The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) has named the five student filmmaking teams that will take part in this year's AACTA Pitch: Focus initiative.
Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps are among the writers aiming to win consecutive prizes at this year's AWGIE Awards.
Natalie Bailey was set to shoot feature comedy 'Sumo' in South Africa when the pandemic struck, which turned out to be a blessing as she was then asked to serve as set-up director on Aquarius Films' SBS miniseries 'The Unusual Suspects'.
'Here Out West', which opens Sydney Film Festival tomorrow evening, is an anthology feature in which a baby being kidnapped from a hospital sets off a series of events that brings complete strangers together over a single day.
When screenwriter Roger Monk was offered a gig on the Aquarius Films/SBS crime caper 'The Unusual Suspects', he seized the opportunity to channel one of his favourite films, 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'.
Anthology feature 'Here Out West', which opened the 2021 Sydney Film Festival, will be released in cinemas February 3 via Mind Blowing Films.
Screen NSW has selected three teams for its Short to Feature Fast-Track initiative, and separately, has named writer and director Jon Bell the recipient of the inaugural First Nations Screen Scholarship.
Filipino-born US-star Aina Dumlao, Miranda Otto and Michelle Vergara Moore are playing the leads in 'The Unusual Suspects', Aquarius Films' 4-part heist comedy for SBS which is now shooting in Sydney.