Writer Lucy Campbell, director Matt Vesely, and producer Bettina Hamilton have become the first team from the Film Lab: New Voices development program to have their project greenlit for production.
Science fiction thriller Monolith will receive funding from the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and Adelaide Film Festival, with the film to be wholly produced and post-produced in SA before premiering at the festival in October.
The film follows a headstrong journalist whose clickbaiting investigative podcast uncovers a strange artifact, an alien conspiracy, and the lies at the heart of her own story.
Delivered through the SAFC and Adelaide Film Festival with support from Mercury CX and Screen Australia, Film Lab: New Voices is an intensive low-budget feature film skills development program for the next generation of South Australian filmmaking talent.
Monolith‘s greenlight comes after an 11-month development lab, funded by SAFC and Screen Australia, during which three teams were invited to develop scripts from initial concept to the third draft with assistance from experienced industry mentors.
In a statement, Campbell, Vesely, and Hamilton said the process provided them with project momentum they “would never have achieved otherwise”.
“We are grateful to the mentors we’ve had throughout development, very proud of the script Lucy has written, and extremely excited for the opportunity to bring it to life to share with audiences this October,” they said.
The other teams of writer/director Peter Ninos and producer Georgia Humphreys, writer/director Madeleine Parry and producer Peta Bulsara (Astbury) are continuing to develop their projects for pitching to the market.
Ninos and Humphreys are collaborating on The Mati, which is about young gay Greek man must face an evil superstition in order to escape a prison of his own making.
In Parry and Bulsara’s The Storm, siblings visit their father on the one-year anniversary of their mother’s death to discover he is planning to sell the family home; revealing secrets that threaten to divide the family.
SAFC CEO Kate Croser said the initiative had so far produced three incredibly strong scripts from three innovative and ambitious creative teams.
“We are thrilled with the outcome of the inaugural edition of Film Lab: New Voices and congratulate all three creative teams who have embraced the ethos of low-budget filmmaking to drive their creativity and innovation in screen storytelling,” she said.
“South Australia has a proud history of globally successful, original, and inventive low-budget filmmaking, and we are pleased to create opportunities which build on that legacy with a talented new generation.”
CEO and creative director of the Adelaide Film Festival Mat Kesting said the event was proud to showcase the work of new local cinematic voices.
“An important remit of the Adelaide Film Festival is to increase and stimulate innovative and new screen production in South Australia and to raise the profile of arts and screen culture in South Australia for audiences and practitioners. Film Lab: New Voices fulfills both of those missions and we are thrilled that this year’s Festival will present Monolith.”
The second round of Film Lab: New Voices, opened in August, with the announcement of seven shortlisted teams earlier this month. The three successful teams will be announced in early March.