Producer Hannah Ngo will undertake a two-year placement with Werner Film Productions (WFP), thanks to Screen Australia Enterprise People funding.
Ngo is the producer of SBS short-form series Iggy & Ace, which premiered at Series Mania in France and screened in competition at the C21 International Drama Awards, CinefestOz and Bilbao Seriesland. Her other projects include short films Tribunal, Rift and Carnal Privilege.
The up-and-comer is also one of Screen Producer Australia’s Ones to Watch cohort for 2021, is a Screenwest Breaking the Celluloid Ceiling recipient, and recently featured on IF’s 2022 Rising Talent list.
WFP director Joanna Werner tells IF Ngo is a talented emerging producer that she is excited to have join the prod co’s growing team.
“Hannah’s placement comes at an exciting time for the company with a busy production and development slate, so we will certainly have lots for her to sink her teeth into and she will be a huge asset to WFP,” she tells IF.
WFP reached out to Ngo about joining the company late last year. By coincidence, she was already in Melbourne, unable to get back to her native Western Australia due to the city’s sixth lockdown. There, she had been on a short break to focus on creative pursuits, as well as determining how to “bridge the gap” between short-form and long-form.
In this way, WFP reaching out felt quite serendipitous. Ngo feels aligned with the company creatively and is keen to observe Werner, head of development and production Jenni Tosi and executive producer Stuart Menzies, and how the business operates.
“One thing that I was unsure of as a producer, is that you also end up being a businessperson. You want to work in film, but then you end up having to run your own company as well, which is a completely different skillset,” she tells IF.
“How you manage both being creative and producing, with how to look after a whole team of people and how to organise that structure is something that I’m trying to like wrap my head around.”
She has admired WFP projects such ABC’s The Newsreader, which she found touched on social and political issues but in an unexpected and uplifting way, and is excited by the upcoming Crazy Fun Park, for ABC ME.
“I remember reading some of the scripts in my first week, and I was like ‘Oh, I’m so affected by some of this content.’ I shed a tear in episode four, and by episode ten I was like ‘Wow, this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Australia before’.”
While at WFP, Ngo will continue to pursue her own projects, including web series Me (And Herpes), created and written by Gemma Bird Matheson and Kasia Vickery and directed by Vic Zerbst, due to shoot in June, and short animation Bird Drone, directed by Radheya Jegatheva and written by Clare Toonen.