Seriously Red writer and star Krew Boylan and creator of Bump spin-off Year Of, Jessica Tuckwell, are among this year’s Platform: Lab participants, with the cohort to benefit from the expertise of international producers Samm Haillay (UK) and Mmabatho Kau (South Africa).
Delivered in partnership with the Sydney Film Festival, the For Film’s Sake (FFS) incubator supports writers, creatives, and producers to develop new skills, collaborations, and content.
Boylan and Tuckwell will join Rae Choi (QLD), Mark Rogers (NSW), Robin Summons (VIC), Aliyah Knight (NSW), Scarlett Koehne (VIC), Georgia Noe (NSW), Miki Clarke (NSW), Sebastian Chan (ACT), Lauri Jones Male (NSW), Chanel Bowen (WA), Yasemin Sabuncu (SA), and Didi de Graaf (NSW) in the second edition of the program.
FFS has also announced the remaining creatives for Platform: Margins, a script editing intensive designed to assist Belvoir playwrights in adapting existing stageplays to screenplay format.
Jasper Lee Lindsay (NSW), Elizabeth Middleton (NSW), Linda Chen (NSW/ACT), Racheal Rauch (NSW), and Rocky J. Rose (VIC) have been selected for the initiative alongside Grace Chapple and Jojo Zhou, who is replacing James Elazzi after he bowed out due to a scheduling conflict.
FFS Executive Director Sophie Mathisen said while the initial callout suggested sixteen individuals would be selected, a five-fold increase in applications from last year led them to expand the final take.
“To be honest if we could have run the programs three times over with everyone on the shortlist, we would have – there’s such vibrancy and diversity in Australian above-the-line talent and their processes and visions,” she said.
“This wildly talented and impressive cohort cements Platform as a vital pathway for screen talent to find partners and perspectives with which to take their next creative and professional steps. We are thrilled to be able to support, challenge, and nurture them along their way.”
Contributing to Platform: Lab alongside Haillay and Kau are directors of Indian nature documentary Nocturne, Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan and Kid Snow director Paul Goldman, as well as producers Amra Baksic Camo (Excursion) and Mike S. Ryan (The Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire).
Supporting the Platform: Margins participants are local mentees, University of Melbourne head of theatre Chris Mead, and FFS executive director Sophie Mathisen, as well as international development experts, including UK screenwriter, playwright, and author Robin Mukherjee, former New Zealand International Film Festival director Marten Rabarts, and UK producer Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo. As part of Margins, international mentors will offer three free masterclasses for Sydney’s creative community with the support of Screen NSW, the WeirAnderson Foundation and Andrew Cameron and Cathy Cameron
The initiative will run from June 10-14, culminating in a live table read and workshop at Belvoir on June 14.