Screen Australia backs international features slate

Screen Australia is pleased to announce just under $535,000 in development funding for 18 feature projects with an international flavour over the last four months as part of its support for an Australian film industry with a global outlook.

From the Canadian ski slopes, edgy inner-city Berlin, Mexico City and medieval England to stories that draw inspiration from places closer to home, these funded projects are set across a diverse range of backdrops.

The development investment will support eight new projects, as well as providing further support to 10 titles. The supported features cover a variety of genres including family, musical, comedy, drama, thriller, sci-fi and action.

In addition, Screen Australia will offer support to emerging professionals through its Talent Escalator programs, placing three producers in professional posts to improve their direct industry experience and supporting one award-winning short film director in the next stage of professional development.

Screen Australia's Head of Production Sally Caplan said, In this round it is encouraging to see such a great range of Australian stories receive support from filmmakers at different levels, some with international creative partners and several with international focus. We are also pleased to be able to support emerging local talent with international placements that will increase our industry's experience in the marketplace and further reinforce the great reputation of Australian talent on a global stage.

B Model is a comedy drama by writer/producer/director Rachel Griffiths and producer Louise Smith, now to be developed as an official Australia/UK co-production with British producer Kevin Loader (In the Loop, Hyde Park on Hudson, Le Week-End).

Thriller Berlin Syndrome is about an Australian photojournalist who embarks on a passionate holiday romance that turns into an obsessive relationship and wakes one morning trapped in an apartment in Berlin. The film is written by Shaun Grant, produced by Polly Staniford and will be directed by Cate Shortland.

Written by Sofya Gollan, produced by Melanie Coombs, Mish Armstrong and Alicia Brown, The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek is a family film about a Bunyip on a journey to find out who he is, what he is and how he came to be.

From writer/producer Lisa Hoppe, producer Julie Ryan and director Martha Goddard is The Enamorados, a comedy drama about a conservative couple, married for 40 years and struggling to renegotiate the terms of their love in Mexico.

From writer/producer/director Serhat Caradee and producers Tim Maddocks and Liz Burton is drama My Country, about a group of Middle Eastern men who kidnap the daughter of a wealthy family, intent on using her as a bargaining tool in a global political game.

Writer Andy Cox, producers Todd Fellman and Lance Kelleher and director Kim Mordaunt will be supported for Vietnam-set biopic One Crowded Hour.

In Putney Grail, four 14th century knights are resurrected in the present day to protect the Holy Grail from international criminals led by a medieval enchantress. The action/adventure is written and produced by Michael Harvey and produced by David Taft.

Season's Pass is a comedy from writer Heath Davis and producer Matthew Dabner about a carefree party-going Australian ski-instructor who arrives in Canada to start a new ski season, only to be confronted by a son he never knew he had.

In the musical genre, Emo (The Musical) comes from writer Neil Triffett and producer Lee Matthews. Based on the stage play, it is about an Emo kid who hates almost everything, till he falls for a devout Christian school girl with a passion for life and religion.

The End of Everything is about the disappearance of a young girl, Evie, and her best friend, Lizzie, who unravels the dark world of her teenage friend in pursuing the truth behind her vanishing. The thriller is written by Andy Cox and produced by Kristian Moliere.

Written by Glen Dolman, produced by Linda Micsko and directed by Hannah Hilliard, Golden People tells the story of a teenage competitive swimmer, Paris, and his attempt to distance himself from his competition-driven mother in the lead up to finals.

Jasper Jones is a coming-of-age tale based on the best-selling novel by Craig Silvey, adapted for screen by Shaun Grant, produced by Vincent Sheehan and David Jowsey, and directed by Rachel Perkins.

In Lucid, a dream programmer inadvertently gets trapped in a client's dream and must find a way out to save the woman he secretly loves. The film is written by Philip Tarl Denson and produced by Raquelle David.

Palm Beach is a dramatic comedy by writer Joanna Murray-Smith and producers Bryan Brown and Deb Balderstone.

Writer Ross Grayson Bell, producer Heather Ogilvie and director Megan Simpson-Huberman will finalise work on Salvation Creek, a drama about a high-flying magazine editor who believes she is coping well with grief until one day she cannot get out of bed, and discovers at times salvation can be a place of beauty.

Based on the stage play and developed for screen by Kate Mulvany with producer Nicole O'Donohue, The Seed is a biopic about a young Australian woman who accompanies her Vietnam veteran father overseas to meet her grandfather, only to discover a garden of buried family secrets.

In Snot and Bob's Holiday, through a series of comic adventures, two criminal brothers set out to rescue the kidnapped child of the girl of their dreams, by writer John Doyle and producer Jodi Matterson.

From writer Tom Holloway, producer Kristina Ceyton and director Jonathan auf der Heide, comes This Dark Wood, about a young couple, recovering from losing their child, who move to Tasmania only to find the Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease has progressed to affect the humans species.

SINGLE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: FEATURE DEVELOPMENT

B MODEL

Genre Co

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2014/mr_140722_devel...
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