Top row L to R: Gillian Crosby, Alex Nesic, Mikhayla Dennis, Ramon Watkins, bottom row L to R: Danielle Stamoulos, Scott Limbrick, Program Mentor Wendall Thomas, Catherine Bonny, Michael Hudson (absent Vidya Rajan). Photo by Daniel Mahon.
Eight projects have been selected to participate in Stage 2 of VicScreen's dynamic development initiative Originate Genre aimed at nurturing new voices in commercial cinema.
Originate Genre is a two-phase development program designed to elevate live-action genre movie projects from concept to market-ready screenplays.
The first stage of the program presented over four sessions earlier this year, entailed a series of online screenwriting seminars focused on genre storytelling led by Wendall Thomas, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) screenwriting professor, lecturer, script editor, development executive, and author. The seminars were attended by over 420 Victorian writers.
Eight projects have since been selected to participate in the second stage of the program, a week-long Writers' Lab at VicScreen led by Wendall, followed by 6 months of story consultation, group and peer-to-peer workshops culminating in the delivery of a polished first draft screenplay.
Tailored to the individual needs of each project, the Writers' Lab focuses on shaping the screenplays for market, while enhancing the writer's skills and understanding of the development process. Participants will each receive a $10,000 grant towards the delivery of their script.
The successful projects were selected for their strength of concept, distinctiveness, and clear sense of audience and genre. The slate of projects showcases a broad range of exceptional talent from across Victoria while the program highlights the importance of a robust development process, understanding of audience, and how to craft market-ready commercial screenplays that get attention.
Full details of the projects, participants and genres are below:
In Other Words by Alex Nesic
A multi-lingual love story follows two bickering language translators trying unsuccessfully to help their friends find love but instead, find an unexpected connection of their own.
Inner Beast by Danielle Stamoulos
Feeling trapped in a tamed life of creative burnout, cultural pressures and millennial mediocrity, Callie goes searching for healing at a re-wilding women's retreat to reconnect to her instincts to turn her life around, only to wake up the next day as the 'beast version' of herself.
Live LARP Love by Gillian Crosby
At a modern-day medieval festival, a professional knight has her world turned upside down when a firebrand bar truck owner arrives and starts a peasants' revolt.
Lucky Country by Catherine Bonny
When an opportunistic drifter in a post-WW3 Australia discovers a prosperous rural community, he lies about his identity in order to steal from them; but when he uncovers the grim source of their wealth, he must convince the community of the truth to survive.
Prior Engagement by Ramon Watkins
A shy lesbian widow and closeted trophy wife share an anonymous mid-flight kiss just before their "introduction" as future in-laws, triggering a clash of menopausal lust and maternal guilt that torpedoes their kids' engagement week at a luxury winery.
Shaz by Mikhayla Dennis
Standing in the wrong line at the wrong time, Shaz, a fearless truck driver from outback Australia, loses her retirement fund to two amateur bank robbers and sets off across the outback to steal back the money that was never hers to begin with.
The Complete Guide To Making An Enemy by Scott Limbrick and Vidya Rajan
When a people-pleasing art designer is overlooked for a promotion, she signs up for a unique motivational coaching service and finds herself drawn into an unexpected rivalry that soon becomes a game of life-or-death.
The Sitter by Michael Hudson
A Blak sober companion assigned to care for an aging music icon begins to suspect the past isn't the only thing haunting her new client.
Learn more about VicScreen's development programs here
VicScreen CEO Caroline Pitcher said, "VicScreen's suite of hothousing Originate programs, has successfully fast-tracked the careers of Victorian screen storytellers, with supported projects already backed by some of the screen industry's biggest names and commissioners. We've developed Originate Genre to bring attention to the wealth of commercially minded storytellers this state has to offer, and we're excited by the new comedy, horror and thriller projects we've discovered. Congratulations to the writers whose exhilarating and provocative projects were selected for Stage 2, I can't wait to see how their films progress from here."
Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks said, "Congratulations to the eight projects selected to take part in the Originate Genre Writers' Lab. The Allan Labor Government is supporting jobs and a thriving screen industry, and we're backing programs like this to nurture new voices and homegrown talent and take our stories to the world."
