15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced
The Creators program recipients. L-R Thomas Duncan-Watt, Vanessa Gazy, Sarah Lambert, Leah Purcell, Giula Sandler, Alexa Wyatt
Screen Australia and the Australian Writers' Guild have announced the six participants selected for The Creators 2024, a dynamic career acceleration program for high-calibre Australian screenwriters.
The six participants in The Creators program are:
Thomas Duncan-Watt (Space Nova, Home and Away)
Vanessa Gazy (Echoes, Eden)
Sarah Lambert (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Lambs of God, The Messenger)
Leah Purcell (The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, The Twelve)
Giula Sandler (The House Across the Street, Savage River, Bloom)
Alexa Wyatt (Nina and Olga, The Bureau of Magical Things, Janet King)
Following on from the success of the 2023 program, this second year will provide the participants with world-class training, project and pitching development and networking opportunities to sell their stories in domestic and international markets.
The cohort of experienced writers and creators will receive high-level training from international industry leader Jeff Melvoin (Killing Eve, Northern Exposure, Remington Steele), founder and Chair of the highly competitive Writers Guild of America's Showrunner Training Program.
Screen Australia's Head of Development Bobby Romia said, "We are delighted to be supporting these six talented writers to participate in The Creators 2024 program. Screen Australia is committed to nurturing the talent and skills that are central to our ambition of sustained creative excellence in Australian storytelling on screen. This initiative provides an unparalleled opportunity for these screenwriters to foster new connections and gain the necessary insights and international exposure to empower them to develop their storytelling craft. We look forward to seeing their progress and wish them every success.
AWG President Peter Mattessi said, Following the success of Year One, the Australian Writers' Guild is thrilled to support this new cohort of writers taking part in The Creators. This unique program is custom-built for writers who are developing their careers as creators and showrunners, and we're excited to see the expertise and insights these six bring back to our industry after their time in LA.
Scripted Ink. founder Shane Brennan said, The Creators is establishing itself as the premium career initiative for experienced Australian television writers. This is an opportunity for mid-career writers to participate in the best Showrunner training available anywhere in the world. Congratulations to these six outstanding writers who will return from this course eminently qualified to be Showrunners, not just for their own projects, but for other scripted projects being developed by production companies, streamers and broadcasters alike. Screen Australia's continuing commitment to The Creators initiative fully recognises the key creative role writers need to play in our industry if it is to survive and thrive in what is now a worldwide content market.
Thomas Duncan-Watt, three-time AWGIE Award-winning screenwriter and showrunner, said, With The Creators, the AWG and Screen Australia have conjured a dream program for elevating, upskilling and promoting the next wave of Aussie showrunners. As someone who has aspired to showrunner-dom since reading The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at age 12, being selected for The Creators' represents the opportunity of a lifetime one I can't wait to make the most of as I head to LA with this incredible group.
Vanessa Gazy, an award-winning creator, writer and director who has enjoyed recent success with the seven-part Netflix series Echoes said, I m delighted and grateful to be participating in this brilliant initiative alongside my talented peers. Showrunning empowers us as creators to steer our own projects, to nurture and protect our vision, and to be producers on our work. The role comes with great responsibility, and it s vital to be trained and prepared. The opportunity to hone our showrunning skills in LA is a valuable gift that I m sure will strengthen us as Australian creators for many years to come.
Sarah Lambert, showrunner of critically acclaimed drama series including The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and Lambs of God said, As a writer and showrunner, with each show you make, you're constantly learning on the job what works, what doesn't and what you could do better. What the AWG and Screen Australia have done with The Creators program is to give us this extraordinary opportunity to meet and learn from the best of our U.S. counterparts, those with decades of experience, and take part in the legendary Showrunner program in LA so that we can bring back new skills, new models of working and best practices to not only reinvigorate our own writing and series, but also help us to empower the next generation of storytellers in Australia.
Leah Purcell, multi-talented film, television and stage writer, creator, director and actor said. I'm so thrilled and excited to be given this opportunity to upskill with the best. I look forward to the challenge of absorbing as much as I can and then returning home and applying these skills to my own projects and our industry so that Australian content can continue to match and play on the international stage in the film and TV sectors. I also want to bring back what I've learnt from this awesome initiative and continue my mentoring within the First Nations screen sector.
Giula Sandler, a prolific writer of original dramas and adaptations, and recent AWGIE Award-winner for The House Across the Street said, I am thrilled for the opportunity to hone my pitching and showrunning skills with such an incredible group of pee
Asia, Australia & Oceanic Stories
09/05/2024
Join Costa Georgiadis, Melissa Leong & Samuel Johnson For New Ground-breaking Se...
09/05/2024
Alone Australia audience continues to grow
9 May, 2024
Media releases
The program continues to deliver for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vie...
08/05/2024
The results are in from Malm Arena as Semi Final 1 participants move through to...
08/05/2024
Powerful NITV documentary Kindred to premiere during Reconciliation Week
Media releases
A journey of family, friendship and home *Watch the trailer here*
...
08/05/2024
08 05 2024 - Media release Olivia Colman and John Lithgow Star in Sophie Hyde's New Project JIMPA
Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in JIMPA. Photo credit: M...
07/05/2024
NITV appoints Michael Rennie as Presenter and Senior Producer for NITV News
Media releases
NITV has announced the appointment of Michael Rennie as Presenter...
06/05/2024
Get Ready to join Dan Hong as he hits the streets in his ultimate culinary journ...
02/05/2024
Gear up for the 2024 Cycling Grand Tours on Australia's Home of Cycling, SBS
Media releases
All of the rivalry begins with the Giro d'Italia this we...
02/05/2024
New SBS documentary dives into one of Australia's greatest underdog stories ...
02/05/2024
Alone Australia cements its place as one of Australia's biggest hits of 2024
2 May, 2024
Media releases
Alone Australia has cemented its place as one o...
30/04/2024
Launch of SBS South Asian channel and SBS Spice, a new English language offering...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
24/04/2024
SBS marks Earth Day as The Cook Up with Adam Liaw becomes first Australian show ...
24/04/2024
Save money every day with SBS's Ricardo Gon alves and Peggy Giakoumelos on n...
24/04/2024
24 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia celebrates Australian projects bound...
23/04/2024
Social entrepreneur Hedayat Osyan wins Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition
23 April, 2024
Media releases
The prestigious award is now in its third yea...
22/04/2024
SBS marks Earth Day with Australian TV milestone as The Cook Up with Adam Liaw b...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
18 April, 2024
Media releases
The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
Savage River
Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
16/04/2024
ABS Agility Beyond Space announces Appointment of Mark Rigolle as its Chief Ex...
11/04/2024
Alone Australia Ep 2 reaches over 1m Australians
11 April, 2024
Media releases
The program continues to consistently grow week-on-week in linear audience w...
11/04/2024
11 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Meta launch fourth year of First...
10/04/2024
10 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $2.3 million for nine documentaries
Guardians of the River
Screen Australia has announced nine doc...
09/04/2024
Groundbreaking NITV documentary series Our Law expands across Australia from Thu...
09/04/2024
Techtel, the creators of inflo, today announced that a new speech to text transcription engine from openai called Whisper, is available to inflo customers who a...
04/04/2024
Manu Feildel, Miranda Otto and Pat Rafter join life-changing new season of Who D...
04/04/2024
Alone Australia season 2 continues to redefine Australian TV viewing through on-...
27/03/2024
Living Black, the longest-running Indigenous current affairs television program ...
26/03/2024
Crime is relative in SBS's new Canneseries nominated crime-family drama with...
25/03/2024
SBS gears up for Season 2 of Alone Australia with the creation of Alone Cologne...
22/03/2024
SBS Learn partners with the Islamic Museum of Australia to support classrooms in...
21/03/2024
21 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $1.6 million in support of the games industry
Which Way Up: Galaxy Games
Screen Australia has anno...
18/03/2024
18 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and VicScreen launch new Screen Careers initiative
LTR Denise Eriksen, Esther Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Pitcher, K...
15/03/2024
15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced
The Creators program recipients. L-R Thomas Duncan-Watt, Vanessa Gazy, Sarah Lambert, Lea...
14/03/2024
SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians
14 March, 2024
Media releases
Content in 22 languages*, a collection of movies to stream free on d...
14/03/2024
March 14,2024
-- KDDI Corporation
KDDI Corporation resolved at a meeting of the Board of Directors held today to change (newly appointed, retire) a director ...
13/03/2024
13 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces dramas Critical Incident and Sunny Nights for Stan
Critical Incident: Akshay Khanna and Zoe Boe. Photo c...
07/03/2024
Explore the afterlife with SBS podcast Grave Matters'
6 March, 2024
Media releases
Most of us are woefully unprepared for one of life's few certai...
06/03/2024
Multi-award winning electronic music duo to represent Australia at this year'...
06/03/2024
Developing Lunar 3GPP Mobile Network Technologies for Moon Exploration
GITA...
04/03/2024
SBS announces new development fund to discover Australia's biggest and riski...
28/02/2024
Yumi Stynes returns for season two of SBS podcast SEEN'
26 February, 2024
Media releases
Eight new trailblazers join feminist Australian icon Yumi Sty...
28/02/2024
28 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $810,000 in development funding for 29 projects
Willy
Screen Australia has announced 23 feature fi...
27/02/2024
27 02 2024 - Media release Michael Ebeid AM appointed as new Screen Australia Chair
Michael Ebeid AM and Megan Brownlow
The Hon. Minister for the Arts, Tony...
26/02/2024
Supporting AFEELAs entertainment experience and global launch with a communicati...
21/02/2024
21 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Australians in Film Announce App...
21/02/2024
Aiming to deliver new video-related solutions utilizing 5G SA this year
Son...
21/02/2024
Support the team with gifts while enjoying AR games in the stadium
KDDI COR...
15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced 
