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The film has received A$500,000 in funding from the government’s Department of Social Services, with the budget expected to be around A$5m.

Australian disability-lead filmmaking organisation Bus Stop Films is readying its first narrative feature Baby Cat and is aiming for a mid-2024 production start.

Bus Stop was founded in 2009 by Australian filmmaker Genevieve Clay-Smith and producer Eleanor Winkler, now based in Los Angeles. Its chief executive is Sydney-based Tracey Corbin-Matchett.

Feel-good comedy drama Baby Cat will be written and directed by Clay-Smith (making her feature debut) and star Olivia Hargroder, who has appeared in several shorts. Hargroder...

Bus Stop Films is getting ready to shoot its first feature, Baby Cat, and is conducting a nationwide casting call for an actress to play the lead, Sonja, a young woman living with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).

Written and directed by Bus Stop co-founder Genevieve Clay-Smith, the comedy follows the vivacious Sonja and her journey to prove she can live independently, or else risk her grandmother selling the family house and moving her into a group home.

Additional story has been provided by Mandela Mathia, who will also star in the role of Hakim, Sonja’s mentor in the film. They form an unlikely friendship through their mutual love of dance.

Mathia is also an executive producer alongside Nathan Basha and Deanne Weir. Bus Stop co-founder Eleanor Winkler will produce.

Bus Stop Films is a not-for-profit that aims to raise the profile of people living with disability and other marginalised groups through inclusive filmmaking.