Cody Fern’s untitled feature debut starring Naomi Watts, and Kuba Dorabialski’s Agata The Writer starring Mia Wasikowska are among the feature films to have received support from Screen Australia.
Screen Australia has released details of the 91 projects which have received $20.4m AUD ($14.2m) across features, shorts and series.
The feature projects include Fern’s feature debut, which stars Watts alongside Sarah Paulson, Odessa A’zion, Dianne Wiest and Toby Wallace. Production is underway in Montreal, Canada.
The film follows a celebrated actress whose life begins to unravel on the eve of her greatest performance. Matilda Comers and Will Howarth produce for Fictious, with Nancy Grant and Rosalie Chicoine Perreault.
France’s mk2 Films handles international sales, with additional finance from Telefilm Canada.
Dorabialski’s Agata The Writer follows a Polish-Australian satirical novelist who travels from Sydney to Sarajevo to write a war novel, only to be challenged by locals questioning her motives, as a mystery unfolds.
Screen Australia is providing principal funding, with support from Creative Australia and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.
Wasikowska, Erik Black and Australian fashion brand Alémais are executive producers.
The Engagement, the debut feature of Stranger Things actor Dacre Montgomery, has also received funding. Written by Joy Anast, the drama shot last year, starring Montgomery alongside Lily Sullivan, Abbey Lee and Arlo Green, with Metro International handling sales.
Further features that have received backing include Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan’s feature debut The Laugh Of Lakshmi, about a mother and son separated by a civil war. Producers are John Maynard and The Lunchbox producer Vivek Rangachari.
Maze Film Sales is handling international sales.
Family film Silver Beach, produced by Joanna Werner and written by Alix Beane, and Hyun Lee’s horror feature Asian Girls, about a Korean-Australian woman plagued by relentless visions of ghosts, have also received backing.
Series supported through the funding round include Queensland-set crime thriller Fortitude Valley, written, created and executive produced by Stephen M Irwin and Leigh McGrath, starring Hunter Page-Lochard and Kat Stewart.
The funding round includes the first awards through Screen Australia’s new Short Film Production Funding Program.
Screen Australia’s funding is open for applications year-round, with funding awards announced in batches. It does not disclose details of individual titles until after a first public announcement of the project.
Amounts given to individual titles are disclosed at the end of the financial year, for the full previous year.
No comments yet