For the May 21 release of the satire Birthright, Australian distributor Madman has leaned into one of Australia’s biggest social issues, the difficulties of buying a house experienced by millennials and Gen Z.
Attendees at seven Q&A advance screenings from May 11-19 across four Australian states were in the running to win A$10,000 provided by property platform Coposit by creating a profile on the Coposit app and submitting their ticket and a short review.
Coposit allows not-yet-built properties to be acquired with a deposit of A$10,000. Typically, that’s nowhere near enough to break into the booming housing market but borrowers begin paying when they sign up rather than on completion.
“Madman prides itself on trying something different each time. It always comes down to the target audience,” said Madman Entertainment senior marketing manager Lee-Ann Woon.
Birthright is about the conflict that breaks out when a newly evicted, jobless and pregnant millennial couple move in with his unsympathetic Boomer parents.
Debut writer/director Zoe Pepper was inspired by watching friends move in with their parents during Covid. She said home ownership is at its lowest rate since the Second World War, and young people are “pissed off about it”.
The aim was to engage with journalists who write about the housing crisis, and other non-film writers and commentators and micro-influencers.
The creative team learned about Coposit in their research for the film. “It was a natural alignment. They are highly respected and utilized and a company that millennials would engage with,” said Birthright producer Cody Greenwood.
“The film’s about intergenerational inequality,” said Woon. “But first and foremost, it’s entertaining. It’s hilarious fun.”
Greenwood pointed to Pepper’s prolific theatre career as the reason her filmmaking has such a unique tone.
“Zoe’s work is grounded in emotional realism and always has a political undertone, but she always has fun with it. Birthright is a bold, fun film from a fresh new voice,” she said. “There’s a resurgence of millennials going to the cinema. I didn’t expect them to feel so triumphant when watching Birthright.
Birthright had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival in New York and was runner up for the audience award for best Australian narrative feature at last year’s Sydney Film Festival.
It received an annual A$750K grant from state agency ScreenWest’s long-running West Coast Visions initiative.
Juno Films has US rights to the film.
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