Twelve teams of emerging creatives from under-represented backgrounds will have the chance to pitch their drama projects to SBS, NITV and Screen Australia as the Digital Originals initiative gets underway for 2022, with a week-long workshop for the first round of selected teams kicking off today.
A partnership between SBS, NITV and Screen Australia, Digital Originals aims to develop exciting, innovative and risk-taking short-form drama projects to premiere on SBS On Demand and NITV, from emerging screen creatives who are currently under-represented in the sector. This includes people who identify as culturally and linguistically diverse, First Nations Australians, people with disability, female and gender diverse, LGBTQIA+; and those who are located in regional and remote areas.
Following a call out for applications in January, 12 creative teams from across Australia have been chosen to take part in an exclusive workshop run by Screen Australia, SBS and NITV this week. The workshop features sessions focusing on a range of short form content creation skills and will also include case studies of past Digital Originals and other dramas.
Facilitated by filmmaker Rosie Lourde (Starting From Now), over the course of the workshop, teams will also have access to a host of guest presenters and industry figures including Sierra Teller Ornelas (Rutherford Falls), Leah Purcell (The Drovers Wife), Michael McMahon (Nowhere Boys), Kodie Bedford (Firebite) and Corrie Chen (New Gold Mountain).
The workshop will culminate in teams pitching their projects to Screen Australia, SBS and NITV on 14 June, with a selection of teams chosen to take their projects into further development. From those, up to three will be chosen for production funding and commissioning with SBS, NITV and Screen Australia.
They'll follow previous successful Digital Originals including Tasmanian murder mystery The Tailings and Western Australian comedy Iggy & Ace which both premiered on SBS On Demand last year, as well as Robbie Hoodand Homecoming Queens produced under SBS's Short-Form Content Initiative which evolved into Digital Originals. The next Digital Originals set to premiere is South Australian drama A Beginner's Guide to Grief, dropping on SBS On Demand later this year.
Director and Screenwriter Corrie Chen, one of the presenters across the week, said that Digital Originals is an important platform for the next generation of Australian creatives.
Having gotten my start in short form filmmaking, it is extremely important to me that the industry continue to support initiatives like Digital Originals. An opportunity like this not only provides a space for exciting voices to share their unique stories, it's a chance to learn and access valuable support along the way.
Commissioning Editor, SBS Scripted, Loani Arman, said: We were so impressed by the quality of applications for Digital Originals this year that we decided to add two additional places in the workshop. In preparation for pitching to SBS, NITV, and Screen Australia, the workshop will support the teams to interrogate their stories and further develop their projects. Not only will they have the chance to gain insight from incredible industry practitioners, but also learn from each other, building connections with some of the most exciting new talent in the country.
NITV Commissioning Editor, Marissa McDowell, added: Digital Originals is set to continue its impressive legacy with this year's cohort - there is a diverse range of projects in the mix from across Australia, with a large First Nations contingent of creatives showcasing unique perspectives on classic genres. I look forward to sseeing how the teams further develop their projects throughout the workshop.
Screen Australia's Head of Online, Lee Naimo, said: In this third year of Digital Originals, we're again seeing how valued this initiative is, with over 170 applications from across Australia. I couldn't be more excited for these 12 projects to develop their work and take this next step in their careers, and to continue this strong partnership with SBS and NITV to take distinctive and exciting stories to Australian audiences.
The creative teams taking part in the 2022 Digital Originals workshop this week, and their projects, are:
Borroloola (NSW)
Description: After her grandmother passes away, a bush girl goes through Sorry Business with her extended family and discovers her grandmother had a secret life.
Genre: Drama
Team: Julia Moriarty (writer), Judi McCrossin (producer)
Confinement (QLD)
Description: A new migrant mother must battle postpartum depression and a tyrannical confinement nanny with seemingly nefarious intentions.
Genre: Thriller
Team: Jacqueline Lim (writer), Lark Lee (producer)
Dark Matter Don't Matter (NT)
Description: After the mass evacuation of Earth, a small Aboriginal community is left behind and decide to take matters into their own hands... by launching themselves to the stars.
Genre: Comedy, science fiction
Team: Tamara Whyte (writer), Isaac Lindsay (writer), Warren Milera (writer), Philip Tarl Denson (producer)
Earshot (NSW/VIC)
Description: When a seemingly happy Indian-Australian actress is asked to record the last messages of a missing immigrant woman for a true crime podcast, embodying one of the justice system's forgotten victims causes her to obsess over the case - and finally acknowledge the invisible violence in her own life.
Genre: Drama, thriller, crime
Team: Vidya Rajan (writer), Alistair Baldwin (writer), Rene e Marie Petropoulos (writer/director)
Fully Receivable (VIC)
Description: When a corporate leadership trip in a national park starts off horrifically with the white facilitator dead, it's up to Sheila Phounpadith, the Accounts Receivable Manager, to prove she isn't the murderer.
Ge
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Twelve teams of emerging creatives from under-represented backgrounds will have the chance to pitch their drama projects to SBS, NITV and Screen Australia as the Digital Originals initiative gets underway for 2022, with a week-long workshop for the first round of selected teams kicking off today. 
