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This is the website of the former Film Finance Corporation (FFC), now part of Screen Australia.
March 2007
FFC's film and TV slate has highest ever market investment
The Government-backed Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) has
finished its 2006/07 funding year with a record investment from market
partners.
The feature films, telemovies, mini-series and documentaries backed by
the FFC in 2006/07 have a total production value of $213 million. The
FFC contributed 37 per cent of this, with the other 63 per cent coming
from film distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, equity investors
and other financing partners. This is the highest gearing ratio achieved
by the FFC in its 18-year history.
"Attracting this level of market attachment is a great result for the
industry because it means the FFC can trigger a higher volume of production,"
said the FFC's chief executive, Brian Rosen. "It also demonstrates that
the market sees strong audience potential in the slate of projects we
are backing."
Features financed
Five new feature films were approved by the FFC board at its final
funding round of the year, bringing the total for 2006/07 to 15
features.
Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto and Sam Neill will take the leads in the crime
thriller How to Change in 9 Weeks. Hollywood legend Sydney Lumet (director,
Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network) and former president of Universal
Pictures, Thom Mount, are collaborating with TV producer-director team Tony
Cavanaugh and Simone North, as Simone writes and directs her first feature
film.
How to Change in 9 Weeks is based on the true story of a 15-year-old
Australian girl who went missing and was later found to have been murdered
by her babysitter. The film charts the story from the point of view of the
parents and also the murderer, an unhappy 19-year-old girl who is looking
for a new identity to assume.
Dying Breed is a genre film of a different kind (horror), inspired by the
bizarre Australian legend of Alexander Pearce - a convict of the 19th century,
who was nicknamed 'the Pieman' after dining on his fellow escapees in the
Tasmanian wilderness before being captured by police. The film is set in the
modern day, when a group of four set out on a quest to prove that the Thylacine
(Tasmanian Tiger) still lives in the Tasmanian forests. They become prey when
they wander into the domain of the living descendents of the Pieman - who retain
their ancestor's taste for human flesh. In the tradition of Wolf Creek
and Blair Witch Project, this is a film for the under 30's, featuring
Nathan Phillips (Snakes on a Plane, Wolf Creek).
There is comedy, drama and romance in Prime Mover, the new feature
from director David Caesar (Dirty Deeds, Mullet, RAN). Prime
Mover will feature Australian actor Emily Barclay (celebrated at
Cannes last year for her dazzling performance in Suburban Mayhem),
playing the heart's desire of Thomas, a young man with a dream to own and
run one of the massive road trains that cruise the Australian outback. It
is a big-screen, diesel-powered love story with drive, speed and energy
enough to make the heart race (produced by Vincent Sheehan - Little Fish,
Mullet).
David Caesar says, 'Prime Mover is a story I have been wanting to tell for a long
time, I'm excited to be working with an amazing actor like Emily to create an off
kilter love story set in the unique Australian world of road trains.'
Singer Natalie Imbruglia will embark on her first feature film, Elise,
playing a young woman haunted by the unexplained disappearance of her sister
20 years earlier. As the story begins, Elise's life is unravelling and she
realises the only way forward is to try to solve the mystery of her sister.
Elise is the new feature from the producers of the Sundance hit
Clubland (Ben Grant, Rosemary Blight), which will be released in
Australia later this year. The writer/director is James Bogle (In the
Winter Dark, Lockie Leonard).
The fifth feature funded by the FFC is Not Quite Hollywood, a
theatrical documentary about the maverick creators of Australia's genre
films of the 1970s - the likes of Stork, Alvin Purple, Stone, The Man
from Hong Kong and, of course, Mad Max. Director Quentin
Tarantino is among the commentators who recall with relish their love
of this hey-day of Australian exploitation cinema, which began with the
introduction of the 'R' certificate in Australia. The director/researcher
is Mark Hartley and producers are Craig Griffin and Michael Lynch.
Features with a Letter of Intent
The FFC also issued two Letters of Intent at the board meeting. [Films chosen through
the FFC's evaluation program receive a Letter of Intent containing the terms and
conditions of proposed FFC funding. The FFC board makes a formal commitment to fund
evaluation projects only when the producers have satisfied the terms and conditions
set out in the Letter.]
Beautiful Kate will be directed by award-winning short film director and actor Rachel
Ward (Against All Odds, The Thorn Birds). Ward's husband, actor-director Bryan Brown,
is producing Beautiful Kate with Leah Churchill-Brown (Suburban Mayhem), and will also
play a lead role in this drama about family secrets.
A new Letter of Intent was issued for the project To Hell and Bourke after it re-applied
through evaluation. To Hell and Bourke is Australia's first indigenous road movie/comedy.
It is written and directed by Richard Frankland, one of Australia's most prolific
creative talents, working in theatre, film, music and television. The producer is
Ross Hutchens, with Melbourne company Media World.
Television Drama
Bed of Roses is a new six-part drama from writers of McLeod's Daughers (Jutte Goetze,
Elizabeth Coleman), which will screen on the ABC. The series follows the adventures
of spoilt, rich, city-dweller Louisa Atherton, who is forced to move back to her tiny
hometown, Rainbow's End, when her husband dies in the arms of another woman, leaving
Louisa and her two teenage children bankrupt. The producers are Mark Ruse and Stephen
Luby, of Ruby Entertainment (The Extra, The Murray Wheelan telemovies, Kath and Kim,
The Games).
Documentary
Financed through the FFC's international door is a second four-part series of Family
Footsteps, from producer Tony Wright and writers/directors Kay Pavlou and Sean Cousins.
Family Footsteps provides a 'sliding doors' experience for Australians to live the
life they might have lived had their parents or grandparents not emigrated to Australia.
For the first time in the history of our planet, elderly people outnumber the young.
The Attack Of The Baby Boomers looks at what this means for societies around the
world, showing it to be one of the most pressing and controversial issues of our
time. The two-part series is produced by Charles Hannah and Sue Clothier, with
director/writer Stefan Moore, and executive producers (USA) Stephen Segaller and
Andy Halper.
Cassowaries reveals the world of Australia's endangered Southern Cassowary. It tells
the action-packed, heartfelt stories of the cassowaries of Mission Beach, Queensland,
which are struggling to survive after a giant cyclone destroyed their forest. Bianca
Keeley will write, produce and co-direct the film with DOP and co-director David
Wright.
Seed Hunter follows Australian scientist Dr Ken Street on a quest through Central
Asia to find rare plants whose genes may help save the world's food supply from the
threat of climate change. At journeys' end, Ken will travel deep into the Arctic to
deliver his seeds to the impenetrable 'doomsday vault', built to protect the world's
most vital food seed from any crisis that may lie ahead (producer/writer/director
Sally Ingleton).
The documentaries funded through the FFC's domestic door also cover a diverse range
of subjects:
- The six-part documentary series Journos will follow the varied and unpredictable
lives of six Australian journalists reporting from different countries around the
world - often from situations of great conflict (Paul Roy and Jenny Ainge of Iguana
Films).
- Deported, from Anne Delaney, Teri Calder and Kimberley Lipschus, is the story
of a persistent team of campaigners working to show the fate of asylum seekers who
have been rejected by a country they hoped to gain sanctuary in. The program takes
a different angle on one of the key international debates of the decade.
- Getting married in the 21st century is a highly commercialised, expensive ritual
and with the Australian wedding industry worth $3.5 billion dollars a year, there
are plenty who want a piece of it. The Wedding Makers goes behind the scenes to
examine how this highly competitive world shapes and influences today's bride (from
Rebel Films partners Jeni McMahon and David Batty).
- A Northern Town is a powerful film, set in an indigenous owned and operated
aged-care facility, about white and black racial history in Australia and our
shared humanity (from Rachel Landers and Dylan Blowen of Pony Pictures).
- Renowned drama producer Penny Chapman will produce The Plague, written and
directed by Victoria Pitt. On a November afternoon in 1982, a young man walked
into St Vincent's hospital, Sydney, complaining of simple symptoms - fever,
fatigue and sweats. He became the first person diagnosed with AIDS in Australia.
Told by the people who lived through it, The Plague shows how, through a unique
combination of humanity, guts, dumb luck and sheer pragmatism, Australia turned
aside a plague.
- The Ian Fairweather Project will be an intimate portrait of the life and work
of Australia's greatest abstract painter. Ian Fairweather died in 1974, after living
for 20 years in a grass hut on Bribie Island. His paintings now command huge prices
at auction and hang on gallery walls around the world (director/writer Aviva Ziegler,
producer Veronica Fury).
For further information:
Victoria Buchan
The Lantern Group
02 9383 4033 / 0408 114 864
For a full list of new FFC-backed projects, see below:
| Feature Films |
Financed through Market Attachment |
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DYING BREED
Ambience Entertainment Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Christopher Mapp, Matthew Street, David Whealy
Producer: Michael Boughen
Director: Jody Dwyer
Writers: Michael Boughen, Rod Morris
Sales and Distribution: Omnilab/Hoyts, Arclight/Omnilab, Gussi, Imagem
Synopsis: Dying Breed is a contemporary action thriller with its roots set in our bloody convict past. Four young travellers unearth a grisly mystery which will change their lives forever.
ELISE
Essential Viewing
Producer: Ben Grant
Director/Writer: James Bogle
Sales and Distribution: Goalpost Film/Omnilab Media Group, Indies Entertainment Group, LNK Audiovisuals SA, Palace Films/Omnilab Media Group
Synopsis: At the beach one summer day a little girl goes missing. Twenty years on her sister finds the courage to rearrange to pieces of her broken life ... and invent a new beginning.
HOW TO CHANGE IN 9 WEEKS
Liberty Films International Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Catriona Hughes, Leesa Kahn, John Keating, Andy MacIntyre, Penny Wolf
Producers: Tony Cavanaugh, Thom Mount
Co-producer: Maureen Barron
Line producer: Barbara Gibbs
Director/writer: Simone North
Sales and Distribution: Icon Films, Reliant Pictures International
Synopsis: It's what every parent fears: their child not coming home when they're meant to. On the evening of March 1, 1999, Rachel Barber, a fifteen year old student, doesn't climb off the tram to meet her dad, Mike. Elizabeth, her mother, and Mike bolt into action.
| Financed through Evaluation |
|
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD
City Films Worldwide Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Bruno Charlesworth
Producers: Craig Griffin, Michael Lynch
Director: Mark Hartley
Sales and Distribution: Madman, SBS, HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Optimum Releasing
Synopsis: Not Quite Hollywood is the wild, wonderful, untold story of 'Ozploitation' cinema - that is, Australian genre cinema of the 70s and 80s. A time when the Aussie film industry got its gear off and showed the world a full-frontal explosion of sex, violence, horror and foot-to-the-floor, full bore action!
PRIME MOVER
Porchlight Films
Producer: Vincent Sheehan
Director/writer: David Caesar
Sales and Distribution: Dendy Films, Becker International
Synopsis: Prime Mover is a diesel charged love story about ambition, pressure, responsibility and the love shared by a man, a woman and his truck.
| Letters of Intent through Evaluation |
|
BEAUTIFUL KATE
New Town Films
Producers: Leah Churchill-Brown, Bryan Brown
Director/writer: Rachel Ward
Sales and Distribution: Roadshow, Showtime
Synopsis: A man revisits his isolated childhood home to farewell his dying father but tender memories of his beautiful twin sister haunt his return.
TO HELL AND BOURKE
Media World Pictures Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Colin South
Producer: Ross Hutchens
Director/writer: Richard Frankland
Sales and Distribution: SBSi, Palace Films
Synopsis: Two blackfellas, an Italian rock god, a possessed dog, a transvestite cousin, his/her broken hearted lover, a wedding, a funeral, a sacred stone, a sensitive new age copy, a couple of thousand kilometres, and one hundred and eighty seven pre-rolled joints. Would you get in a car with them?
| Adult Television Drama |
|
BED OF ROSES (6x1 hour mini-series)
Southern Star/Ruby Entertainment
Producers: Mark Ruse, Stephen Luby
Directors: TBC
Writers: Jutta Goetze, Elizabeth Coleman
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, Southern Star International
Synopsis: When Louisa Atherton's wealthy husband Jack drops dead in the arms of another woman, Louisa thinks things can't get worse - until she discovers that he's left her bankrupt. Forced to go back to her tiny home town with her tail between her legs she has to re-negotiate her relationships with her prickly mother and recalcitrant kids and to face herself and the harsh concrete realities of life which she has never had to before in an environment that is way outside her comfort zone.
| Documentaries |
|
A NORTHERN TOWN
Pony Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Dylan Blowen
Producer/writer/director: Rachel Landers
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: A Northern Town is set in a radical,
indigenous, owned and operated, aged care facility in an infamous
country town. It is a powerful film about parallel racial history
and our shared humanity.
THE ATTACK OF THE BABY BOOMERS
Becker Group Ltd
Executive Producers: Stephen Segaller, Andy Halper
Producers: Charles Hannah, Sue Clothier
Director/writer: Stefan Moore
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, WNET Thirteen, Off The Fence
Synopsis: For the first time in the history of
our planet old people outnumber the young. Looking at what this means
for societies around the world, The Attack Of The Baby Boomers takes
on one of the most pressing and controversial issues of our time.
CASSOWARIES
BK Films
Producer/co-director/writer: Bianca Keeley
Director: David Wright
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, National Geographic Television International, ZDFE
Synopsis: Cassowaries reveals the natural history
of Australia's bizarre and endangered Southern Cassowary while telling
the action-packed, heartfelt stories of the cassowaries of Mission
Beach, QLD struggling to survive after a cyclone destroyed their forest.
DEPORTED
November Films Pty Ltd
Producer/director: Anne Delaney
Associate Producer: Teri Calder
Co-director: Kimberley Lipschus
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: A man with a passion for justice leads a
team of researchers across the globe in search of asylum seekers who
Australia detained, rejected, then deported.
FAMILY FOOTSTEPS 2
December Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Tony Wright
Directors/writers: Kay Pavlou, Sean Cousins
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, Fremantle International
Synopsis: Family Footsteps is an immersive
documentary series which provides a 'sliding doors' experience for
Australians to live the life they might have lived, had their parents
or grandparents not immigrated to Australia.
THE IAN FAIRWEATHER PROJECT
Fury Productions Pty Ltd
Producer: Veronica Fury
Director/writer: Aviva Ziegler
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, ABC Content Sales
Synopsis: An intimate portrait of the life and
work of Australia's greatest abstract painter, Ian Fairweather.
JOURNOS
Iguana Film Productions Pty Ltd
Producer/Director: Paul Roy
Associate Producer: Jenny Ainge
Sales and Distribution: SBS TV, SBS Program Sales
Synopsis: This series will follow the varied and
highly unpredictable lives of six Australian journalists reporting from
different countries around the world - often from situations of great
conflict.
THE PLAGUE
Chapman Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer: Penny Chapman
Writer/director: Victoria Pitt
Synopsis: On a November afternoon in 1982, a young
man walked into St Vincent's hospital, Sydney, complaining of simple
symptoms - fever, fatigue, sweats. He was the first person diagnosed
with AIDS in Australia. Told by the people who lived through it, The
Plague shows how by a unique combination of humanity, guts, dumb luck,
and sheer bloody pragmatism, Australia turned aside a plague.
SEED HUNTER
360 Degrees Films
Producer/writer/director: Sally Ingleton
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV, National Geographic Television International, RTE Ireland, SVT Sweden, ARTE France
Synopsis: Seed Hunter follows Australian scientist
Dr Ken Street on a quest through Central Asia to find rare plants whose
genes may help save our food from the threat of climate change.
THE WEDDING MAKERS
Rebel Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Jeni McMahon
Director: David Batty
Sales and Distribution: ABC TV
Synopsis: Getting married in the 21st century is a
highly commercialised, expensive ritual and with the Australian wedding
industry worth $3.5 billion dollars a year, there are plenty who want a
piece of it. The Wedding Makers goes behind the scenes of this highly
competitive, sometimes glamorous, often garish world and examines how
it shapes and influences today's bride.
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