The Film Finance Corporation Australia has finished its 2007/08 funding year with a record number of investments.
The feature films, telemovies, mini-series and documentaries backed by the FFC in 2007/08 have a total production value of $310 million. This is the highest investment achieved by the FFC in its 20-year history.
Projects funded at the final FFC board meeting include films by two previous Cannes award winning directors: Shirley Barrett, winner of the Camera D’Or and Glendyn Ivin, winner of the Palme D’Or for his short film. Fred Schepisi returns to filmmaking in Australia after a twenty year absence and documentary director Bob Connolly after seven years.
Fred Schepisi is directing The Last Man, based on the extraordinary life and experiences of Graham Brammer – one of a group of Aussie SAS soldiers trapped on their final Vietnam mission, who do whatever it takes to survive. Twelve years later, they, and their wives, still suffer the emotional consequences.
Producers are Martin Brown, Warwick Young, George Mannix and Fred Schepisi; writers are Graham Brammer, Chris Wheeler, Ian Barry and Fred Schepisi. Executive Producers are Jamie Carmichael, Graham Begg, Heather Ogilvie. This land-mark film will star Guy Pearce and David Wenham.
Bran Nue Dae exploded onto the stage in a dynamic mix of colour, music, dance and the innocent joy of youth and charmed audiences all over Australia when it was produced as a musical in 1990.
Now director Rachel Perkinswill bring it to the screen as we re-visit the summer of 1965 and the Bran Nue Dae that set toes of all colours tapping and softens even the hardest hearts. Ernie Dingo is set to star in this road movie, coming of age, comedy musical which celebrates the adventure of finding home.
The Last Ride, from first-time feature director Glendyn Ivin, winner of the Palme D’Or award for his short film Crackerbag at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, is a contemporary road movie about a young boy and his father on the run from the law, and the price that survival demands of love.
Shirley Barrett, the winner of the Camera D’Or for her 1996 debut feature Love Serenade, will direct South Solitary, a dramatic, windswept romance: in a remote lighthouse off the coast of Tasmania a disgraced young woman and a soldier suffering from the ongoing symptoms of shellshock discover a great need for companionship and hope in the face of hostile elements, some made by nature and some by man.
South Solitary is written and directed by Shirley Barrett, produced by Marian Macgowan along with UK’s Sarah Radclyffe (My Beautiful Laundrette, Sirens) and executive produced by Emile Sherman (Oyster Farmer, Rabbit-Proof Fence).
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight, Secretary) and Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, A Beautiful Mind) are set to star in this romantic period film.
Go to the FFC website to see the full list of projects.