Wilson STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: EQ Media, Beyond Entertainment, AGC Television NETWORK: ABC
TOM WEEKLY VERSUS…
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Based on the best-selling book
series by Tristan Bancks. The series follows 10-year-old Tom and his outrageous adventures, whether it’s leasing his mum’s internet to the neighbourhood just as her online auction is about to finish, or breaking his Pop out of the nursing home to attend bingo. WRITERS: Guy Edmonds, Matt Zeremes, Amy Stewart, Kala Ellis, Erica Harrison, Tristan Bancks, Nayuka Gorrie, Penny Greenhalgh STATE: NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Northern Pictures NETWORK: ViacomCBS
TRUE COLOURS
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: Detective Toni Alma is assigned to
investigate a suspicious car accident in Perdar Theendar, the Indigenous community she left as a child and has had little to do with over the years. As the clues lead back to her own family, Toni must navigate her way between past and present, the complexities of the Indigenous art world and her own self-doubt, to find a killer who is way too close to home. CREATORS: Warren H. Williams, Erica Glynn
Danielle MacLean CAST: Rarriwuy Hick, Warren H. Williams, Luke Arnold, Erroll Shand, Emilie de Ravin, Trisha Morton-Thomas, Ben Oxenbould, Miranda Otto, Kumalie Riley, Kurt Abbott, Sabella Turner, Natalie Peperill, Warren ‘Wazza’ Williams, Grant Wallace, Janaya Kopp, Martin McMillan, Siobhan Breaden, Genise Williams, Keenan Mitchell, Stella McMillan, Rosario Young, Waylon Dixon STATE: NT PRODUCTION COMPANY: Bunya Productions NETWORK: SBS
THE TWELVE
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Based on the Flemish-language
Belgian series of the same name, the series follows the 12 ordinary people selected for jury duty in a murder trial in which a woman stands accused of killing a child. DIRECTOR: Daniel Nettheim PRODUCERS: Ian Collie, Rob Gibson, Ally Henville WRITER: Greg Waters, Sarah Walker, Leah Purcell EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Brooks, Hamish Lewis, Liz Watts, Brian Walsh CAST: Sam Neill, Marta Dusseldorp, Kate Mulvany, Brooke Satchwell, Hazem Shammas PRODUCTION COMPANY: Warner Bros. Television International Australia, Easy Tiger Productions, Spirit Pictures NETWORK: Foxtel
UNDERBELLY: VANISHING ACT
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: The story of Melisssa Caddick, the
high-roller who allegedly embezzled over $40 million before disappearing. DIRECTOR: Geoff Bennett PRODUCERS: Kerrie Mainwaring, Matt Ford WRITERS: Matt Ford, Michael Miller CAST: Kate Atkinson, Colin Friels, Tai Hara, Maya Stange, Ursula Mills, Sophie Bloom PRODUCTION COMPANY: Screentime NETWORK: Nine
UPRIGHT (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: Trading the desert for the steamy
Somasundaram, Tim Minchin CAST: Tim Minchin, Milly Alcock STATE: QLD, NSW PRODUCTION COMPANY: Lingo Pictures NETWORK: Foxtel, Sky UK
THE WILDS (SEASON 2)
STATUS: Post-production SYNOPSIS: A group of teens must survive
after a crash leaves them stranded. There’s just one twist to this thrilling drama - these girls did not end up on this island by accident. CREATOR: Sarah Streicher PRODUCER: Amy B. Harris CAST: Rachel Griffiths, Mia Healey, Shannon Berry, David Sullivan, Troy Winbush, Sophia Ali, Sarah Pidgeon, Jenna Clause, Erana James, Helena Howard, Reign Edwards, Zack Calderon, Aidan Laprete, Nicholas Coombe, Charles Alexander, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Reed Shannon, Tanner Ray Rook and Alex Fitzalan. STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: ABC Signature NETWORK: Amazon
YEAR OF
STATUS: Pre-production SYNOPSIS: A spin-off series set in and
around the school in Bump. It follows the senior years of high school – exploring the liminal time between childhood and adulthood for the kids and the renegotiations with adults that it brings. WRITERS: Kelsey Munro, Jessica Tuckwell PRODUCTION COMPANY: Roadshow Rough Diamond
YOUNG ROCK (SEASON 2)
STATUS: In production SYNOPSIS: Chronicles different chapters in
the life of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, from his high school years in Honolulu to playing football at the University of Miami. CREATORS: Nahnatchka Khan, Jeff Chiang CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Joseph Lee Anderson, Stacey Leilua, Adrian Groulx, Bradley Constant, Uli Latukefu, Ana Tuisila, Fasitua Amosa, John Tui STATE: QLD PRODUCTION COMPANY: Universal Television, Seven Bucks Productions, Fierce Baby Productions
tropics of Far North Queensland, Lucky and Meg hit the road – and the river – on a mission. PRODUCERS: Jason Stephens, Meg O’Connell WRITERS: Niki Aken, Ian Meadows, Natesha
REPRESENTING THE BEST IN FREELANCE FILM AND DIGITAL TECHNICIANS Contact Liz and Karen | +61 2 9958 1611 crew@toptechsmanagement.com.au www.if.com.au 49 www.toptechsmanagement.com.au
WHAT’S ON
If you have an event or an entry deadline coming up, email publicity@if.com.au with all relevant info
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to the impact of COVID-19, many screen industry events have been postponed or cancelled, or deadlines extended. All dates are correct at time of publication, but are subject to change.
KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL
WHEN: Now – December 16 WHERE: ACMI, Melbourne
Celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and South Korea, the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA), returns into cinemas in 2021 with a line-up of exquisite new Korean films, from across all genres. KOFFIA.COM.AU/2021
WESTPAC OPENAIR
WHEN: January 6 – February 22 WHERE: Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, Sydney
The 2022 program for Sydney’s Westpac Openair is headlined by a dozen premiere or preview screenings, commencing on opening night with the tennis bio-pic King Richard, which stars two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith as the father of young tennis prodigies Venus and Serena Williams. There’s the Australian premiere of Kenneth Brannagh’s Death on The Nile, as well as previews of Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette); Joe Wright’s Cyrano; Pablo Larrain’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana; and British charmer The Duke starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. Closing night will feature a gala preview of Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend Of Molly Johnson.
FLICKERFEST
WHEN: January 22 – 31 WHERE: Bondi Beach, Sydney
Flickerfest kicks off the summer cinema season outdoors under the stars at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, screening the best short films from Australia and the world in a unique and relaxed environment. After the Sydney festival Flickerfest tours to 50 + venues around Australia. WWW.FLICKERFEST.COM.AU
ANTENNA DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
WHEN: February 2 -10 WHERE: Sydney
Antenna is an international documentary film festival, established in 2011 with the mission to promote, celebrate and champion creative 50 INSIDEFILM #203 NOV–DEC 2021
documentary cinema as one of the most exciting means by which we can connect to the contemporary world. ANTENNAFESTIVAL.ORG
EUROPA! EUROPA
WHEN: February 4 – 27 WHERE: Melbourne, Sydney
For the first time, the world’s best new European films come to cinemas across Australia fro three weeks of inspring and entertaining Australian premiere screenings live music and special events. Europa! Europa will reveal its inaugural program with a screening of Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta on January 16 at Melbourne’s Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick and Sydney’s Ritz Cinema, Randwick. EUROPAFILMFESTIVAL.COM.AU
SMARTPHONE FLICK FEST (SF3)
WHEN: February 26 – March 13 WHERE: Bondi Beach, Sydney
Flickerfest kicks off the summer cinema season outdoors under the stars at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, screening the best short films from Australia and the world in a unique and relaxed environment. After the Sydney festival Flickerfest tours to 50 + venues around Australia. WWW.FLICKERFEST.COM.AU
AIDC
WHEN: March 6 –11 WHERE: ACMI, Melbourne and online
The Australian International Documentary Conference will return to the renewed ACMI at Federation Square for a live, in-person event in the heart of Melbourne. Responding to the challenges of COVID-19, next year’s event will also feature a hybrid program for international delegates and an online international marketplace, March 10-11 2022, ensuring that Australian documentary and factual filmmakers continue to have access to the widest range of commissioners, funders, co-producers and development opportunities. WWW.AIDC.COM.AU
MEDIA+ ENTERTAINMENT EXPO
WHEN: March 17 –17 WHERE: ICC, Sydney
Media and Entertainment Tech Expo 2021 (METexpo 22) assembles professionals, technologists, and engineers from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific to experience together the rapid evolution of the technologies that power media production, management, distribution, and consumption. WWW.METEXPO.COM.AU
SCREEN FOREVER
WHEN: March 28 –30 WHERE: Gold Coast, Queensland
Screen Producers Australia’s (SPA) annual conference. For 35 years, Screen Forever has championed the talent, passion and achievements of the Australian screen sector, providing a forum for discussion and debate on the issues and challenges that affect all screen businesses. The final evening will include the SPA Awards. WWW.SCREENFOREVER.ORG.AU
✪ CALL FOR ENTRIES ST KILDA FILM FESTIVAL
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 31
Short film entries for the 39th St Kilda Film Festival in 2022 are open. Produced and presented by Port Phillip Council, the SKFF will again see live events complementing a significant online presence from May 26 – June 5. WWW.STKILDAFILMFESTIVAL.COM.AU
NEW YORK FESTIVALS 2022 FILM AND TV AWARDS
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 1 The 2022 New York Festivals® TV & Film Awards competition is open for entries. New York Festivals Television & Film Awards honours storytellers from around the globe. Since 1957, the competition has celebrated excellence and innovation across all genres and platforms, keeping pace with industry-wide developments and global trends. TVFILMS.NEWYORKFESTIVALS.COM
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 25
Entries are now open for the next Sydney Film Festival, returning to cinemas Juen 8-19 for its 69th edition. Entries are open to features, documentaries and short films in all cateogries of the festival program, including, the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary, The Sustainable Future Award, The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films, The Yoram Gross Animation Award, Screenability and the First Nations program. The Dendy Awards and the DAF Award are open exclusively to Australian productions. FILMFREEWAY.COM/SYDNEYFILMFESTIVAL
CINEFESTOZ
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 1
Filmmakers are encouraged to make submissions for the Official Selection and Short Film Program for contention in both CinefestOz Albany in April and CinefestOz Film Fesitval
in August. Submissions are also open for the annual $100,000 CinefestOz Film Prize award. Categories in 2022 will include: feature categories, film prize and official selection, short film categories, best short film, CineWest best WA short, best Indigenous short, best director, best screenwriter, best lead actor and audience choice, as well as general categories and VR/ XR expressions of interest. CINEFESTOZ.COM
✪ AUSSIE FEATURE FILM RELEASE DATES BURNING (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO):
November 26
CHRISTMAS ON THE FARM (STAN):
December 1
SIT. STAY. LOVE (ATHABASCA FILM):
December 2
SHANE (MADMAN): January 6 GOLD (MADMAN): January 13 LOVELAND (DARK MATTER DISTRIBUTION): February 10 WYRMWOOD APOCALYPSE (STUDIOCANAL): February 10 FALLING FOR FIGARO (UMBRELLA/ PARAMOUNT): February 24 RUBY’S CHOICE (RADIOACTIVE PICTURES):
February 24
BLIND AMBITION (MADMAN): March 3 RIVER (MADMAN): March 24 THE DROVER’S WIFE THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON (ROADSHOW): May 5 HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN (MADMAN):
May 26
ELVIS (WARNER BROS): June 23 *Release dates are subject to change
✪ AUSSIE TV DRAMA AIR DATES BLUEY (SEASON 3, ABC): November 22 METRO SEXUAL (SEASON 2, NINE):
December 2, 8.30pm FIREBITE (AMC+): December 16
LITTLE J AND BIG CUZ (SEASON 3, NITV):
December 17, 7.30pm LOVE ME (BINGE): December 26 BUMP (SEASON 2, STAN): December 26 FIVE BEDROOMS (SEASON 3, PARAMOUNT+): January 1 THE TOURIST (STAN): January 2
*TX dates are subject to change
LESS WORK MORE FLOW Avid solutions can be tailored to handle everything – from reality TV, independent documentaries and web series to big-budget Hollywood films. Whether you’re looking at a complete Avid environment or looking to integrate Avid editorial and post-production with existing tools, equipment and cloud services, Digistor will help you every step of the way. With our deep expertise in editing and post-production systems, collaborative workgroups, cloud integration, remote workflows and asset/production management, Digistor will design, implement and support your ideal solution with Avid. Maximise efficiency and minimise the time, cost, and stress of today’s demanding content production. Do less work and get more flow. Contact Digistor for an obligation-free discussion.
www.digistor.com.au/avid
Call 02 9431 6000 or visit www.digistor.com.au/avid
ELITE RESELLER
Now create
Purpose built cover for the film, television and entertainment industry SURA Film and Entertainment is a specialist film, television and entertainment underwriting agency dedicated to crafting purpose built insurance cover that puts brokers and clients centre stage. The home of a consolidated group of innovative veterans with over 35 years of niche industry experience, we combine a broad product range across film, TV and entertainment with unrivalled local and global industry intelligence, so your clients can keep the cameras rolling. The product offering includes: — Negative Film Risks/Content Media — Annual Insurance — Film Producers Indemnity (cast insurance) — Props, sets and wardrobes
— — — — —
Contact us now Joe Lo Surdo
joe.losurdo@sura.com.au
02 9930 9560
Equipment and office contents Extra expense Public Liability Money Errors and Omissions Policy.
www.sura.com.au SURA Film and Entertainment Pty Ltd ABN 48 160 769 602 is an Authorised Representative of SURA Pty Ltd ABN 36 115 672 350 AFSL 294313. Information contained in this document is intended as a guide only. Acceptance is subject to our underwriting guidelines and the specific terms and conditions as outlined in our policy wordings. For more information about our products, please contact your SURA Film and Entertainment representative.