Screen Australia Awards A$1.2 Million in Story Development Funding

Screen Australia has announced 19 feature films, ten TV dramas and three online projects that will share more than A$1.2 million ($800,000) of story development funding.

The projects funded for development include A Way Away, a feature-length drama from writer and director Sara Kern, following the success of her debut feature, Moja Vesna.

Combatoms is a 13-part sci-fi action/adventure series that follows a group of kids who discover super-powered creatures that have escaped from a secret lab in their small town.

Just Chidi Things is an eight-part comedy series following Chidi, a bubbly, irrepressible 23-year-old Nigerian medical student who carries the weight of her family’s expectations on her shoulders. Writer/producer and lead actor Chika Ikogwe (Heartbreak High) is joined by producer Ana Tiwary (One of the Good Ones, Rhapsody of Love) and executive producer Rose Byrne (Seriously Red).

Take My Hand is a feature-length sitcom/drama about Noah, a newly married young professional with cerebral palsy now building a life with his wife, Libby.

Owner’s Manual: Operation & Maintenance of the Human Body is a feature-length comedic family adventure about Gabby, a grade-one girl with anxiety who thinks she’s broken every time she sweats or jitters. It is the first feature film by writer/director Bradley Slabe, whose AACTA and AWGIE award-winning short film Lost & Found has over 7 million views online.

Kick It is a six-part online series about Cameron, whose attempt to nab the local women’s AFL championship is threatened when new recruit Angie takes the team by storm.

The animated online comedy Deadbeat Ends Meet is created by Evie Hilliar and written by Hilliar, Mike Greaney (YouTube series The Future of Everything), Nicolette Minster (Girl at the Window) and Holly Tosi (Neighbours). The series is produced by Nicholas Colla (The Future of Everything, Rebooted).

The Ghan is a comedy-drama feature film from the acclaimed stage and screenwriter Joanna Murray-Smith (Palm Beach) about a group of travelers on the trip of a lifetime aboard the iconic train, The Ghan.

Set in Tasmania in 2017, the episodic drama/thriller Gorgeous centers on journalist Charlotte Barber who returns home to Launceston to make a podcast—juxtaposing the 2017 Marriage Equality vote with the unsolved murder of her girlfriend’s mother 20 years earlier, when homosexuality was still criminalized.

The psychological drama/thriller One Hundred Days is based on the critically acclaimed novel by Alice Pung and centers around Chinese migrant Ma. Adapting into a feature film are writer Michelle Law and director Corrie Chen (New Gold Mountain), the creative team behind the first web series commissioned by SBS, Homecoming Queens.

Summer of Evil, from writer/producer Michael Hudson (Ties That Bind), is a six-part action-adventure horror series set in the vast Australian bushland, where a creature has awoken from its centuries-old slumber and is hellbent on revenge.

This slate includes 19 projects supported through the Generate Fund and 13 through the Premium Fund.

Screen Australia’s head of development, Louise Gough, said, “We are excited about this distinctive mix of projects and the range of audiences and markets they intend to serve. We are proud to support creatives as they expand their body of work across a range of platforms and formats. This includes debut feature films from Jack Dowdell, a 2019 Developing the Developer recipient, and writer/director Bradley Slabe who created the award-winning short film Lost & Found.”

Screen Australia’s head of online, Lee Naimo, said, “We love seeing online creators taking advantage of the opportunities we provide to incorporate development into their project plans. It’s great that the creative team behind the hugely popular TikTok and YouTube series The Formal will no doubt be growing their already enthusiastic following with the new series Kick It, as well as Nicholas Colla and Nicolette Minster from Deadbeat Ends Meet teaming up with emerging creators. We encourage more online creators to talk to us early about Screen Australia’s development support.”