The Melbourne International Film Festival’s Premiere Fund has announced the four projects in receipt of offers from its second funding round:
* BLESSED: Executive Producers: Al Clark, Marian Macgown; Producers: Andrena Finlay, Ana Kokkinos; Director: Ana Kokkinos; Writers: Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius, Christos Tsiolkas. Based on the acclaimed Melbourne play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, Blessed, from Head On Director Ana Kokkinos, is an evocative feature film about mothers and children, about love and beauty, about being lost and finding your way home.
* THE LOVED ONES: Executive Producer: Bryce Menzies; Producer: Mark Lazarus; Director/Writer: Sean Byrne, a 2007 attendee of MIFF’s Accelerator emerging talent workshop. You don’t have to die to go to hell! The feature debut of Sean Byrne, whose short film Advantage was selected for Sundance 2008, The Loved Ones tells the story of a young man In rural Victoria digging himself out his own grave.
* ANGEL OF THE WIND: Producers: Matt Crosby, Tahir Cambis; Director, Tahir Cambis. An irreverent and magical documentary from the director of Exile In Sarajevo that, through the prism of a surrealist vaudevillian theatrical production concerning the spirits of dead Kamikaze pilots (including chaotic Tokyo rehearsals and mishap-plagued Melbourne performances), explores the world of acting, spirituality, national identity and ghosts of the past.
* INDONESIA CALLING – JORIS IVENS IN AUSTRALIA: Producer/Director/Writer: John Hughes. A signature documentary charting a little-told angle on the birth of the Indonesian Republic and the impact of Australian unions and foreign policy, a rogue Film Commissioner and an emerging film industry at a moment of crisis at the end of the age of Empire.
Selected from a competitive field of applications, which were seeking a combined A$1.2 million worth of funding against the A$380,000 available in this round, the four Round Two projects bring to nine the number of projects receiving Premiere Fund support to date.
The Premiere Fund was launched last July at the inaugural edition of MIFF’s new film financing market, 37 South: Bridging the Gap. The Premiere Fund enables the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) to offer financial support to a range of local feature films and documentaries that will premiere at the festival. The Fund, which is distributing A$1.4 million of production funding across four rounds, accepts applications from market-ready projects in advanced stages of financing stages which meet the eligibility criteria (see Key Facts on next page).
‘With nine richly diverse projects now receiving support, the foundation blocks of the Premiere Fund documentary and feature film slate are now well and truly in place,’ said MIFF Premiere Fund & 37 South Manager Mark Woods. ‘MIFF has stretched its available funds across as many projects as possible. If 37 South can help bridge the gap, the Premiere Fund can help close the film financing gap.’
‘The Premiere Fund and 37 South are much appreciated and a very important initiatives of the Victorian State Government to build on Melbourne’s position as a centre of the Australian screen production industry,’ said MIFF Chair Claire Dobbin.
‘These industry initiatives mirror the development of other international film festivals which, like MIFF, have extended their remit to become important creative and financing hubs.’
The MIFF Premiere Fund’s Round Three opens from 01 February 2008 and closes on 29 February 2008.
Woods also announced the dates for 37 South 2008 as being 24-27 July 2008. Applications from producers to secure a slot at 37 South 2008 will open in March.
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/
[release from Limelight PR]