Screen Australia Selects Six Dramas for Funding

Screen Australia has selected 23 feature films and six TV dramas that will share in over A$810,000 ($526,000) of story development funding.

This includes Willy from Ludo Studio, Mad Ones and Sad Man Studio. A ten-part coming-of-age fantasy set in 2003 Far North Queensland, the show follows 15-year-old barely closeted Willy Davis as he struggles to navigate puberty in the farming town of Toee, (mis)guided by a private cast of imaginary friends.

Going Troppo is an eight-part comedy-drama series from writer/producer Kate Wyvill (The Wardrobe), script consultant Katherine Thomson (A Place to Call Home) and story consultant Kamahi D’Jordon King (Koori Gras—Sydney World Pride), with Nadine Lee attached as a First Nations consultant. On the run from authorities, Bernadette, a tax-avoidance accountant, escapes to her estranged and apparently wealthy father in tropical Darwin.

The Golden Ass is a six-part family drama-comedy about a mixed-Cypriot family descending into chaos when its patriarch, Mazhar, has a spectacular meltdown in the fruit and vegetable section of the local supermarket. It will be written by Lâle Teoman (The Palace That I Live In) and produced by Rosemary Blight (Black Snow) and Kylie du Fresne (Five Blind Dates), with Polly Rowe attached as development producer.

Senescence from Mess Productions is an eight-part sci-fi drama about an ambitious 26-year-old dropout who gets caught in a corporate battle while trying to save her mother from a degenerative illness.

Are We Good?, an eight-part comedy-drama from writers Ben Manusama (aka Ben Abraham) and Liam Maguire, is about a young Christian leader who, on the eve of being announced as a new pastor at his parents’ church, confesses to his fiancée that he cheated on her with a man off craigslist. It is inspired by real events.

From writer/producer Christopher Squadrito, Half a Man is a dramedy that follows as 30-year-old personal trainer Max Morello strives to keep his engagement afloat and his sense of masculinity intact after outing himself as bisexual, only to find his newfound evolution shifting the very nature of his relationship, his family and his group of all-too-Australian mates.

A black comedy, Die and Let Live sees newly pregnant Olivia fake her own death to escape a dangerous marriage to a criminal in Ireland. She re-surfaces with a new identity as a single mom in the suburbs of Perth, the most remote city on Earth. Olivia soon realizes she can earn a decent living helping all sorts of desperate people fake their deaths, too. The series comes from Beth Knights and Tony Jackson.

Screen Australia’s head of development, Bobby Romia, said, “We’re absolutely thrilled to be supporting such a diverse array of TV drama and feature film projects in this latest development slate. All of these projects are driven by teams deeply connected to the content they’re creating, opening up new avenues for creative expression while championing new voices to tell their unique stories. Screen Australia will be following each of their development journeys closely.”