Neuigkeiten

Michael and Danny Philippou.

YouTube sensations RackaRacka – aka Danny and Michael Philippou – will make their big screen debut with horror feature Talk to Me, produced by Causeway Films.

The project is one of six announced today as sharing in $6 million of production funding from Screen Australia.

Other projects backed include anthology feature Here Out West from Co-Curious and Emerald Productions, set in Western Sydney, as well as second seasons of Every Cloud Productions’ Ms Fisher’s MODern Murder Mysteries and Northern Pictures’ kids series Hardball; recently announced children’s series MaveriX; and Lgbtiqia teen series Flunk for YouTube.

Screen Australia head of content Sally Caplan said: “Australian creators continue to capture audiences around the world, such as the RackaRacka team which has built a huge following on YouTube and are now set to deliver a new experience for fans and newcomers alike with their debut feature film. Fans will be delighted...

Zenia Starr in ‘The End’ (Photo credit: Foxtel).

Zenia Starr made her screen debut in Mark Grentell’s 2013 cricket comedy Backyard Ashes but this year has been the first when she has worked virtually non-stop.

The Indian-born, Australian-raised actor modestly credits that to a number of factors including audiences’ growing appetite to see diversity on screens and those producers and directors who were willing to take a risk in hiring her.

Equally graciously she also thanks her agent, Catherine Poulton Management, luck and “maybe some divine intervention.”

After a string of roles in the ABC’s The Unlisted, the second series of Seven Network’s Drop Dead Weird, Stan’s upcoming The Gloaming, Foxtel’s The End and Maziar Lahooti’s debut feature Below, she says: “It’s the most momentum I’ve ever had.”

Playing a Mumbai resident in Anthony Maras’ Hotel Mumbai alongside Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Jason Isaacs...

The writers of All Is True, Hotel Mumbai, Relic, Ride Like a Girl and The Favourite have been nominated for best original feature film in the 52nd annual Awgie Awards.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (Deb Cox) and True History of the Kelly Gang (Shaun Grant) are the contenders for the feature film adaptation category.

Andrew Knight scored two nominations, for Ride Like a Girl (shared with Elise McCredie) and for TV series or miniseries for an episode of ABC’s Jack Irish, competing with Bloom (Glen Dolman), Secret City: Under the Eagle (Matt Cameron) and The End (Samantha Strauss).

Ben Elton wrote All is True, John Collee and Anthony Maras wrote Hotel Mumbai, Christian White and Natalie Erika James scripted Relic and Tony McNamara and Deborah Davis collaborated on The Favourite.

In the running for telemovie or miniseries up to four hours are The Cry (Jacquelin Perske...

Tegan Higginbotham.

Screen Australia is providing more than $400,000 in story development funding for 16 projects including feature films, television and online series, featuring such talent as Bruna Papandrea, Nick Verso, Priscilla Cameron, Lisa Shaunessy, Anthony Mullins, Kodie Bedford and Tegan Higginbotham.

The slate includes The Agency, a musical comedy about moral corruption in the advertising industry, comedic horror Gnomes centered on grudge-bearing garden gnomes in a fictional regional town, and the feature Misfit, which looks at a woman who suffers from an identity disorder.

Eleven projects were funded through the Generate fund, two via the Premium fund and three through the legacy development program which has been discontinued.

Head of development Nerida Moore said: “The new development guidelines have now been in action for five months. We drastically reduced eligibility barriers and will now fund projects for any screen platform. We’ve had a fantastic response from the industry and the...