Julie Ryan, who has produced director Rolf de Heer's films for the past decade, and new media producer Kate Croser have set up Cyan Films, a new Adelaide-based production company.

One of their films, Auction, could be the first co-production between Australia and Iran. The directorial debut of Granaz Moussavi is in development with the third producer being Bahman Ghobadi, who wrote and directed Turtles Can Fly.

A supernatural thriller titled Touched and a magic realist film about food called Vita are also on Cyan's slate.

The company also plans to make documentaries and act as service providers in a range of areas from line producing and post-production supervision to budgeting and executive producing.

Ryan's credits include Ten Canoes, which won the special jury prize at Cannes in 2006; Alexander's Project, which was in competition in Berlin in 2003, and The Tracker, which was in competition in Venice in 2002. Each was made on very low budgets.

'We're not only specialists in filming in South Australia but have experience working in challenging places. Working with Rolf has given both of us an interest in producing films in challenging ways and we're now looking forward to sharing those skills with the filmmaking community,' said Ryan who has not cut her ties with de Heer who is currently taking a break.

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