Petra Lovrencic.
After producing and co-directing the sketch comedy Too Pretty to be Witty under the Screen Australia/ÁBC Fresh Blood initiative, Petra Lovrencic is bound for Hollywood.
The emerging filmmaker will spend three months in the LA offices of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group and Animal Logic Entertainment, starting next Monday, as this year’s recipient of the internship with both companies.
As part of the $20,000 prize from Australians in Film she receives a 12 month industry membership of AiF and access to its creative workspace Charlie’s at Raleigh Studios.
The internship has been a springboard to employment for the recipients. Last year’s winner Lauren Brown is collaborating with the team at Ludo Studio and developing her own projects through Little Red Balloon Films.
Dave Edwardz (2015) is working as a previs supervisor at The Third Floor in London and Melanie Jayne (2016) is employed at William Morris Endeavor.
A graduate from Sydney University and Sydney Film School, Petra co-directed Too Pretty to be Witty with Fiona Gillman, who wrote the script and starred as three different types of women, satirising the generalisations created by modern media and society: a pop song about a basic bitch; a movie trailer starring Hollywood’s most stereotypical cast; and a dating game show for the career-driven independent woman. The series is screening on iview.
Animal Logic Entertainment/Sony Pictures Animation’s Peter Rabbit opened in second spot behind Fifty Shades Freed in the US last weekend making $US25 million, which was well above most pundits’ predictions.
The upcoming VREG/Warner Bros’ line-up includes Steven Spielberg’s live-action/animated science fiction actioner Ready Player One, which stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn and Simon Pegg, and Gary Ross’s heist comedy Ocean’s 8, which features Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter.
Lovrencic said: “The Village Roadshow and Animal Logic Entertainment Internship is a golden ticket for me. It is a rare opportunity that will offer invaluable knowledge and networks that would otherwise not be available to someone in my position.
“The generosity and support provided by Australians in Film through this internship makes it possible for emerging filmmakers like me to get a foot in the door of an incredibly competitive industry.”
AiF president Kate Marks added: “It is AiF’s mission to provide opportunities which help develop the next generation of Australian screen content makers. Greg Basser at Village Roadshow and Zareh Nalbandian from Animal Logic Entertainment are inspiring leaders committed to the advancement of the Australian screen industry and that is why this internship is so important to them, and AiF.”