The Australian Directors Guild (ADG) and Screen Australia are pleased to announce that emerging director Ariel Martin has been selected as the first placement for 2014 under the Director’s Attachment Scheme.
Funded by Screen Australia and managed by the ADG, the scheme supports emerging feature film directors to develop their craft. Ariel started his attachment this week to Neil Armfield (Candy) on his upcoming feature film, Holding the Man, a Goalpost Pictures production which begins production in Melbourne in September.
Ariel Martin said, “I feel extremely fortunate to be given an opportunity to be attached to a director like Neil. It’s his work with actors in developing performances that I’m particularly thrilled to get access to and learn from.”
Screen Australia Head of Production, Sally Caplan said, “This scheme will provide Ariel with real experience on a project of significant scale, working with a great mentor in Neil Armfield. We see targeted opportunities like this, working in tandem with our Enterprise People strand, as providing an important pathway into industry skills and professional exposure for our new talent.”
Ariel has directed a number of short films and commercials in his career including The iMom, which screened at Sydney Film Festival, Flickerfest and Aspen Shortsfest.
In 2008 his short film Change Given received support from the Screen NSW Emerging Filmmakers Fund, which led him to work with the Doll Collective, assisting Leon Ford on Griff the Invisible.
Ariel wrote, directed and produced his next short film, Bars and Tone,which screened at the LA Comedy Shorts film festival, Tropfest online and the Austin Film Festival. Whilst directing short films Ariel continued to direct commercials for Filmgraphics. In 2011 his ad, The Future Shooter screened at Cannes Lions and Adfest and was showcased in the Shoot Online Young Directors Showcase.
The Director’s Attachment Scheme provides three opportunities a year for emerging directors to gain first-hand professional experience from an established filmmaker. In 2013 these attachments were: Grant Sputore to Kriv Stenders on Kill Me Three Times, Stephen McCallum to Tony Ayres on Cut Snake and Matthew Moore to Robert Connolly on his film Paper Planes.
Screen Australia and the ADG will soon announce the rest of the attachments for the year and are in the final planning stages for an attachment scheme for television drama directors which will start at the end of 2014.