10 04 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $600,000 in development funding
Imogen Banks and Asher Keddie on The Sisters Antipodes
Screen Australia has announced over $600,000 of Story Development funding for seven feature films, four television dramas and five online series.
The slate includes a new feature film from Abe Forsythe, Jodi Matterson and Bruna Papandrea (currently untitled) based on a real missing person case in a remote Northern Territory town; a television series produced by Asher Keddie and Imogen Banks (Offspring) about estranged families who are pushed to opposite sides of the world in The Sisters Antipodes; and an online series from writer/director Kauthar Abdulalim about a mother who sets her sights on winning the Australian Open in Salma and the City.
Screen Australia's Head of Development Nerida Moore said: It's fantastic to see such strong applications coming through, and in this round we've noticed an increase in series as well as a lot of female writers attached to projects.
We have 17 female writers attached across 11 of the projects, including new talent driving fresh online comedies with Caitlyn Staples on Nark Mikoladis the Trading Card King and Claudia Pickering on Cheetah Airways. We also have a number of established writers bringing their experience to distinctive new projects, including Lou Sanz working on her first feature Audrey and Fiona Seres adapting true events for television in The Sisters Antipodes.
The projects funded for development include
Audrey: A feature film from Invisible Republic about frustrated mother Ronnie who lives vicariously through her two daughters. When her daughter Audrey ends up in a coma after an accident, Ronnie has no choice but to follow her own dreams of becoming an actor. Director Natalie Bailey (Damned) and writer Lou Sanz, both working on their first feature, will team up with producer Michael Wrenn (Slam) and executive producer Jenni Tosi from Princess Pictures on this dark comedy.
Cheetah Airways: A six-part online series by comedy troupe Frothpocalypse which will go behind the scenes of a dodgy budget airline following the corporate big-wigs, flight attendants, baggage handlers and check-in staff as they deliver the worst customer service experience imaginable. Comedy filmmaker Claudia Pickering, fresh off the back of her webseries Resting Pitch Face, will write, direct and produce this project. She will be joined by Emma Leonard as writer/producer, Prudence Vindin as writer, Catherine van der Rijt as producer and Luke Eve (High Life) as executive producer.
Last Man Standing: A feature film from Deeper Water Films about the story of iconic athlete Steven Bradbury, the underdog who overcame insurmountable odds in his quest to win Australia's first ever Olympic Winter Games Gold Medal. This is a new project from the seasoned team who have recently completed the feature Danger Close, including writer Stuart Beattie, director Kriv Stenders and producers John Schwarz and Michael Schwarz.
Nark Mikoladis The Trading Card King: A six-part online comedy following 26-year-old Angie who, after discovering that a rare Pokemon card is now worth a mini fortune, begins a quest to reclaim the card from the primary school bully who stole it from her 15 years ago. This adventure into nineties nostalgia will be written and created by comedian Caitlyn Staples, with comedians Jayden Masciulli, Ryan Zorzut, Mario Hannah and Elyce Phillips also attached as writers. It is the first project outside of Aunty Donna from the group's production arm Haven't You Done Well Productions.
Salma and the City: A six-part online series by writer/director Kauthar Abdulalim and producer Tony Jackson (You See Monsters) from Chemical Media. This project tells the story of a 45-year-old Australian-Pakistani mother who suddenly decides it's time to chase her dream of winning the Australian Open, which means battling family expectations, gender stereotypes and centuries of tradition before she even meets an opponent on the tennis court. Told in Urdu and English, this comedy follows a woman's journey of reinvention as she makes a choice between what people expect of her and what she demands of herself.
The Force (working title): An eight-part television series from No Coincidence Media centred on a team of ambos, police officers and firefighters who must work together to serve the community, but their rivalry to be the hero stands in the way. This comedy brings together writer/producer Mitchell Stanley and director Dena Curtis who have worked together previously on Colour Theory Underground, as well as writer Steven Oliver (Black Comedy). Script producer Jodi Molloy (The Jaquie Brown Diaries) and story consultants Shari Sebbens (Top End Wedding) and Rachel House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) are also attached.
The Sisters Antipodes: A six-part television series from Endemol Shine Banks which follows true events from the 1960's when two couples switched partners and as a result, two little girls were given each other's fathers. The scandal pushed the realigned families to opposite sides of the world and it was seven years before they saw each other again. Based on an intimate memoir of the same name by Jane Alison this drama is presented by an all-female team, including acclaimed actor Asher Keddie producing alongside the renowned Imogen Banks (Offspring). Fiona Seres (Puberty Blues) and Rebecca Rigg are attached as writers.
Untitled Abe Forsythe Project: A feature film from the team behind Little Monsters, including writer/director Abe Forsythe and producers Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky from Made Up Stories. Inspired by a true missing person case, this mystery drama centres on a remote Northern Territory town where everyone is a suspect. Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley
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...
10 04 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $600,000 in development funding 
