Press release from Limelight PR
MIFF 37ºSouth Market: BREAKTHRU SCREENINGS and ACCELERATOR EXPRESS PRODUCER ANNOUNCED
MELBOURNE: 14 July 2010 – Seven films have been selected for the MIFF 37ºSouth: Breakthru Screenings at MIFF 37ºSouth Market, the Melbourne International Film Festival’s film co-financing event that runs 22-25 July 2010.
MIFF 37ºSouth: Breakthru Screenings showcase selected new Australian/NZ films seeking world sales agents and/or local distribution to invited buyers attending MIFF 37ºSouth Market. The producer of each film is registered for MIFF 37ºSouth: Bridging the Gap – the market’s program of one-to-one meetings with financiers/buyers, plus roundtables and networking events which has a record 74 producers registered this year. The MIFF 37ºSouth: Breakthru Screenings are: Amanda Jane’s MIFF Premiere Fund co-financed The Wedding Party (producer: Nicole Minchin), which is the MIFF 2010 opening night film; Centre Place (Mia de Rauch); Colourful Dead Things (Stuart van Eysden); Dreamland (David Jowsey); Summer Coda (Richard Gray); Surviving Georgia (Kate Whitbread and Spencer McLaren); and The Little Things (Jacob Livermore). Previous MIFF 37ºSouth: Breakthru Screenings titles to have secured distribution and/or sales agent representation include Strangers Lovers Killers, Lake Mungo, I’m Not Harry Jenson, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Blind Company.
Meantime, Sacha Rodriguez has been selected as the producer for MIFF 37ºSouth: Accelerator Express in which one producer of a short film from Accelerator (MIFF’s workshop for new short film directing talent) is selected to participate in MIFF 37ºSouth: Bridging the Gap – thereby accelerating this team’s feature project for consideration by registered buyers. Rodriguez, who produced the short film The Visitor (MIFF & Accelerator 2007), will pitch Sasha Whitehouse’s ReCycle to MIFF 37ºSouth: Bridging the Gap’s film financiers. Rodriguez’s development slate also includes the film scripts Carmen 17, God’s Eye and 2 Cell Lock Up. Accelerator short films on DVD will also be distributed to 37South: Bridging the Gap’s registered producers, thereby exposing the works of Accelerator top directors of tomorrow to today’s established producers, including Asuka Sylvie’s Pinion, Sam Peacocke’s Manurewa, Mathew Bate’s The Mystery of Flying Kicks, Irina Goundortseva’s Fatso, Kazik Radwanski’s Out In That Deep Blue Sea, Hann Hilliard’s Franswa Sharl, Ariel KIleiman’s Deeper Than Yesterday, Eddie Martin’s The Prelude, Ashlee Page’s The Kiss, Olivia Peniston-Bird’s Stony Point, Alethea Jones’ When the Wind Changes, Christopher Dudman’s Choice Night, James Cunningham’s Poppy and Edward Housden’s Muscles.
More than 60 other producers have been selected for MIFF 37ºSouth: Bridging the Gap to pitch script-stage project slates, including Yael Bergman (I Love You Too), Chris Brown (Daybreakers), Andrea Buck (The Jammed), Philippa Campbell (Black Sheep), Chris Fitchett (Blurred), Robyn Kershaw (Bran Nue Dae), Helen Leake (Black & White), Angela Littlejohn (Apron Strings), Marian Macgowan (South Solitary), Michael McMahon (The Home Song Stories), David Parker (Matching Jack) and David Rapsey (Lake Mungo). The number of scheduled one-to-one meetings between produces and financiers at MIFF 37ºSouth: Bridging the Gap has increased 26% to 915 (up from last year’s 723 and 2008’s 592, which was double 2007’s total), while overall meetings across the various strands of MIFF 37ºSouth Market (which includes 37ºSouth’s Books at MIFF and 37ºSouth: PostScript&Direct) have increased 13% to 1,182 (up from last year’s 1,041 and 2008’s 814 which was triple 2007’s tally).
MIFF 37ºSouth Market is the exclusive Australia/NZ institutional partner of London’s Production Finance Market (PFM) and the Australia/NZ producer partner of the Abu Dhabi Circle. See www.miff37degreesSouth.com for details of the market and for MIFF’s activities for industry professionals on almost every day of the festival, including the Melbourne Digital Summit and the Robert Rosen Lecture Series. For more information on MIFF, including MIFF 2010 ticket purchases, go to www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au