AACTA Pitch: Forever Unexpected judges Damon Herriman, Victoria Wharfe McIntyre, Alexandra Blue and Derin Seale with joint winner Loani Arman (Photo credit: Molly Hanrahan).
Loani Arman and Kelly Hucker’s short film concept Our Greatest Escape won the AACTA Pitch: Forever Unexpected competition in Sydney last night.
Drawing from Arman’s experience in caring for a loved one with dementia, the plot follows a young advertising executive who gets back to her creative roots when she takes her mum on ‘one last ride.’
Their prizes include $5,000 cash; up to $15,000 towards the production of their short film from Mini; post-production support from Spectrum Films worth $2,500; tickets to the 2019 AACTA Awards; and feedback and mentoring opportunities with the judging panel.
The panel included actor Damon Herriman, short film producer Alexandra Blue, writer and producer Victoria Wharfe McIntyre and Oscar nominated director Derin Seale.
“Big congrats to Loani and Kelly on a very touching script and emotive pitch. Such a pleasure to be involved and hear about the diverse and inspiring projects,” McIntyre said.
The other finalists who pitched at last night’s event were Dan Haberfield (Lachie and Son), Gemma Knight, Millicent Malcolm, Jasper Garner Gore and Liam French (Special Delivery), Jacqueline Lim and Daniel Stevenson (The Rockstar) and Jamieson Pearce, Cyna Strachan, Liam Heyen and Alex Serafini (To the Rescue).
“I’m a working mum, working all sorts of jobs as well as trying to get a career up as a writer, director and producer, so winning AACTA Pitch and the $15,000 to make my film is an opportunity to keep working and developing my craft,” Arman said.
“I think I’ll always be drawn to the idea of doing really big stories in a short amount of time, particularly for someone at my career level where short films are such a great opportunity to speak to your potential to do something bigger. Also, just having that affirmation that there’s something in the stories that I want to tell that’s appealing to people outside of myself.”
Arman and her creative partner and Hot Docs Best Short Documentary award winner Kelly Hucker are behind the online documentary My Body Says, made as a part of Screen Australia and News Digital’s Doco180, which has had more than half a million views.