It’s been more than 50 years since schoolteacher John Grant’s descent into the dregs of the fictional outback mining town Bundanyabba first lit up the screen in Cannes, helping to change the course of Australian cinema as a defining work of the New Wave movement.
Not only did Ted Kotcheff’s adaptation of Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel leave the likes of Martin Scorsese speechless, but it demonstrated an innovative approach to independent horror that the country’s industry has maintained through Wolf Creek, the Saw franchise, and The Babadook, right through to Talk To Me, Late Night with the Devil, The Moogai and the upcoming Together.
With this in mind, Wake in Fright Trust has teamed up with Umbrella Entertainment, Sanctuary Pictures, and AACTA to launch the Wake in Fright Development Initiative, a national program offering $30,000 of funding and hands-on development support to bring a thriller or genre horror script to life.
Entries open to writers across Australia from July 1, with Frontieres executive director Annick Mahnert, WME agent Jonah Rabb, and No Coincidence Media CEO Mitch Stanley on board to assess the scripts.
Umbrella general manager and Sanctuary Pictures producer Ari Harrison said they tried to keep the program “relatively open”, with only a pitch and treatment required to be eligible.
“I understand how tough the development funding side can be, and that road can be really time consuming if you get knocked back,” he said.
“It could be 6-9 months of waiting and doing nothing when you could be working, so we definitely try and encourage people to get working on their own.
“State agencies do have certain quotas they need to fill and boxes they need to tick [with funding] but ours is somewhat a commercial focus and avenue, as well as what we think can actually get made.
“That’s why we’ll help from a distribution lens as well.”
The initiative coincides with Umbrella’s recent release of a 4K restoration of the film, which will have a physical media release next month after playing in select Australian cinemas.
Like its protagonist, the film’s journey has been anything but straightforward. The camera negatives went missing for almost three decades following its initial box office run, which drew only mild interest despite its Grand Prix du Festival nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film’s editor, Anthony Buckley, would track them down in the late ’90s, but it wouldn’t be until 2004 that all 263 cans of the film were sent to the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia to be preserved. The NFSA would then work with Atlab/Deluxe to digitally restore Wake in Fright, ahead of its premiere in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2009. It would also screen at the Sydney Film Festival a month later.
A year prior, the Wake in Fright Trust was established to handle royalties from the restored version, which Umbrella represents internationally.
The Wake in Fright Development Initiative was established after the Trust provided development support for Andrew Dillon and Jon Bell’s upcoming remake of the 1984 Australian cult horror film, Razorback, in May last year. To be produced by Sanctuary Pictures and directed by the Spierig Brothers, the film will reimagine Russell Mulcahy’s thriller about a vicious wild boar that terrorises the Australian outback.
Harrison said his company had been working with the trust to utilise the funds it had received over the past 10-20 years of distribution for the film into a multi-year form of industry support, rather than a one-off opportunity.
“We’ve decided the best way to support emerging talent, which is what they wanted to focus on, was through development initiatives, allowing for any filmmaker or filmmaking teams to come through with an application for development of their films,” he said.
It didn’t take long for him to approach AACTA awards and industry development manager Ivan Vukusic, an Umbrella alum, about the possibility of coming on board.
“We’re always really supportive of emerging and mid-tier filmmakers, as we have been running initiatives for a few years now,” Vukusic said.
“I’ve got some history with Umbrella because I used to work there, so it was great to reconnect in this way, particularly with a skew towards elevated genre and horror.
“That’s up my own personal alley, so I’m looking forward to supporting those types of filmmakers.”
In a statement, Wake in Fright Trust Chair Michael Neary said they were proud to support work that embraces risk, originality, and a true sense of place.
“This initiative is about honouring the legacy of Wake in Fright not just by looking back, but by looking forward — backing the next wave of filmmakers who are willing to challenge, unsettle, and redefine what Australian cinema can be,” he said.
Entries close at 5pm AEDT on Tuesday, August 12. For more information and to apply, visit aacta.org.