Media releases - 0 Five filmmaking teams selected for Springboard 0

Screen Australia today announced the participants of its 2013 Springboard: Short Film Initiative. Five teams have been selected to develop a short film script that will speak to the sensibilities of their developed feature film screenplay. Three of the shorts will go on to receive $150,000 production funding.

The directors participating in this year's Springboard workshop are Christopher Weekes, Hannah Moon, Tom McKeith, Darlene Johnson and Liselle Mei. All directors will be accompanied on the workshops by their writing partners and producers.

Christopher Weekes' feature project Pest Control is a family comedy about a city that gets overrun with monsters. Weekes also wrote the feature film screenplay The Muppet Man, which was voted number one in Hollywood's 2009 Black List and has since been optioned by Walt Disney Pictures. Hannah Moon brings a strong, youthful comedic voice with her project Starfish, which she is co-writing with Robin Geradts-Gill and Stephen Sholl. Tom McKeith's project Boxer is currently being developed through Screen NSW's Aurora workshop. Darlene Johnson's powerful project Obelia is based on her mother's true story growing up in country Australia in 1951 and Liselle Mei's Red Earth is a Sino-Australian historical romance.

Screen Australia's Head of Development, Martha Coleman, said, The Springboard process has once again uncovered for us exciting new talent as well as giving us the opportunity to support talented filmmakers already on our radar. This year's strong contingent of female voices is particularly exciting and the diversity of stories in this group reflects a healthy, wide range of interests within our emerging film community.

Three x three-day workshops will take place between now and May and will again be convened by producer and developer Paul Welsh (Lore).

Previous Springboard short films include Grant Scicluna's multi-award winning The Wilding, which premiered at Berlinale 2012, and Zak Hilditch's Transmission, nominated for two AACTA Awards. Zak Hilditch is in post-production on his feature film These Final Hours.

BOXER

Genre Thriller

Producer Robert Coe

Writers Sam McKeith, Tom McKeith

Director Tom McKeith

Feature Synopsis A young fighter who has cheated in a fight and killed a man struggles with guilt and searches for forgiveness when, over the course of one night, he is faced with some difficult decisions.

OBELIA

Genre Drama

Producer Heather Oxenham

Executive Producer Phillip Noyce

Writer/Director Darlene Johnson

Feature Synopsis In 1951, an olive-skinned teenager runs away from an Aboriginal Government Reserve and joins a travelling carnival, but finds she can't out run who she really is. Nor does she want to.

PEST CONTROL

Genre Family Comedy

Producer Jamie Hilton

Writer/Director Christopher Weekes

Feature Synopsis When a city finds itself getting overrun with monsters our only hope of survival rests with an all-woman team of pest controllers.

RED EARTH

Genre Drama Romance

Producers Trish Lake, Dan Lake

Writer/Director Liselle Mei

Feature Synopsis Desperate to escape her arranged marriage, a frontier Chinese bride begins an erotic game with an English plantation owner, hoping to buy back her freedom.

STARFISH

Genre Comedy

Producer Robin Geradts-Gill

Writers Stephen Sholl, Hannah Moon, Robin Geradts-Gill

Director Hannah Moon

Feature Synopsis Georgia's a sex-obsessed teenager whose plans for a wild week away with the girls are ruined by her best friend's lamely perfect romance, which threatens to break up the group for good.

Media Enquiries

Teri Calder T: 02 8113 5833; M: 0408 440 995

teri.calder@screenaustralia.gov.au

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2013/mr_130312_sprin...
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