Leah Purcell and Bain Stewart of "Koa Kid"
Screen Australia has announced 29 feature films, 13 television dramas, four online projects and one VR project that will share in over $1.2 million of story development funding. The projects include "Forget Me Not," the latest series from Class of ’07 creator Kacie Anning; feature film "Koa Kid" from writer/director Leah Purcell of "The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson"; VR project "The Place I Carry Within"; and online project "Adventuries of the Century," the third instalment of the series from Dylan Murphy and Molly Daniels of "Celebration Nation and Wispy."
Included in this slate are 28 projects that have been supported through the Generate Fund and 19 through the Premium Fund. “It is an exciting time for filmmakers and storytellers in Australia and we are thrilled to be supporting so many exciting projects at the beginning of their journey. This latest cohort represents a vast selection of dynamic and diverse voices, which showcases the strength and capability of the talent in our screen industry,” Screen Australia’s Head of Development Bobby Romia said.
Among the titles receiving funding are six projects that came through Screen Australia and Australians in Film’s Untapped initiative in 2022: "Baby Face" (previously The Kin), "Custodians," "Honeymoon" (previously Faye), "Playtime," "Revelations," and "Unravel." The successful practitioners and projects for Untapped 2023 will be announced in the coming months. This announcement includes the remainder of projects funded in the 2022/23 financial year during which Screen Australia supplied over $3.1 million of story development funding to 97 projects.
STORY DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
Teams with scripted projects for TV and film platforms can apply for development funding from two program strands, the Generate Fund and the Premium Fund. The Generate Fund is for lower budget projects with an emphasis on new and emerging talent, or experienced talent wanting to take creative risks. The Premium Fund is for higher budget projects of ambition and scale from successful screen content makers. Online projects can receive support through the online development fund, which supports emerging screen creatives in developing the creative materials of their scripted or documentary projects.