Writer/director Miley Tunnecliffe and producer Kate Separovich’s debut feature Proclivitas is $1.25 million closer to production after being awarded Screenwest’s West Coast Visions funding for 2023.
A supernatural horror, the film sees a former addict rekindle a romance with her teenage sweetheart, awakening painful memories of the past and a terrifying demon determined to possess her. US producer Debbie Liebling (South Park, Dodgeball, Borat) is also on board the project.
West Coast Visions, the largest funding initiative of its kind in Australia, is designed to help filmmakers from Western Australia realise their feature debut. While it has traditionally been $750,000, the initiative was recently bolstered by Screen Australia, who will commit an additionally $500,000 in equity annually.
In addition to the funding, the filmmakers will receive ongoing creative and strategic support from both Screenwest and Screen Australia.
Tunnecliffe has written for TV series The Heights and 100% Wolf: Legend of the Moonstone, as well as writing and directing short-form series such as Molly and Cara and Calling, and shorts In Australia and Mother Daughter Time.
Separovich, who was one of Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch in 2021, produced 2014 documentary Girt by Sea, which was commissioned by ABC; short film Evie, which screened in Sitges, and was an associate producer on Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music.
Screenwest CEO Rikki Lea Bestall congratulated Tunnecliffe and Separovich, and said she was proud the agency had been able to support their career development over the past 10 years.
“Kate and Miley are an incredible Western Australian filmmaking team who are fiercely committed and passionate about making films for global audiences. I am thrilled to see their hard work pay off,” she said.
Production on Proclivitas is slated for 2024 in Western Australia, with Icon attached for local distribution. Tunnecliffe and Separovich will head to MIFF 37 South this week to meet with international distributors and sales agents, and Liebling will join them for industry networking at CinefestOZ later this month.
“West Coast Visions has such an impressive number of filmmakers I’ve admired come through its program. It’s a privilege to be one of them, and I’m excited and proud to be able to make my first feature film on home soil,” said Tunnecliffe.
Separovich added: “Miley’s phenomenal talent shines through every page of this compelling script, and we look forward to bringing this extraordinary story to audiences around the globe and be part of the bright future of our industry in Australia.”
Past recipients of West Coast Visions funding include Jub Clerc’s Sweet As, which recently won awards at Melbourne, Toronto and Berlin; Renée Webster’s How to Please a Woman, one of hte highest grossing Australian films of 2022; Zak Hilditch’s break out These Final Hours, selected for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2014, leading to1922 and Rattlesnake for Netflix; and Ben Young’s Hounds of Love, selected for Venice and which saw him secure US representation and go on to work on studio projects like Extinction, Devil’s Peak, Clickbait and The Wilds.
In the past two years, the fund has supported Zoe Pepper’s Birthright, which recently secured Screen Australia production funding and Madman as a distributor, and David Vincent Smith’s He Ain’t Heavy, which is in post-production.