Nathan Jurevicius' Scarygirl.
The Andrews Labor Government will invest $3.85 million in 17 Victorian film and television projects.
Melbourne production company Passion Pictures Australia and Luma Toons will team up for the animated feature Arkie, based on the Australian graphic novel Scarygirl.
Back to Back Theatre will make its television debut with Bunghole, a collaboration with Matchbox Pictures. The telemovie will feature a cast with intellectual disabilities.
Victorian director Jonathan auf der Heide (Van Diemen's Land) will deliver his second feature film while director Miranda Nation will make her feature debut with Undertow, filmed largely in Geelong and the Surf Coast.
Three web series received support: Other People’s Problems, a dramedy about two ghost-writers; family comedy The Edge of the Bush; and Maybe Today, which looks back on the life of Indigenous author, activist and master storyteller Boori Monty Pryor.
Five television drama projects also received funding, including Foxtel series Wentworth, the fifth season of which is currently shooting in Melbourne, and new animated series Kitty is Not a Cat, which follows the story of a little girl raised by a household of felines.
Also backed is doco Becoming Lumumba, which will trace Heritier Lumumba’s journey from immigrant to AFL star, and Guilty, which will see Victorian artist Matthew Sleeth make his directorial debut in an exploration of the final days of the Bali Nine’s Myuran Sukumaran.
Funding will also see new projects produced by Contact Films, Hoodlum Active and Screentime.
The supported projects will provide up to 2,740 jobs in the Victorian screen industry and contribute more than $61 million to the state’s economy, Film Vic said in a statement.