Noticias

The Twelve, starring the acclaimed Sam Neill, has been renewed for a third season, which has already begun production, Variety reports. Premiering in June 2022, the Australian TV series was renewed for a second season in June 2023, which then aired in July 2024. The upcoming third season was commissioned by the popular streamer Binge and will comprise eight one-hour episodes, similar to the previous season but unlike Season 1, which included ten episodes. These latest episodes are written by Sarah L. Walker, Matt Cameron, Mia Lethbridge, Adele Vuko, and Sam Meikle.

Melbourne-based Every Cloud Productions has taken a trio of series in development to this week's Screen Forever conference, including a dramedy from previous collaborators Christiaan Van Vuuren and Adele Vuko, as well as projects with 'Wentworth' actor Katrina Milosevic and emerging writer/director Meleesha Bardolia.

The post Every Cloud Productions announces new projects with Christiaan Van Vuuren, Adele Vuko appeared first on If Magazine.

Competition

Universal Pictures‘ “Jurassic World Dominion” stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have launched a competition for young U.K. fans of the dino franchise to design a British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) black card. The black card is the card that has the film’s rating and BBFC approval for cinematic screenings.

“This is your moment to put your mark on a piece of film history 65 million years in the making,” Pratt says in a short video released to accompany the competition launch while Howard suggests: “Get as creative as you want.”

As well as seeing their design on the big screen, the winner will also get a goody bag, a framed copy of the black card and the chance to take three people to a special screening of their film. The winning design will be shown before all screenings of “Jurassic World Dominion” which opens in the U.

Foxtel has made its first commission specifically for streaming service Binge: six-part drama Love Me from Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia.

Currently shooting across Melbourne and regional Victoria, the adaptation of Swedish series Älska mig looks at modern love experienced by different family members at three distinct times of life.

Leading the cast is Hugo Weaving, acting alongside his co-star in The Tourist, Shalom Brune-Franklin, as well as Bojana Novakovic, Bob Morley, Heather Mitchell, Sarah Peirse, Celia Pacquola, William Lodder, and Mitzi Ruhlmann.

The series marks Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia’s first TV drama production, to be made in association with Aquarius Films. Emma Freeman will direct, while Alison Bell is the lead writer with Leon Ford, Adele Vuko and Blake Ayshford.

Aquarius’ Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford produce, with WB’s Michael Brooks and Hamish Lewis executive producing. Foxtel Group EPs are Brian Walsh, Alison Hurbert-Burns and Lana Greenhalgh.

Hugo Weaving heads the diverse cast of “Love Me,” a romantic drama series that is now in production in Melbourne, Australia.

The show explores modern love as experienced by different family members at different stages of life. It is adapted from the Swedish series “Älska Mig,” created by Josephine Bornebusch.

To be presented as a six-part series with 43-minute episodes, the show is directed by celebrated Australian director Emma Freeman with lead writer Alison Bell, and writers Leon Ford, Adele Vuko and Blake Ayshford.

“Love Me” is a Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia production in association with Aquarius Films for the Foxtel Group’s streaming service Binge. Major production investment came from Screen Australia in association with Film Victoria.

Binge is an SVOD service launched in May last year by Foxtel, the News Corp. Australia and Telstra-owned pay-tv service in Australia. It offers on-demand and live entertainment across the lifestyle,...

YouTube creators hoping to follow in the footsteps of Aunty Donna or Superwog are encouraged to apply for Screen Australia and Google Australia/YouTube’s Skip Ahead program.

Designed for content makers who have a track record of reaching a substantial audience on the video-sharing platform, the initiative offers up to $120,000 in production funding per project, with up to four projects to be funded.

Successful applicants will also participate in two workshops to be held in November, for which travel and accommodation support will be provided for up to four members per project if in-person workshops are able to go ahead.

Since 2014, Skip Ahead has contributed over $3.8 million in funding to support 29 YouTube content creators to develop their skills and build their careers, including comedians Aunty Donna, Bush Tucker Bunjie and Skitbox, documentarians Mighty Car Mods, filmmaking duo RackaRacka, influencer Wengie, and mathematics educator Tibees.

Superwog’s Skip Ahead-funded pilot...

Rob Gibson and Ian Collie.

TV drama producers face a balancing act next year: How to take advantage of the 30 per cent Producer Offset while coping with watered-down local content regulations and the financial constraints affecting all Australian broadcasters – public and commercial.

For Easy Tiger, and no doubt other production companies, one solution lies in attracting more investment from international streamers, networks and co-productions.

Hence Easy Tiger founder/producer Ian Collie and CEO/producer Rob Gibson are working on multiple international deals, not just with the US and the UK, but also with less obvious markets such as Mexico, Norway and India.

In addition, the production company backed by Fremantle continues to foster new and emerging writing talent including Imogen McCloskey, Hannah Lehmann, Anchuli Felicia King and Julia Patey.

“The drama market in Australia is increasingly tough and the changes to the sub-quotas leave the industry in a much more precarious position,...

‘Robbie Hood’ features on Aacta’s Access Australia platform in China.

Aacta has launched a free streaming service exclusively for the Chinese market, featuring Australian short films, web series and industry interviews.

Dubbed ‘Access Australia’ the platform includes Oscar-winning shorts The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan and Harvie Krumpet by Adam Elliot, Dylan River’s Sbs-commissioned web series Robbie Hood, Adele Vuko and Christiaan Van Vuuren’s Canneseries award-winning comedy Over and Out, and early works from directors David Michôd, Wayne Blair and Cate Shortland.

At present it boasts 30 short films, three web series and 60 interviews with film and television celebrities from Australia, Hollywood and China, with more content to be added regularly.

It also features a variety of ‘before and after’ VFX sequences by Australian studios on blockbusters including Captain Marvel, The Great Gatsby, X-Men and Ironman, and Zhang Yimou’s Shadow.

The platform forms part of Aacta’s International Engagement Programs,...

Baz Luhrmann.

A new feature film from Baz Luhrmann, set in a small Australian country town, is among the 18 projects to recently receive story development funding from Screen Australia.

The agency announced today it will share $620,000 between 11 films, five TV series and two online projects.

These projects come from both the existing Premium and Generate development funds. Generate Fund is for lower budget projects with an emphasis on new and emerging talent, or experienced talent wanting to take creative risks. The Premium Fund is for higher budget projects of ambition and scale from successful screen content makers.

Projects pitched for Premium Plus funds – the additional development funding the agency announced in response to Covid-19 – are still being assessed.

Screen Australia head of development Nerida Moore said: “With many productions temporarily halted it is more important than ever for us to support the development of Australian stories for all platforms. I...

Adele Vuko, Christiaan Van Vuuren and family.

Screen Australia has assured producers that all the production funds for At Home Alone Together will go direct to the writers, performers and production teams whose concepts are commissioned for the eight-part ABC comedy.

The agency stressed that none of the funding will go to ABC employees. While the ABC will own the program’s IP, the content creators can exploit the IP of their characters by sharing the sketches on social media platforms and YouTube

If questioned the commissioning and funding process after being contacted by two producers who feared the funding might go to the ABC as an in-house ABC production, thus setting a precedent.

They expressed concern that producers may have to compete with the public broadcaster for direct subsidies from Screen Australia even if the production companies are then commissioned by the ABC.

Hosted by Ray Martin, each half-hour...

Ray Martin.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, ABC and Screen Australia have partnered in a comedy initiative designed to culminate in eight-part series, At Home Alone Together.

Dubbed a “lifestyle show for a world in which nobody has a life”, At Home Alone Together will be produced by the ABC and gather comedians and actors to give audiences advice on how they can live their best life in the time of Covid-19.

Hosted by Ray Martin, each half-hour episode will feature regular contributors, including comedians Anne Edmonds, Ryan Shelton, Becky Lucas, Christiaan Van Vuuren and Adele Vuko, who will share their knowledge, inspirations and advice on how to achieve self-improvement during the corona crisis, covering a range of topics, including D.I.Y, wellness, parenting and personal finances.

Martin said: “I’ve worked in journalism for over 50 years, but it’s always been my dream to front a lifestyle show.

‘Robbie Hood’.

Aacta unveiled the nominees for this year’s awards for Best Short Film, Best Short Animation, Best Short Documentary and Best Scripted Online Video this evening at Shorts+Web Fest in Sydney.

In contention for Best Short Film are: Jane Cho’s The Egg; Michael Shanks’ Rebooted; Madeleine Gottlieb’s Snare; and Curtis Taylor and Nathan Mewett’s Flickerfest winner Yulubidyi – Until The End.

Up for Best Short Animation are Lee Whitmore’s Sohrab and Rustum; Yori Narpati, Erika Ju and Quynh Truong’s Sole; Simon Rippingale’s Jasper and Greg Holfeld’s Pinchpot.

Aacta introduced the award for Short Documentary earlier this year, with the inaugural nominees Pia Borg’s Demonic, which premiered in Cannes earlier this year; Luke Taylor’s Home Front – Facing Australia’s Climate Emergency; Stefan Bugryn’s War Mothers: Unbreakable, which premiered in Tribeca, and Michi Marosszeky’s Woven Threads.

Ludo Studio are...

Over thirty new shorts across three sold-out, big-screen showcases, and an entire weekend of horror and genre-themed fun – this year’s FrightFest was one of the biggest ever for short form content. From comedies to mood-pieces, stop-motion to flat-out slashers, it was a truly diverse bunch, covering a wide spectrum of filmmakers and countries of origin. Here’s the very best of them:

There’s an awful lot to love in Stefan Georgiou’s cockney-gothic chiller The Dead Ones – a clever spin on the ghost-world formula that I won’t spoil here. Packed out with four terrific performances and a tricky, brilliantly moody plot that more than earns its longer 20-minute run time.

Adele Vuko’s edgy Aussie comedy The Hitchhiker might sound a little genre bare-bones, running off its basic title and set-up – three best friends picking up a scary-looking hitcher while on a midnight drive to a music...

From unseen forces to dangerous desires, from the remorseful living to the remorseless dead, from under the earth to creepy closed doors, Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 continues the festival’s fine tradition of showcasing the best in global genre short filmmaking. This year’s five continent selection unleashes the newest creations from both upcoming and established filmmakers and embraces a record fifteen UK films, seven spotlighted selections from Canada and a breakthrough entry from The United Arab Emirates.

Homegrown talent continues to energise the UK film industry, as reflected in this year’s entries. There’s Folk Horror and Body Horror, whilst lethal women lurk around every corner in Sleep Tight, Under The Parasol and Dog Skin. Katie Bonham returns with ticking terror thriller Midnight and Josefa Celestin is back with the darkly apocalyptic Tomorrow Might Be The Day. Another fearsome futuristic tale is Old Beginnings, while unseen danger lurks in...

‘Sarah’s Channel’ is among the projects shortlisted for the Aacta Award for Best Online Series.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) will screen a selection of the projects shortlisted for the Aacta Awards for best short film, best short animation, best short documentary and best online series as part of Shorts+Web Fest, a free event to be held in Sydney late August.

The two-day festival, to be hosted by Jan Fran (The Feed), will feature screenings, masterclasses, Q&a interviews, stand-up comedy, as well as food trucks, pop-up bars and a live DJ. The event will culminate in special guests Danielle Cormack and Jake Ryan announcing the nominees for each category.

Among the projects shortlisted for best short film are Gracie Otto’s Desert Dash; Jane Cho’s The Egg; Marcus McKenzie’s The Projectionist, which won five prizes at the South Australian Screen Awards; Madeleine Gottlieb’s Snare,...

Bridget Callow-Wright.

Jungle Entertainment has launched a features division, with a focus on international films to be shot and produced in Australia.

Producer Bridget Callow-Wright has been appointed as a development executive to assist in developing the features slate, which includes genre, action-drama, and documentary, all with the company’s signature comedic style.

Callow-Wright was formerly senior development executive at Cowlick Entertainment, and will retain her own banner Midwinter Films.

First off the slate will be science-fiction comedy Croak, about a gang of teenagers who discover that their biology teacher is harbouring a dark secret that is about to unleash death and destruction. Penned by Shane Brady and co-writer Priscilla Cameron, the film will be directed by brothers Connor and Christian Van Vuuren with Callow-Wright and Jungle COO Chloe Rickard producing.

“As well as being lots of laughs, Croak tackles important environmental questions through the eyes of teenagers in regional Australia,...

2018 Talent USA: La delegates.

Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild (Awg) have opened applications for the third year of Talent USA: La, a week-long program of targeted and curated meetings, workshops and networking opportunities for Australian creators, directors and/or screenwriters.

Up to 10 participants will be selected to take part in the career development program which will take place in Los Angeles September 15-21.

The delegation will be led by Screen Australia’s Nerida Moore, head of development and Harry Avramidis, manager international initiatives.

Hannah and Eliza Reilly attended Talent USA: La in 2018. In a joint statement, the sisters said: “Talent La was nothing short of a game changer for us. We came away with Us mentorship, signed to a fantastic team at CAA and truly learned so much about the Australian and American industry.

“Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild planned a week jam packed full of...

Best performance prize goes to Reshef Levi from Nehama (Israel).

Spain’s Perfect Life (Déjate Llevar) was named best series on Wednesday evening (April 10) at the climax of Canneseries, the TV festival that runs concurrently with Miptv in the south of France.

Leticia Dolera created the series, one of several winners on the night honoured by the Cannes International Series Festival jury of president Baran bo Odar and jury members Miriam Leone, Emma Mackey, Rob and Kathryn Winnick.

The best performance prize went to Reshef Levi for Nehama (Israel), and the special performance prize was awarded to Leticia Dolera, Celia Freijeiro,...

Best performance prize goes to Reshef Levi from Nehama (Israel).

Spain’s Perfect Life (Déjate Llevar) was named best series on Wednesday evening (10) at the climax of Canneseries, the TV festival that runs concurrently with Miptv in the south of France.

Leticia Dolera created the series, one of several winners on the night honoured by the Cannes International Series Festival jury of president Baran bo Odar and jury members Miriam Leone, Emma Mackey, Rob and Kathryn Winnick.

The best performance prize went to Reshef Levi for Nehama (Israel), and the special performance prize was awarded to Leticia Dolera, Celia Freijeiro,...

Cannes — Leticia Dolera’s Spanish women’s comedy “Perfect Life” swept the 2nd Canneseries TV festival on Wednesday night, scooping both best series and best special performance for its female leads, Dolera herself, Celia Freijeiro and Aixa Villagrán.

With Israel’s “Nehama,” a Hot Original dramedy created, co-written and starring Reshef Levi winning best performance for Levi, the 2nd Canneseries prize winners can be seen as a vindication of the drama series’ decided bet on comedy as a way to portray key gender issues.

“Now more than ever, it is important for women and men to get together and recognize the importance of gender equality,” jury member Kathrin Winnick said during the awards ceremony.

In “Perfect Life’s” case that’s gender stereotypes with its protagonists, male and female, fall short of the high-achievement traditional role models they have been brought up on – a home, husband, children. They would be happier,...

Created, written and starred by real-life husband and wife team Adele Vuko and Christiaan Van Vuuren, directed by Van Vuuren’s brother Connor, and featuring the couple’s own children in key roles, Australian zom-com “Over and Out” features as one of Canneseries best-buzzed titles in the short-form competition.

The series’ five, five-minute episodes follow Lewis and Freya, a young couple and their two toddlers, struggling to make things work in a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies, cannibals, monsters and a host of other dangers that frighten almost as much as the perils of parenting. The series uses over-the-top humor to lampoon current hot-button issues such as the anti-vax movement, PC culture and the shifting of once-traditional roles in the family structure.

Australian production house Midwinter Films, behind Toronto Film Festival Discovery player “The Butterfly Tree,” produced the series, which was developed with assistance from Screen Australia and Youtube, and...

Canneseries will again this year shine a light on the up-and-coming short-form series format. Featuring promising and innovative formats which frequently end up on platforms popular among young audiences, the competition embraces new ways in which series can and are being consumed.

Emmy winning writer-producer Greg Garcia (“My Name is Earl”) heads the Short-Form Competition jury which includes French actress-director Fanny Sidney (“Mesrine”) and Norwegian actress Josefine Frida Petersen (“Skam”). The Best Short Form Series award will be handed out during the festival’s closing ceremony which will be broadcasted live on Canal Plus.

Three of the competition’s entries come from Canada – one from last year’s winning production company St Laurent TV – two from Argentina and Australia, and one each from the U.S., France and the U.K.

The series will screen April 9 and 10.

Taking place behind closed doors, “Do Not Disturb” is a sometimes sexy, sometimes...

Adele Vuko, Sarah Bishop and Greta Lee Jackson.

Sydney comedy collective Skit Box are in the thick of filming their Fresh Blood series Wham Bam Thank You Ma.am..

The 6x30 minute sketch series, written, directed and starring Adele Vuko (Soul Mates, This Is Littleton), Greta Lee Jackson (Crazy Bastards, In a Woman's World) and Sarah Bishop (Red Christmas, Crushed), has been commissioned by Screen Australia, ABC TV and NBCUniversal.s comedy streaming channel Seeso..

Screen Australia and ABC.s Fresh Blood initiative has been nurturing the careers of young comedy writers, directors and performers since 2013. With Seeso, who have previously co-commissioned the likes of Soul Mates season two, now on board, Wham Bam Thank You Ma.am will also be available in the Us.

Erin White, Nikos Andronicos and Kacie Anning are guest directing, while special guests include David Collins (Umbilical Brothers), Triple J.s Matt Okine, Christiaan Van Vuuren...

Me And My Mates Vs. The Zombie Apocalypse sets masculine-driven comedy to an apocalyptic backdrop, where beer-guzzling Aussies dish about wanking, toss around insults and make inappropriate jokes in the face of certain death. Case and point: naked chicks run away from walkers/runners while their breasts bounce chaotically, as two paintball dudes hornily leer instead of offering help. What, the apocalypse can be sexy!

Writer/Director Declan Shrubb’s cheeky sophomore feature certainly doesn’t care about being politically correct (hence Jim Jefferies’ casting), but this focus on T-and-a comedy sometimes forgets to construct horror scenarios geared towards learned genre fans. Laughter isn’t the issue here – it’s whether you’ll be able to stomach a tremendously lax attempt at gory, over-the-top infection horror.

Shrubb’s doomsday hangout takes place in a telecommunications building where three workers are holed up. Joel (Jim Jefferies) and Darryl (Alex Williamson) prep...

Documentaries investigating Australia.s war in Afghanistan, the fight against the country.s ice epidemic and the state of the heath and school systems will screen on the ABC next year.

The comedy slate includes two series starring Utopia.s Luke McGregor and six pilots, with viewers voting to determine which pilot goes to a series.

The ABC also confirmed its flagship channel will be available to live-stream on iview from December and that it plans to broadcast all content in HD from next June.

ABC director of TV Richard Finlayson said at the upfronts launch: .As the national broadcaster we will continue our commitment to Australian content, delivering a high-quality, deep and diverse slate..

The factual slate includes Essential Media and Entertainment.s Afghanistan: Inside Australia.s War, which chronicles the raw experiences of Australia.s longest war, from private soldiers to prime ministers, written and directed by Victoria Pitt...

Would the world be a better place if it were run by women? Not really, according to Sydney comic trio Skit Box.

The creative team of Adele Vuko, Sarah Bishop and Greta Lee Jackson will start shooting It.s a Woman.s World, a series of comedy sketches, at the end of next month.

It.s one of 25 projects, each budgeted at $10,000, commissioned by ABC-tv and Screen Australia.s Fresh Blood initiative designed to unearth the next generation of comedy writers and performers. All will premiere on the ABC.s iView platform.

.There will be three sketches in the series, each focusing on a different scenario that would exist in female-dominated reality,. Bishop tells If. .These will build on the themes of our Girls Harass Construction Worker video, a gender-reversal sketch that explores what happens when women prey on passing tradies..

The three members will write, produce and act in...

Azio - The Bogan Spy Agency, Crazy Bastards, I'm With Stupid, Fancy Boy, Food for Peasants and Pet Quarantine..judging by some of the titles and synopses , the ABC TV/Screen Australia Fresh Blood initiative will spawn some weird and wonderful comedies.

A mix of puppetry, animation, parodies, improv and absurdist humour, the 25 projects selected will each receive $10,000 to produce three short-form sketches.

The shows will air on ABC.s iView platform this year. ABC controller Brendan Dahill tells If that some may later screen on ABC2 after they premiere on the catch-up service.

The initiative is designed to unearth the next generation of comedy performers and producers. There were 492 applications, many of such a high calibre that the ABC and Screen Australia decided to commission 25, one more than originally planned.

Here are the recipients: Aunty Donna Mark Samual Bonanno, Adrian Dean, Broden Kelly, Zachary Ruane

Mentored by Tim Minchin,...

They're an all-female comedy team called Skit Box. It's hard to tell if the ensemble's name is just a happy coincidence or an intentional play on words. Co-star Sarah Bishop dishes out the definitive answer. "It's cheeky but it sums up exactly what we're about: female comedy skits." Well played, Skit Box...but we see what you did there.   The new web series features comedienne Greta Lee Jackson alongside Sydney actresses, Adele Vuko and Sarah Bishop.