13 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces 2019 Developing the Developer participants
Moreblessing Maturure, Ratidzo Mambo, Taryne Laffar
Screen Australia has today announced the 11 creatives who have been selected to take part in the Developing the Developer workshop for 2019, which will be held in Sydney from 21-24 November. In its third year, the four-day workshop aims to diversify the pool of professionals developing Australian stories for the screen.
Head of Development at Screen Australia Nerida Moore said, It's important that we identify, nurture, and collaborate with the new generation of fiction developers to ensure there are a greater diversity of voices and ideas reflected in the content we see on screen. Louise Gough and Screen Australia Industry Development Executive Bali Padda have put together a fantastic workshop for the participants this year.
Developing the Developer has proven to be an effective identifier of people with a broad range of story skills and has launched a number of careers in the screen industry. I look forward to following the careers of these 11 Australians as they bring their unique perspectives and skill sets into the industry.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for practitioners to enhance their existing screen story development skills, and build a development toolkit across platforms and genres.
It will be co-run by script developer Louise Gough and Screen Australia's Industry Development Executive Bali Padda, who was a participant in the first Developing the Developer workshop in 2017 before joining Screen Australia in 2018.
Presenters at the workshop include Julie Kalceff (Starting from Now, First Day), Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road, Robbie Hood), and Penelope Chai (Other People's Problems).
Of the creatives who took part in Developing the Developer in 2018, seven went on to secure work placements: Sarah Bassiuoni at Freemantle, Amy Stewart at Matchbox Pictures, Hiroki Kobayashi at Berg Shanley Productions, Dan Prichard at Lingo Pictures, Li-Kim Chuah at ABC, Vidya Rajan at Tony Ayres Productions, Jean Tong at Goalpost Pictures, and Leticia C ceres at Seven Studios.
2019 DEVELOPING THE DEVELOPER PARTICIPANTS Amal Awad: A writer, director and performer, Awad was a recipient of Screen Australia's Gender Matters Brilliant Stories funding for Sex in the West (dir. Fadia Abboud). She has participated in numerous writers' rooms, including Muhammed Jones (2017) and Aleph (2019). In 2017, she was selected for SBS's Diversity Talent Escalator, a national initiative focused on increasing the representation of Australia's diverse communities within the television production sector. She wrote and directed the short film The Doorknock Appeal, which screened at Colourfest in 2013, and is the author of five books. Awad has consulted on film and TV projects, including SBS series Muslims Like Us (2018). She has multiple projects in early development.
Jack Dowdell: An aspiring writer and disability advocate, Dowdell participated in the Createability Internship program earlier this year and worked at Goalpost Pictures. He is currently working on a short horror film script and a slate of future projects. Dowdell is extremely passionate about disability representation and authentic casting in film and TV and has spoken on a number of panels on this subject. He currently runs a movie review website called That Other Movie Blog.
Taryne Laffar: A producer who descends from the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir peoples of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, Laffar was selected for the 2019 Screen Producers Australia Ones to Watch' program. Last year she received Screenwest's Spark funding a professional and project development initiative and worked as a producer on ABC iview comedy series KGB. Her previous work includes documentaries Who Paintin' dis Wandjina? (2007) and Rainforest Warriorz (2013). She also co-wrote and co-produced On Country Kitchen (2016) and produced five short documentaries for NITV including Aden Eades, Rev. Sealin Garlett, Healing Songs, directing on two - Rubeun Yorkshire and Beccy Garlett. Laffar recently joined the Screenwest Industry Advisory Group Committee and is the head of the Women in Film and Television (WIFT WA) diversity taskforce.
Gina Lambropoulos: A Melbourne-based screenwriter Lambropoulos' feature script That Time of the Year (aka The Princess and the Bear) won the 2016 Australian Writers' Guild's Open Channel New Writer's Script Competition. It's currently in development with Matthewswood Productions and has received development support from Screen Australia and Film Victoria. In 2015 Lambropoulos wrote and produced the short film The Escape Hatch which screened in over 50 festivals worldwide including Frameline41 and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. She is also a community broadcaster on JOY 94.9, Australia s only LGBTQI radio station.
Melissa Lee Speyer: A graduate of NIDA (Playwriting) in 2011, Lee Speyer also studied at AFTRS (Screenwriting) after winning the inaugural Foxtel Diversity Scholarship in 2017. Her television screenwriting credits include ABC drama series The Heights, series two of Random and Whacky, and the first season of forReal!. Lee Speyer has also written a number of short films her co-written short Jadai The Broome Brawler won the 2018 Sydney Film Festival Lexus Australia Fellowship, and premiered at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival. Lee Speyer's theatre credits include TickTickBoom (2018, The Actors Pulse) which won the 2015 Silver Gull Play Award, A Christmas Carol (2017, KXT Bakehouse) and Trade (2017, Adelaide Fringe and Old 505 Theatre). She is a founding member of The Collective, an Asian-Australian performing arts collective. Her theatre practice is divided between traditional text-based, writer-driven play
Asia, Australia & Oceanic Stories
24/04/2024
24 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia celebrates Australian projects bound...
23/04/2024
Social entrepreneur Hedayat Osyan wins Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition
23 April, 2024
Media releases
The prestigious award is now in its third yea...
22/04/2024
SBS marks Earth Day with Australian TV milestone as The Cook Up with Adam Liaw b...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
18 April, 2024
Media releases
The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
Savage River
Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
16/04/2024
ABS Agility Beyond Space announces Appointment of Mark Rigolle as its Chief Ex...
11/04/2024
Alone Australia Ep 2 reaches over 1m Australians
11 April, 2024
Media releases
The program continues to consistently grow week-on-week in linear audience w...
11/04/2024
11 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Meta launch fourth year of First...
10/04/2024
10 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $2.3 million for nine documentaries
Guardians of the River
Screen Australia has announced nine doc...
09/04/2024
Groundbreaking NITV documentary series Our Law expands across Australia from Thu...
09/04/2024
Techtel, the creators of inflo, today announced that a new speech to text transcription engine from openai called Whisper, is available to inflo customers who a...
04/04/2024
Manu Feildel, Miranda Otto and Pat Rafter join life-changing new season of Who D...
04/04/2024
Alone Australia season 2 continues to redefine Australian TV viewing through on-...
27/03/2024
Living Black, the longest-running Indigenous current affairs television program ...
26/03/2024
Crime is relative in SBS's new Canneseries nominated crime-family drama with...
25/03/2024
SBS gears up for Season 2 of Alone Australia with the creation of Alone Cologne...
22/03/2024
SBS Learn partners with the Islamic Museum of Australia to support classrooms in...
21/03/2024
21 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $1.6 million in support of the games industry
Which Way Up: Galaxy Games
Screen Australia has anno...
18/03/2024
18 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and VicScreen launch new Screen Careers initiative
LTR Denise Eriksen, Esther Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Pitcher, K...
15/03/2024
15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced
The Creators program recipients. L-R Thomas Duncan-Watt, Vanessa Gazy, Sarah Lambert, Lea...
14/03/2024
SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians
14 March, 2024
Media releases
Content in 22 languages*, a collection of movies to stream free on d...
14/03/2024
March 14,2024
-- KDDI Corporation
KDDI Corporation resolved at a meeting of the Board of Directors held today to change (newly appointed, retire) a director ...
13/03/2024
13 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces dramas Critical Incident and Sunny Nights for Stan
Critical Incident: Akshay Khanna and Zoe Boe. Photo c...
07/03/2024
Explore the afterlife with SBS podcast Grave Matters'
6 March, 2024
Media releases
Most of us are woefully unprepared for one of life's few certai...
06/03/2024
Multi-award winning electronic music duo to represent Australia at this year'...
06/03/2024
Developing Lunar 3GPP Mobile Network Technologies for Moon Exploration
GITA...
04/03/2024
SBS announces new development fund to discover Australia's biggest and riski...
28/02/2024
Yumi Stynes returns for season two of SBS podcast SEEN'
26 February, 2024
Media releases
Eight new trailblazers join feminist Australian icon Yumi Sty...
28/02/2024
28 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $810,000 in development funding for 29 projects
Willy
Screen Australia has announced 23 feature fi...
27/02/2024
27 02 2024 - Media release Michael Ebeid AM appointed as new Screen Australia Chair
Michael Ebeid AM and Megan Brownlow
The Hon. Minister for the Arts, Tony...
26/02/2024
Supporting AFEELAs entertainment experience and global launch with a communicati...
21/02/2024
21 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Australians in Film Announce App...
21/02/2024
Aiming to deliver new video-related solutions utilizing 5G SA this year
Son...
21/02/2024
Support the team with gifts while enjoying AR games in the stadium
KDDI COR...
21/02/2024
KDDI CORPORATION
February 21,2024
-- Tokyo, February 21, 2024 From February 2...
20/02/2024
KDDI CORPORATION
February 20,2024
-- KDDI announces that its consolidated subsidiary, SORACOM, INC. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Ken Tamagawa, herei...
15/02/2024
Alone Australia Season 2 Returns 27 March | Meet the Cast
15 February, 2024
Media releases
Smash hit series Alone Australia returns Wednesday 27 March on S...
15/02/2024
NITV's flagship footy show Over the Black Dot returns Tuesday 5 March, live ...
15/02/2024
15 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $560,000 for crew and gamemaker skills programs
Liz Keogh Palmer (Australian Production Design Guil...
13/02/2024
2024 is a landmark year for SBS's award-winning current affairs line-up, cov...
13/02/2024
22 01 2024 - Media release Six Australian projects bound for South by Southwest Festival in the US
Audrey, Birdeater, The Moogai
Six Australian screen projec...
12/02/2024
12 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and YouTube Australia Launch Skip Ahead 9
Uncovering Street Dance: Australia from Skip Ahead 8. Photographed by Ry...
08/02/2024
08 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and ABC announce Bay of Fires is back for season two
Marta Dusseldorp as Stella in Bay of Fires
ABC, Screen Austr...
07/02/2024
4 in 10 Australians battling sleep issues as nation's sleep crisis grows
7 February, 2024
Media releases
Dr Michael Mosley and the sleep scientists fro...
06/02/2024
Six screen creatives selected for the 2024 SBS Emerging Writers' Incubator i...
02/02/2024
SBS Scripted TV Lunch sessions return for another year of connecting with creati...
02/02/2024
February 2,2024
-- KDDI Corporation
KDDI announced the financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2024.
Summary In the third q...
31/01/2024
Filming Begins on SBS' Romantic Original Drama Four Years Later' in Ind...
30/01/2024
A stellar 2024 for SBS podcasts kicks off with The SBS Book Club' and Huma...
13 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces 2019 Developing the Developer participants 
