The New South Wales government has invested more than $3.3 million across 14 screen productions, including French-Australian co-production The Grandmothers.
The minister for tourism, major events, hospitality, racing and the arts, George Souris, said Sydney is "set to shine as the star of a big international film” with The Grandmothers, which will showcase actors Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville.
“I’m delighted that The Grandmothers is to be made here in NSW by one of our top local creative teams, including producer Andrew Mason of Hopscotch Features, working in collaboration with renowned French producer Phillip Carcassonne and internationally acclaimed director Anne Fontaine," he said in a statement.
“Ms Fontaine and Mr Carcassonne delighted cinema audiences with their earlier film Coco Avant Chanel and I know they will equally enjoy their filmmaking experience here in NSW. The Grandmothers is the inaugural film from NSW-based production company Hopscotch Features."
The minister said the 14 screen productions shooting in NSW would spend an estimated $57.8 million in the state, creating more than 3300 jobs for cast, crew and extras.
Among the 14 productions are three feature films, six television series, two factual programs and two multiplatform productions.
Contact this reporter at bswift@www.if.com.au or on Twitter at @bcswift.
Screen NSW Production Fund investments
In Your Dreams
Children’s TV – Series
Company: Southern Star Entertainment
Writers: Kim Goldsworthy, Julie Miller, Tim Goulding
Producer: Noel Price
Director: Ralf Strasser
Synopsis: Non-identical twins, Samantha and Ben Haselton suddenly find themselves uprooted from their conventional life in suburban Australia and heading off to spend four months with some distant relatives, the von Hasenburgs, in Germany. They are eccentric aristocrats who own an extremely large castle. But times are tough.
Brandon Goes Bush
Children’s TV – Series
Company: North One Television Australia
Writers: Dan Goldberg, Colin Thrupp
Producer: Dan Goldberg
Director: Mark Barnard
Synopsis: Brandon Goes Bush follows the adrenalin-fuelled adventures of Brandon Walters, who takes Kayne Tremills on a mesmerising Aboriginal-inspired journey to find the wildest and wackiest animals on the continent.
After Six-Four
Multiplatform
Company: Freehand Productions
Writer/Director: Jiao Chen
Producer: Ester Harding
Synopsis: After Six-Four is an online, interactive documentary that weaves together the stories of June 4 Tiananmen Square protest refugees and post-Tiananmen youth who represent the new face of modern China, to explore both the personal impact of the event and the subsequent evolution of one of the world’s most powerful nations.
This Christmas
TV Drama – Series
Company: Jungleboys
Writers: Trent O’Donnell, Phil Lloyd
Director: Trent O’Donnell
Producers: Andy Walker, Phil Lloyd
Synopsis: Once a year we visit the Moody household at Christmas as they come together to share this universally celebrated holiday, stuffed full of all the fun, fights, bad gifts, boring uncles, overbearing in-laws, shocking family secrets and bizarre eccentricities that any family who’s experienced the melting pot of Christmas Day will relate to.
Jo B. G. Raff
Children’s TV – Series
Company: Blink Films
Writers: Melanie Alexander, David Witt
Producer: Michael Bourchier
Director: Libbie Doherty
Synopsis: Jo B. and G. Raff are best friends and the hosts of their very own TV show. Each episode G. Raff goes off on an adventure and Jo B. has to track him down and bring him back. Along the way they compromise and learn to appreciate each others’ perspective that helps them find win-win solutions to life’s many problems.
Puberty Blues
TV Drama – Series
Company: Southern Star Entertainment
Writers: Fiona Seres, Alice Bell, Tony McNamara
Producer: John Edwards, Imogen Banks
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Synopsis: Puberty Blues is an Australian classic – it chronicles a special moment of our history. Historically, sociologically and psychologically it’s a story of a critical moment.
The Grandmothers
Feature – Drama
Company: The Grandmothers Pty Ltd
Writer: Christopher Hampton
Producer: Andrew Mason
Director: Anne Fontaine
Synopsis: Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing has created this beautiful and heart wrenching story of two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenaged sons. Adapted by Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton, this is an erotic tale of misguided love and a celebration of the enduring nature of female relationship.
Micro Nation
Multiplatform
Company: Freehand Productions
Writers: Andrew Garrick, Alexandra Lee, Adam Yardley
Producer: Linda Ujuk
Director: Andrew Garrick
Synopsis: Diamonds! Freedoms! Idiots! A comedy about greed, power, fear and freedom against a very silly backdrop of a rural micro nation.
Tender
Factual – Single
Company: Scarlett Pictures
Writer/Director: Lynette Wallworth
Producer: Kath Shelper
Synopsis: What does it take to be unafraid … maybe just the love of a good friend? Two friends, three funerals, and a community learning to care for its own.
Devil’s Dust
Feature – Drama
Company: Fremantle Media Australia
Writer: Kris Mrksa
Producers: Antonia Barnard, Stephen Corvini
Director: Jessica Hobbs
Synopsis: Devil’s Dust is a thriller of David and Goliath proportions, ripping the cloak of secrecy from a huge corporate scandal that exposes how asbestos multi-national company James Hardie oversaw a strategy that by ignoring the dangers of asbestos for decades was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
I Can Change Your Mind About Climate Change
Factual – Single
Company: Smith & Nasht Pty Ltd
Writers: Simon Nasht, Max Bourke
Producer: Simon Nasht
Director: Max Bourke
Synopsis: Two passionate and influential Australians try to change each other’s minds on the defining issue of our time: climate change. Liberal Party powerbroker Nick Minchin joins the founder of the Youth Climate Coalition, Anna Rose, on an international journey into the science, psychology and emotion of the climate change debate.
2.22
Feature – Drama
Company: Lightstream Pictures
Writers: Paul Currie, Todd Stein
Producer: Jackie O’Sullivan
Director: Paul Currie
Synopsis: Dylan Boyd’s life is derailed when an ominous pattern of events begins to permeate his life, funnelling him into Grand Central Station every day at 2:22PM. When he falls for a beautiful woman, whose life is threatened by these strange events, he must figure out a way to solve the mystery of 2:22.
Dance Academy – Series 3
Children’s TV – Series
Company: Werner Film Productions
Writers: Samantha Strauss
Producer: Joanna Werner
Synopsis: Tara and her friends are now seniors at the Academy and no one can forget for a second that the Company is watching. It will be a nail-biting chase to the finish line to see who will be offered a contract and finally achieve what they have been working towards for so long… and who will have to find a new dream.
Almost French
Feature – Drama
Company: Essential Media and Entertainment
Writer/Director: Kate Dennis
Producer: Sonja Armstrong, Raphael Benoliel
Synopsis: A chance meeting with an enigmatic Frenchman catapults Australian journalist Sarah into a romantic new life in Paris. Struggling to become almost French, she clashes with the culture and wrestles her identity.