16 08 2023 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $1.2 million of story development funding for 47 projects Leah Purcell and Bain Stewart of Koa Kid
Screen Australia has announced 29 feature films, 13 television dramas, four online projects and one VR project that will share in over $1.2 million of story development funding. The projects include Forget Me Not, the latest series from Class of '07 creator Kacie Anning; feature film Koa Kid from writer/director Leah Purcell of The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson; VR project The Place I Carry Within; and online project Adventuries of the Century, the third instalment of the series from Dylan Murphy and Molly Daniels of Celebration Nation and Wispy.
Included in this slate are 28 projects that have been supported through the Generate Fund and 19 through the Premium Fund.
Screen Australia's Head of Development Bobby Romia said, It is an exciting time for filmmakers and storytellers in Australia and we are thrilled to be supporting so many exciting projects at the beginning of their journey. This latest cohort represents a vast selection of dynamic and diverse voices, which showcases the strength and capability of the talent in our screen industry.
Among the titles receiving funding are five projects that came through Screen Australia and Australians in Film's Untapped initiative in 2022: Baby Face (previously The Kin), Custodians, Playtime, Revelations and Unravel. More information about these projects is available here. The successful practitioners and projects for Untapped 2023 will be announced in the coming months.
This announcement includes the remainder of projects funded in the 2022/23 financial year during which Screen Australia supplied over $3.1 million of story development funding to 97 projects.
The projects funded for development include:
Adventuries of the Century: Following on from the success of Party of the Century and Funeral of the Century, this 42 x 1-minute online series continues the story of disaster-prone cousins Dylan and Molly who are regularly thrust into high-stakes escapades by their Grandma Catherine. In Adventuries of the Century, the cousins hurtle from a family reunion to a heist at the mayor's house, are pitted against one another on trial and forced to bust out of a maximum prison, plan the greatest Christmas of all time and hopefully get married, although not to each other. The series is from writer/director/producer Molly Daniels (Celebration Nation, Wispy) and writer/producer Dylan Murphy (Feedback, Super Birthday).
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing: A six-part drama series about Taiwanese-Australian woman and former child prodigy, Jena, who is re-entering the privileged world of classical musicianship after a lengthy period out of the spotlight. In doing so, she must grapple with understanding her identity and power, which has been tied to this world for as long as she can remember, and also those that put her in it. A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing is written by novelist and journalist Jessie Tu, with Morgan Hind (Thea Goes to Town) producing and John Collee (Happy Feet) attached as script editor.
Ascent: Set on a remote mountain wall, this survival thriller feature film tracks a fearless free solo climber out on her most ambitious climb who must help a stranded amateur ascend to safety without ropes or equipment, all the while the natural elements and their own personal demons conspire to keep them from reaching the top. Ascent is directed by Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, River) and written by Becca Johnstone (Addition). Toby Nalbandian and Gregory Schmidt, (Phyllis, Silenced, Turn Me On), Timothy White (I Am Mother, The Furnace) and Zareh Nalbandian (Peter Rabbit, Peter Rabbit 2) are producing.
EuroVisionary: This comedic coming-of-age drama feature film set in 1983 follows 10-year-old Julie Sumi who discovers the uniting power of the Eurovision Song Contest on a family trip to Yugoslavia. Upon her return to Australia, she introduces the contest to her town in the hopes to undo the damage caused to her family in the aftermath of the Croatian Six terrorist scandal - Australia s first convicted terrorists. EuroVisionary is written, directed and produced by Jeneffa Soldati (The Honey Makers) and produced by Petra Lovren i (Halal Gurls), and will be their first project for Sestra Films Pty Ltd.
Forget Me Not: An eight-part comedy series about 27-year-old Sally who rose to fame as a child because of her parents' notorious prank-filled online channel. As she reckons with her unwanted fame, an unforgivable stunt by her parents sets Sally on a crusade to wipe her own existence from the internet. Together with two other internet-famous-kids and a documentarian hoping to expose sharenting' culture, Sally will take on internet giants, trolls and hackers, but most importantly, her parents, in a bid to have her right to be forgotten granted. Forget Me Not is from writer/director/producer Kacie Anning whose credits include The Other Guy and Class of '07.
Good Eggs: This six-part comedic drama series follows a trio of women, Nicola, Sarah and Zoya, on their individual yet shared journey to parenthood. Nicola's never been able to get the attention of men, Sarah's completely over them and Zoya's never been into them, and so they decide to try and raise their kids together. Forging their own paths, Good Eggs sees Nicola, Sarah and Zoya build a new family paradigm taking refuge from society's expectations of family'. The series is written by Melanie Tait, whose credits include The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race, and produced by Cecilia Ritchie.
House of Kwa: From Wooden Horse, House of Kwa is an eight-part drama about the extraordinary true story of the Kwa family, spanning four generations and several decades, from 19th centur
