11 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces Story Development funding for 26 projects
Melissa Lee Speyer, Gemma Bird Matheson, Lynette Wallworth
Seven television dramas, nine online projects, nine feature films and a podcast will share in almost $900,000 of Story Development funding.
The slate includes the (alleged) return of the Leyland Brothers; the makers of Bluey turning their eye to live-action feature film; and the first podcast the agency has funded as a proof-of-concept device.
Nerida Moore, Screen Australia's Head of Development said, We're now into the second year of the Generate and Premium Story Development programs, and the industry is fully utilising the opportunity to develop film and episodic content at different budget levels. Bunya Productions made a compelling case to try podcast as a television development tool to explore story, build audiences and create revenue, so we're trialling a new format too.
With episodic content taking around two years to transition from development to production, and film being anywhere upwards of five years, it's essential we supply a pipeline of new talent and projects into the marketplace for financing, production and ultimately, audiences. To that end, I'm particularly pleased to see so many new names attached to applications, with over half of the successful Generate Fund applicants in this slate having never received Screen Australia development funding before.
The projects funded for development include
50 Shades of Black (Girl): A six-part online comedy which follows the perpetually anxious Hanna in the aftermath of being mistaken for Maya, a successful black musician, at a gig one evening. The experience sparks Hanna's curiosity as to what else she could get away with by pretending to be another person of colour. With the assistance of her best friend Bonnie, the two women embark on a journey that sees their lives entwine with a number of other women of colour. It s through this experiment that Hanna and Bonnie explore their connection to their identity as black women, and what it means to be black in Australia. This project is written and executive produced by Gemma Bird Matheson (The Housemate). It is produced by Lizzie Cater (Birdie), Ratidzo Mambo and executive produced by Alexandra Keddie (The Housemate).
Engineering Consciousness: A podcast from writer/director Lynette Wallworth (Awavena), which will investigate what happens to someone's consciousness when they face a near-death experience. Over two episodes Wallworth will interview a range of artists, scientists, neurologists and Indigenous leaders in order to understand new technologies and medical trials that are attempting to activate this psychological state in others. The podcast will be used to develop a television drama series on the same topic, and will be produced by Sophia Zachariou and Greer Simpkin of Bunya Productions, the award-winning production company behind Sweet Country and Mystery Road.
Kara, Infected: A 10-part vertical series for mobile which follows Kara who, after a deadly plague decimates Sydney, is quarantined at home with only her mobile phone and social media to keep her company. But soon Kara is forced to face the dangers that await her outside, all while the eyes of the world watch on. This science fiction thriller is co-created by producer Taylor Litton-Strain (Jade of Death) and writer/producer Wendy Hanna (Dumbotz).
Leyland Brothers: Monster Hunters: A 10-part fictional television series about what went on behind the scenes of the iconic Leyland Brothers' adventures across Australia. Mike and Mal Leyland brought the Australian landscape into lounge rooms across the country with their documentary series in the 1970s, and this new comedy will show the real story' of how the brothers hunted monsters in the Outback. This paranormal adventure is created, written and directed by Daina Reid (Romper Stomper, The Handmaid's Tale). Reid is joined by writers Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren (Soul Mates), Kirsty Fisher (Laid), Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road) and producer Joanna Werner (Dance Academy).
Lucky Lee: A six-part detective comedy series centred on Maggie Lee, a Chinese-Australian millennial who is on her third gap year and has no life plan. When amateur detective and conman Charlie enters her life, Maggie teams up with him to search for her missing father. This project will be written by Niki Aken (The Hunting), Melissa Lee Speyer (Jadai The Broome Brawler), Lawrence Leung (The Family Law) and Tristram Baumber (The Unlisted). They are joined by associate producer and co-creator Ivy Mak (Sydney Sleuthers) and producers Rob Gibson (Bloom) and Ian Collie (Rake) of Easy Tiger Productions.
Petey: A science fiction comedy from Ludo Studio, the multi Emmy Award-winning production company behind Bluey and Robbie Hood (co-produced with Since 1788). This feature film centres on Petey who, 25 years after a childhood encounter with an alien, is reunited with his extra-terrestrial best friend. The alien has returned to earth with a lot of baggage, and he's ready to start a family. Spun from the world of Steven Spielberg's ET, this is the first feature from writer/director Daley Pearson and will poke fun at a generation obsessed with nostalgia. It will be executive produced by Charlie Aspinwall, Pearson and Nick Boshier.
Tales from the United Nonsense: An eight-part television series following the tragi-comic adventures of Australian woman Janey Resnik, posted to South Asia on her first UN assignment in the politically charged years following 9/11. She is thrown in the deep end of the strange, exhilarating world of development aid and gets caught up in a love triangle of her own making. Aided by her acute case of white saviour hero complex, Janey is on a mission to save the world. This
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...
11 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces Story Development funding for 26 projects 
