Press Release
The Australian Directors Guild (ADG) and Screen Australia today announced that director Stephen McCallum will be the second recipient of the Director’s Attachment Scheme, an industry incentive program funded by Screen Australia and managed by the ADG to help emerging feature film directors develop their craft. Stephen will be attached to Tony Ayres on his next feature film Cut Snake, which begins filming in Victoria later this year.
Stephen began his filmmaking career in Western Australia as a music video director, where he was twice awarded the WAMi and WA Screen Award for best clip. He graduated from AFTRS in 2011 with a Graduate Diploma in Directing, winning the FOXTEL Scholarship for Exceptional New Talent and the AFTRS European Union Travelling Scholarship. Since graduating Stephen has directed several commercials including the marriage equality advert It's Time for GetUp, which was voted AdNews’ viral of the year and has had over 8,000,000 hits on YouTube. He has directed several short films that have screened around the world, including the brutal colonial thriller Inferno, which won the Gold Plaque for Best Student Cinematography at this year’s national Australian Cinematographers Society awards. Stephen has garnered a reputation for creating dynamic stories with a distinctive voice and strong artistic vision. He has multiple long form projects in development.
Stephen said, “I'm thrilled to get the opportunity to work alongside and assist Tony in achieving his vision for Cut Snake. For me, as an emerging filmmaker, it will be an invaluable learning experience having the chance to develop my craft with one of Australia's foremost storytellers. I can't wait to start.”
Cut Snake will start pre-production in Victoria in late August.
The Director’s Attachment Scheme opportunity will be provided with three directors per year. Grant Sputore was recently announced as the first recipient and will be attached to Kriv Stenders on Kill Me Three Times, commencing pre-production in late July 2013.