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Screen Australia funds four new Hot Shots teams

Screen Australia is pleased to announce the four successful projects from our Hot Shots Short Film Fund.

Melon Grab

Susan Earl’s Deep Storage, Sanjay De Silva’s Lions and Tigers and Steve Pasvolsky’s Apple will all receive live action production funding, whilst Andrew Lee’s Melon Grab will receive post-production completion funds.

Short films play an important role in evolving the professional skills of producers, writers and directors. The Hot Shots Short Film Fund gives filmmakers the resources to create or complete a short fiction film and is designed for emerging talent, those re-entering narrative drama, and for testing potential longer form concepts.

These short films promise to engage and move audiences while showcasing the distinctive creative voices of the teams.

“In each of these projects we identified strength of creative vision and saw the opportunity to further develop the careers of these individuals, enabling them to connect with audiences and build towards future career ambitions”, said Nerida Moore, Senior Development Executive at Screen Australia.

The successful projects in this round of funding are:

  • Deep Storage, an affecting romantic comedy about a loner who finds love in the most unexpected place, from upcoming writer/director Susan Earl and producer Jannine Barnes.
  • From writer/director Sanjay De Silva and producer Jess Langley is a story with a distinctly Sri Lankan flavour, Lions and Tigers, about a young Tamil refugee Mithun who waits on a deserted Australian beach for his father to return.  
  • Oscar nominated writer/director Steve Pasvolsky returns to drama with Apple, produced by Joe Weatherstone, about a hidden weapon that finds its way into the wrong hands.
  • Skateboarding drama Melon Grab from writer/director Andrew Lee and producers Kiki Dillon and Ashlea Ritchie, explores how two young men come to terms with major life changes.

All teams will also receive extra funding for an industry consultant to assist with specific skill development, tailored to the needs of each team.

This year three of the four projects originated from regional centres: Melon Grab was shot on the NSW Central Coast, Apple will shoot in Newcastle, and Lions and Tigers in regional Victoria.

Click here to see further information about this round of Hot Shots projects.

The Hot Shots Short Film Fund is currently undergoing a strategic review and new guidelines are expected to be released in the coming months. For more information about this program, please click here