Universal International Studios has announced that Matchbox Pictures will cease operations, marking the end of one of the most prominent and prolific production companies in Australia.
In a statement provided to IF, the studio said the decision to close the company followed “extensive evaluation of the business and the broader production landscape.”
“Universal International Studios maintains its commitment to Australia, but as strategic priorities shift the studio is evolving its operating model in the region,” it said.
“Moving forward the company will evaluate production opportunities and engage with local producers and talent on a case-by-case basis as new projects emerge.”
The studio added Matchbox had “a long and distinguished history” and had played a significant role in elevating Australian creative talent.
In 2018, Ayres launched his own company Tony Ayres Productions (TAP), backed by Matchbox and Universal International Studios; it will also cease operations as part of this decision. Ayres is currently focused on writing.
Across its history, Matchbox produced more than 55 projects, working with every network in Australia and a variety of international partners. While best known for high-end scripted drama, its slate spanned both film and television across a variety of genres, including children’s, comedy, documentary and reality. It won Screen Producers Australia’s production company of the year award three times.
2011’s The Slap was widely regarded as a turning point for the international perception of Australian drama. International distributor DCD Rights sold it around the world, including to the BBC, Arte, SundanceTV and DIRECTV, as well as a format deal in the US. DCD RIghts CEO Nicky Davies Williams has previously said the series helped convince global buyers that Australian scripted television could be world class.
In recent years Matchbox also provided production services for a variety of Universal projects in Australia, such as La Breaand All Her Fault.
“Matchbox has made an enormous contribution to the Australian film and television landscape with groundbreaking programs that have defined our industry and captivated audiences here and around the world. I’m immensely proud of the achievements of the entire Matchbox team and the quality of work that the company has produced over the past 18 years,” said managing director Alastair McKinnon in a statement.
In addition to its founders, Matchbox Pictures has been home to many prominent industry names, with current and past staff including Amanda Higgs, Debbie Lee, Louise Fox, Kylie Washington, Chris Oliver-Taylor, Que Minh Luu and Matt Vitins.
The company has been committed to diversity and inclusion, as recognised by the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network in 2018 for projects such as serial The Heights and drama Hungry Ghosts. It has also been a leader in environmental sustainability and was one of the founding members of Sustainable Screens Australia.
Patrick Hughes has just rolled camera on the Gold Coast on his (as yet untitled) Amazon MGM Vietnam War thriller, which centres on Navy SEAL Mike Thornton, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Alan Ritchson, who co-wrote the script with Jason Hall and Mark Semos, stars as Thornton, with the cast also including Joe Cole and Australian Hoa Xuande. Production is underway at Village Roadshow Studios, with the film lured Down Under by the Location Offset and Screen Queensland’s Production Strategy. The project is expected to create 260 jobs for local cast and crew and inject an estimated $50 million into the Queensland economy. Sylvester Stallone and D. Matt Geller are producing under Balboa Productions, alongside Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman and Alex Young, Ritchson’s AllyCat Entertainment, and Alan Rautbort.
Gerard Butler-starrer Empire City is still underway Melbourne. Directed by Love and Monsters‘ Michael Matthews and written by Brian Tucker and S. Craig Zahler, the film centres on a hostage crisis that erupts inside New York’s Clybourn Building. Butler is firefighter Rhett, who with his squad and NYPD wife Dani (Hayley Atwell), must fight and navigate his way through the building to rescue captives. Filming is taking place at Docklands Studios Melbourne and on location throughout the city, with Swanston and Collins streets dressed as downtown Manhattan earlier this month. The film is supported by the federal Location Offset and the Victorian Screen Rebate. Australian Paul Currie is among the producers, who also include Marc Butan and Alan Siegal.
Production remains underway in Brisbane on the world’s favourite blue heeler’s big screen debut, the CG animated Bluey: The Movie. Written and directed by the series creator Joe Brumm, the film features the show’s regular vocal cast, including Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack. Amber Naismith is animation producer with Richard Jeffery co-director, while EPs include Justine Flynn for BBC Studios, and Ludo Studio’s Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson. Cosmic Dino is providing end-to-end CG animation services for the project. Disney has worldwide theatrical rights, with the film to be released in August 2027.
Brisbane’s Like A Photon Creative are the lead producers on animated feature Neverending Pillow Fort, an adaptation of the hit children’s novel of the same name by Will Taylor. A partnership with MIMO Studios and Crayola Studios, the film follows lifelong best friends Maggie and Abby as they go through their first growing pains of adolescence, uncovering a secret world that connects in mysterious and wondrous ways. Like A Photon previously worked with MIMO Studios on The Pout Pout Fish, which is currently in cinemas and has earnt, as of yesterday,
Independent family feature Big Sister, written, directed and executive produced by Andrea Belmonte, is, per Instagram, on its last week of filming on the Gold Coast. Belmonte stars as Andy, a UK medical exchange student who loses her passport the night before her flight and is pulled into an unexpected adventure by her Australian host sister Mia (Chloe Haraldson). The project is the first from Belmonte’s production company Cinemonte.
Director Matthew Holmes has shot three block of The Sundowner, with filming to finish early this year. Set in 1934, it follows a traumatised WW1 veteran living as a swagman gradually becomes a desperate and dangerous fugitive. The cast includes Joshua Jaeger, Arthur Angel and Jacob Junior Nayinggul. Holmes wrote the script with Aidan Phelan, and produces with Felipe Teplitsky, Russell Cunningham and Joshua Little.
Horror/thriller Heritage, written and directed by Les Zig, is still filming in Melbourne, looking to wrap around April. Ana Isabel produces the film and leads the cast as Sara, a charlatan clairvoyant with a family history of paranoid schizophrenia who begins experiencing visions. The cast also includes Scott Major, Carmelina Di Guglielmo, Diviya Mahto, Day Straube, Greg Pandelidis, Seth Kannof, Fiona Crombie, Sophie Alice, Loren Lennox, Antonios Baxevanidis, Marty Rhone, Kashmala Burney and Divi Mahto.
Director Maria Isabel de la Ossa’s indie film My Inner Child, shooting in Sydney, is on a short holiday break and will return to filming next month through to April. Written by Michelle Rouady and produced by Thea O’Conor, the film follows adults questioning their life choices who meet their inner children, revealing tension between societal duties and authentic living. The cast includes Tahlia Crinis, Rouady, Ken Welsh and Clara Helms.
WA filmmaker Peter Renzullo continues to film his latest feature, The Jewel Wasp. Shooting mostly at Perth City Farm, the micro-budget psychological thriller follows an underground agency dedicated to capturing perpetrators of horrific crimes before they are caught by law enforcement. The cast includes Jay Jay Jegathessan, Kate Lloyd, Paul Cozens, Nate Garnett, Steve Kio, Laura Mac, Grace Garnett, James Broadhurst, Vipin Murikulathil and Ricky Pulko. Ian Hale is executive producing, with Halo Films to handle distribution.
Coming-of-age drama Powder Milk and Ice Cream, written and directed by Brian Jewell, just wrapped a three-day second block in Victoria at Bacchus Marsh, with a 12-day block to follow in April in Trentham. Set it a small rural town in early 2020s Australia, it follows Mandy (Stella Shute) and Joey (Devi Berends), who share a gentle, blossoming first love, nurtured by friendship and innocence, until an unexpected tragedy quietly reshapes the course of their young lives. The cast also includes Jewell, Sarah Crowle, Jessica Stanley and Caio Macdonald, while The Wiggle’s Anthony Field will make a cameo as a publican. Verdict Film Group has boarded the production.
ABC/Gristmill’s satirical comedy Ground Up, which centres on Tasmania’s efforts to enter the AFL, is currently underway, with production spanning both Tasmania and Victoria. Created and written by Gary McCaffrie, it follows AFL administrator Hugh Shen, played by Sam Pang. All six episodes will be directed by Gristmill’s Wayne Hope, who produces with Robyn Butler, MaryAnne Carroll and McCaffrie.
Hugo Weaving and Heather Mitchell topline Paramount+ and Roadshow Rough Diamond’s romantic drama Dalliance, which is currently in its second week of shoot in Sydney. Weaving is Billy, a former cameraman, who encounters Mitchell’s Dani on a Sydney Harbour ferry as their different worlds intersect. The cast also includes Georgie Parker, Noah Taylor and Wayne Blair. Mitchell is an executive producer alongside John and Dan Edwards, with Pip Karmel the lead writer.
Production is still underway in Victoria on season two of Binge’s High Country, from Curio Pictures. Leah Purcell reprises her role as Detective Andie Witford, who is drawn this season into a bigger case than she could have ever imagined.New faces in the cast this season include Brendan Cowell, Ryan Corr and Nadine Garner, while Ian McElhinney, Sara Wiseman, and Aaron Pedersen return. High Country is created John Ridley and Marcia Gardner, who the second season with Kim Wilson and Beck Cole, with Lucy Gaffy and Ben Lucas directing and Jo Porter, Rachel Gardner and Angie Fielder producing. Production is taking place across Jamieson, Mansfield and Eildon, as well as in greater Melbourne.
Media World Pictures’ 26 x 11 mins animated sitcom Happy House, for the ABC, is in production in Victoria. Co-created and written by Alix Beane and Marisa Nathar, the series is set in a world where internet-famous animals are the creators of their own adorable viral content. Directed by Kelly Lynagh, Happy House features animation from 12field Animation. Carmel McAloon is producing with executive Producers Colin South, Carmel McAloon Beane and Nathar.
The second season of ABC’s animated children’s series Do Not Watch This Show, remains in production in Victoria. The Lee Bones Production series is based on the book series Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee, who writes alongside Jason Marion and Ray Matsen. Patrick Crawley directs, with series producer Nick Campbell, line producer Megan Brock and producers Lee and Greg Sitch. The first season has been a hit for the ABC, which reports the first episode hit an average audience of more than 2.5 million.
Have we missed anything, or want to add and update any changes? Email us at publicity@if.com.au.
For more information on projects in development, pre-production, in production and post-production, upgrade your subscription to include our In Production listings.
The Survivrs cast and creators arrive at ACMI, Melbourne for an exclusive screening of new Aussie limited-drama series last year. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Organic PR)
Tony Ayres Productions’ mystery series The Survivors has retained its position as the most-watched Australian TV series on Netflix in the streamer’s latest engagement report, garnering 8.3 million views and a total of 41.1 million viewing hours in the second half of last year.
Based on viewing data from July to December, the report measures engagement by views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) and represents 96 billion hours watched on Netflix.
Released on June 6, The Survivors stars Charlie Vickers as Kieran Elliott, a young man whose life changed forever when three people died in the seaside town where he grew up. The Tasmanian-shot series ranked 183rd in the latest report, having reached 44th in the previous edition with 19.7 million views.
Other local titles in the top 1000 included Gristmill’s The InBESTigators S1 & S2 (4.2 million and 3.8 million views) and Little Lunch (2.9 million views), Glenpictures’ Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance (4 million views), and Easy Tiger and Ronde Media’s neo western Territory (2.7 million views).
Season 2 of dark comedy Wednesday was the most-watched show in the report, with 124 million views, while Season 1 ranked eighth with 47 million views.
There was some Australian representation in the top three, with the limited series Untamed, led by Eric Bana, coming in third with 92.8 million views.
Bana executive-produced and starred in the Warner Bros. Television mystery-thriller, which follows a special agent for the National Parks Service whose investigation of a brutal death sends him on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. The series has been renewed for a second season.
Anna Torv as Tig Pollard in Dustfall. Photo: Vince Valitutti / Soapbox Productions.
Everywhere you look, Australian television is struggling. Well, almost everywhere: there’s one genre that’s managed to hang on while the others battle to survive. We speak, of course, of crime.
Or to be more specific, crime that involves a mystery; the days of Underbelly are sadly far behind us (sorry Run). The ABC and the streaming services do still make the occasional dramedy or topical take on social issues, but the glue that holds them together? Yeah, it’s crime.
Which provides an opportunity for people looking to get a toehold on our television screens. But you can forget about dusting off that autobiographical blog post about the time you put a bunch of fancy bananas through the scanner at Coles and said they were the cheap ones. When you’re talking Australian crime drama, there are some very strict rules you need to follow if you’re going to get your foot in the door.
Fortunately, we’ve put together a guide.
How to make an Australian crime series – quick links
You have two choices: scenic coastal small town, or scenic outback small town. Don’t get too attached, because your final choice will almost certainly come down to wherever offers you the most (or any) funding. Ever wondered why multiple crime series have been set in Tasmania in recent years? Mystery solved.
As for why your murder mystery is going to be set in a small town, and not any of the major cities where most Australians actually live and murder each other, the reason is simple. The overseas markets you’ll be trying to sell your series to already have big cities and they’re not interested in the Australian version. The desert or the coast, that’s what they like to see, and if you can pick up some funding from a tourism body to promote those areas, every little bit counts.
Step two: the lead
Somewhat surprisingly considering Australia has multiple networks aimed directly at older viewers, forget about a Vera-style older or quirkier hero. Our murder detectives are all (relatively) young, good looking, and – this is the important part – haunted by something in their past that has brought them back to the small town they once called home.
If your story doesn’t begin with your lead arriving wearing a concerned expression because they’re not sure how the locals are going to react to seeing them back in the small town they once called home, you should pack up and go home (to the small town you once called… you get the idea) because your story isn’t going anywhere (let alone the small town you… I’ll stop now).
Sure, sometimes there’s room to mix it up a little. Maybe your lead is a fish-out-of-water type who’s been paired with a local who knows where the bodies are buried? Whatever. Australian crime series are lean mean storytelling machines and everything that doesn’t drive the plot forward (unless it’s long lingering shots of the scenery sponsored by the local tourism body) falls by the wayside.
You need a lead with a past because pre-established relationships are a storytelling shortcut that a crime series can’t survive without. Even if you’ve got six hour-length episodes, you don’t have time for your hero to slowly figure out who’s who and what’s what. And they can’t be welcomed back with open arms, because where’s the drama in that? They left town years ago under a cloud, now they’re back and nobody’s happy to see them. Case closed
Step three: the locals
Steve Bisley, Madeleine Sami and Kate Box in Deadloch Season 2. Image: Prime.
They’re not always stock characters, but they are just pieces to be moved around the board. Get ready to meet the old flame, the bungling or inexperienced local cop (because if they knew what they were doing, we wouldn’t need the lead), the old folks with ‘A Past’ who may or may not have Alzheimer’s, the angry blokes down the pub, the sleazy rich dude who owns the town, his bozo henchmen, the bitchy wine mums, the kids on bikes who maybe saw something, and some broad Aussie cliches the writers have a grudge against.
Fortunately, decent casting can disguise a lot of these flaws. What you really want is some quality local actors – preferably comedians, as they’re great at doing a lot with a little – to play these roles, because then your scenic small town might feel like a place where people actually live, and not just a cardboard backdrop for a couple of murders and a bunch of lectures disguised as conversation.
Step four: the crime
It’s either a murder or a disappearance that might as well be a murder, depending on whether the murder victim is interesting enough to bring back later. But that still gives you plenty of leeway to mess around… okay, you only really have one of two ways to mess around: either the murder was personal, or it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Personal is when it turns out the victim was killed for relatively mundane reasons. Sometimes, if you’re feeling especially bold, you can even make it an accident. It doesn’t really matter, because along the way there’s going to be a whole bunch of other crimes and shonky business brought to the surface – so much so that it’ll feel like just maybe the murder was little more than an excuse to take the viewer on a journey through the lives of a bunch of sordid and petty people.
Tip of the iceberg is when the victim was killed for big deal reasons, which usually means they were involved in some kind of criminal big deal. Maybe they were a troublemaker, maybe they were involved and wanted to escape, maybe they stumbled onto something they shouldn’t have. It doesn’t really matter, because along the way there’s going to be a whole bunch of other crimes and shonky business brought to the surface – so much so that it’ll feel like just maybe the murder was little more than an excuse to take the viewer on a journey through the lives of a bunch of sordid and petty people.
Step five: the plot
So if all the crimes are the same kind of crime, what makes one crime series different from another? That’s where the plot comes in – and this time you really do get a choice.
Behind door number one is the traditional murder mystery. This is a murder that’s an actual mystery – the audience is given enough clues to (in theory) figure out who the killer is before the big reveal at the end. These are seen as a little old fashioned these days, but they’re still an audience favourite, especially when they’re done well.
The Death in Paradise series is a good example, including the local version, Return to Paradise – which, by the way, is set in a scenic costal small town and features a lead who returned with a cloud over her head. Thing is, they’re a bit tricky to drag out over multiple episodes, so they’re almost always a series with a string of stand-alone episodes, which are difficult to write without spending money on writers.
Behind door number two is pretty much everything else, which usually operates on what we’ll call ‘Law & Order logic’. That’s because if you watched the opening of any given episode of classic Law & Order, wandered away for 15 minutes, then came back, you’d have no idea what was going on.
Every single scene would introduce some new twist or clue or character, then follow that with another twist or new character, and after 20 minutes what started out as someone being stabbed in a hotel lobby would involve the mayor’s son building a tax avoiding sex robot based on Eva Braun.
So in an Australian crime series, once the lead has returned to town to investigate a murder, all bets are off: suspects will come and go, clues will fizzle out or reveal completely new crimes, three episodes in they’ll be fighting bikies on a fishing boat and by week five they’re in an abandoned mine filled with Second World War explosives set to explode and destroy the town unless someone sits on the detonator… for the rest of their life.
The idea is to create a story that doesn’t slow down and never looks back – the kind of thing that’ll keep viewers hooked no matter what. The big problem is that if the home viewer does gets time to think, they might start to wonder why a series that was initially about a dead girl found behind a party house is now about quality control in the wood chipping industry.
The good news is, so long as you plant a few seeds early on so it doesn’t feel like you’re making it up as you go along, things usually work out. The bad news is, you’ve probably created an unholy mess nobody is going to remember five minutes after the final episode ends. Welcome to Australian television!
‘Saccharine’ (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Shudder.)
Natalie Erika James’ psychological horror Saccharine will head to the Berlin International Film Festival in February, following its world premiere at Sundance next week.
The film will make its European premiere in the Berlinale Special section as one of 19 features from 15 countries.
Saccharine is led by Midori Francis’ Hana, a lovelorn medical student who becomes terrorised by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight-loss craze: eating human ashes. Danielle Macdonald stars as Hana’s best friend, while Madeleine Madden plays a personal trainer and fitness influencer. The cast also includes Robert Taylor and Showko Showfukutei.
A Carver Films and Thrum Films production, the film was produced by Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw. Production took place last year at Docklands Studios Melbourne, as well as on location throughout the city.
Saccharinewill make its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight section on January 22, alongside Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus and Tamra Davis’ My Best Summer (a co-pro between the US, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia).
“We’re super excited that Saccharine is going to have its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, after its world premiere at Sundance. We couldn’t wish for a better way to begin introducing it to audiences this year,” McLeish told IF.
Screen Australia and XYZ, in conjunction with IPR.VC, provided major production investment for Saccharine, with support also coming from Stan, in association with VicScreen through the Victorian Production Fund.
Maslow Entertainment will handle theatrical in ANZ, and the film will launch as a Stan Original Film on Stan. XYZ Films is handling world sales.
Berlin International Film Festival runs February 12-22.
Producer Deanne Weir opens the books on ‘The First Dress’, sharing its financing and creative process to spark conversation about attracting more private investment to Australian film.
Whether or not we really can say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, there is little doubt that we need to reimagine elements of how we raise financing for Australian feature films. Our stories are magical; they create whole new worlds, they inspire and entertain, and we are very lucky to have a policy environment that recognises the value of screen stories with significant taxpayer subsidies. But this funding is our backup. Our first mission should be to generate market and investor interest – helpful validation that there will likely be an audience for our film. Without that validation, should we really be embarking on a creative pursuit with such a high financial cost?
In a predominantly ‘high financial risk/low financial return’ environment, raising money is difficult, particularly with the changing distribution and exhibition environment. My companies WeirAnderson Films and Storyd Group have invested development and production funds into more than 25 projects, and with the joy of being part of the creative process also comes the challenge of ensuring that overall, our slate of projects will deliver positive investment returns in the medium term. Many of the projects I am involved with have first-time feature directors, usually women. For some reason these projects have a ‘triple-pike, backward somersault’ degree of difficulty rating when it comes to financing. In some cases, even where we have been prepared to invest, it hasn’t been possible to close out the finance plan, and we are all left with dreams of what might have been.
I recently spoke with Sashi Arnold at the Screen Australia Filmmaker Masterclass day at the Australian International Movie Convention. Our talk covered the arcane world of finance plans and recoupment, and the inescapable conclusion is that for independent feature films in particular, we must find a way to bring more private funding to the table, or stop making as many films, also a fair topic for discussion but I will hold that for another day. Over the last 30 years, the average amount of private investment in an Australian feature film has dropped from around 17 per cent of the budget to 4 per cent. Some of this change is explained by changes to the tax regime, but it is also because private funding of narrative features tends to be ad hoc and an often bewildering process for investors, and many producers feel ill-equipped to deal with private funders. Screen Australia has recognised this and is facilitating a taskforce that I am part of, led by Ian Murray of 113 Partners, seeking to better understand the challenges at hand and create some resources to help inform and simplify things for both investors and producers.
In the documentary space, there is a very simple way to donate to, rather than invest in, qualifying films via Documentary Australia. The WeirAnderson Foundation has used this avenue for many documentary projects that have important stories to tell but little chance of financial return. The taskforce, which will be releasing some materials this year, is looking at the role of philanthropy in narrative feature projects, and how we can make blended approaches work. I have been experimenting with such a blended approach over the last year with Boss Cat, a Bus Stop Films production with WeirAnderson Films, coming soon to a cinema near you.
The innovation journey continues with our next project, and I would like to take you on the journey as my creative colleagues and I embark on our mission to finance Melissa Anastasi’s debut feature film, The First Dress. A beautiful, intoxicating story of first love between 18-year-old Mina and older woman Leyla, our film is set in a Western Sydney bridal salon, where the making of a wedding dress is the spine around which we will weave a story of love, loss, creativity and self-expression. We believe that The First Dress will be a moving, entertaining and sexy feature film with commercial breakout potential. There are not enough stories that deal with female desire and sexuality from a queer perspective, and there is a significant audience with whom the story will resonate.
Given we are experimenting, we have decided to adopt an approach of radical transparency, and share our financing and creative process, to help create conversation and debate, and maybe even some friendly funders!
Let’s start with the basics:
The team: Writer/director Melissa Anastasi with producers Rebecca Barry, Deanne Weir and Bernadette Murray. A Media Stockade production with WeirAnderson Films
Project pedigree: Melissa is an award-winning Greek-Cypriot/Australian filmmaker. Mel was the recipient of the SFF Lexus Fellowship for her short film Chlorine which was awarded Best Director by the ADG (Australian Directors Guild) and nominated for Best Short at the AACTAs (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts). Melissa is a graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) where she was awarded both the Kenneth Myer Award for Artistic Excellence and the EU Film Award. Under a different title, The First Dress has had a range of development support including from the Venice Biennale College Cinema and Screen NSW.
The budget: $3.1m
Finance plan assumptions using rough round numbers: We are theatrical with ANZ and ROW support, let’s say $70k total (yes, it’s tough out there), that means a 40 per cent offset (call it $1m). Fingers crossed for 10 per cent budget support from Screen NSW ($290k for round figures), and for a $500k grant from Screen Oz (aiming for the Feb Screen Oz round), reinvestments of $360k, and private support of $880k. (Obviously, if Screen Oz support is higher or lower, this number moves, but let’s stick with this for the moment.) Today we have commitments of $325k of private investment and $76k of philanthropic donations leaving us an assumed funding shortfall of $479k.
How did we raise the private money so far?: We believe we can target a number of communities of interest to help us raise money and build potential audiences, so we applied to Creative Australia, and they have approved our film to receive tax-deductible donations via the Australian Cultural Fund (ACF). We launched a page on the ACF website and also held a fundraiser event, leading to $76k of donations and $325k of investment.
How will we raise the rest? Obviously we are not done yet, so we are embarking on a social media campaign to raise awareness, spread some joy, and hopefully raise the remaining funds via a blend of philanthropy and investment. We want to build a community of supporters and advocates, and have some fun doing so. Think about the campaign possibilities; get your friends together for a girl’s night, everyone wearing their wedding dresses, and all commit some money to the ACF site? Or, how about every woman in Australia agrees to contribute the price of 1 cup of coffee to the ACF site (we would be totally sorted!).
We have lots of great ideas (feel free to share any suggestions!), and we plan to share regular updates with you over the next six months as we progress. We really want to make this film in the spring of this year, and share it with audiences in 2027. Not only do we want to engage audiences with a beautiful film, but we want to find ways to share possible new approaches to fundraising.
Of course, the capital raising process isn’t the only challenged element of the feature film ecosystem. There are significant issues to debate around the distribution, exhibition and audience engagement environments, which in turn impact return profiles and likelihood of funding. The best way often to have those debates is to have an actual film to use as a case study. We are happy to offer up The First Dress for that purpose, and to keep the conversation going.
Please follow us on Instagram @TheFirstDress_Film and join us on our journey.
Screen Australia has today released the 2024/25 outcomes of the second year of its current Gender Matters KPI. In 2024/25, 56% of key creative roles – defined as producer, director and writer – across approved Screen Australia development and production funding were held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people.
Combined with the results of the first year of this KPI from 2023/24, the current average is 57%, on track to meet the three-year-average target of 50% from 2023/24 to 2025/26.
As the second year of the three-year KPI, Screen Australia Chief Operating Officer Grainne Brunsdon sees the results as a positive representation of where the industry is heading.
“Changes year-to-year are to be expected, but we’re delighted to see steady and consistent growth over time, with all approved development and production applications reaching over 50% in 2024/25.”
“Looking industry-wide, 46% of all key creative roles on projects that entered production were occupied by women in 2023/24*, matching the previous year’s result. While we know there is still work to be done in some areas, ten years on from Gender Matters’ launch, we can see positive change in an ever-evolving screen landscape. We recognise progress takes time, so our continued efforts in this space remain as important as ever.”
“Most significantly, we’re encouraged by the cultivation within games roles, as both creative and business roles reached over 50% representation for the first time since tracking of games data commenced. Reflecting on the growth of the games industry over the past year, it’s encouraging to see greater equity in Screen Australia-funded games roles.”
Screen Australia Chief Executive Officer Deirdre Brennan said, “These results reflect the vital work that continues on-set and behind-the-scenes across the industry to support female and gender diverse practitioners.”
“Screen Australia is committed to supporting an equitable and diverse sector, guided by our new strategic framework and purpose to build a vibrant, viable screen industry that reflects the depth and diversity of Australian stories.”
“We continue to collaborate with the sector to support genuine representation in the industry.”
EXAMINING SUCCESSFUL SCREEN AUSTRALIA APPLICATIONS (DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION)
The data set that informs the KPI includes Screen Australia-funded project applications in both development and production. This is the second year the KPI has examined representation of women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people.
The data is further examined through eight report categories: feature drama, TV/VOD drama, documentary, and online drama in both development and production.
The overall figures for 2024/25 show that all eight categories were 50% or over.
In 2024/25, 56% of key creative roles on approved projects were occupied by women, non-binary and gender diverse people. This is further broken down by individual key roles: 62% of producer roles, 55% of writer roles and 49% of director roles.
Producers continue to drive parity, exceeding 50% in all report categories. Notably feature drama continues to be an area of focus with only producers reaching parity across development and production.
In reviewing successful Screen Australia development applications for 2024/25, 54% of development roles were held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people, with all report categories reaching parity or above. TV/VOD development showed the highest representation at 65%. Online drama development,documentary development and feature drama development were only within a few percentage points at 54%, 51% and 50% respectively.
Producers continue to have the highest level of representation across all development categories, particularly TV/VOD drama development (70%). Feature drama development reports 60% and documentary development is at 58%, whereas producers in online drama reached 52%.
Writers are also above parity across three out of four categories with TV/VOD drama development at 64%, online drama development and documentary development both at 56% and feature drama development below parity at 41%.
Across all report categories, comparatively directors are least represented, but still reach above the 50% target for TV/VOD drama development (57%) and online drama development (52%). Feature drama development reached 45% and documentary development is at 35%. However, due to the nature and format of documentary content, directors may not be attached at development application stage.
SCREEN AUSTRALIA PRODUCTION KEY TAKEAWAYS
Across all approved Screen Australia production applications for 2024/25, 60% of key creative roles were held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people. Online drama production shows significant growth, showing the highest levels of representation of any report category with 80% of Screen Australia approved production applications creative roles held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people in 2024/25.
As with development applications, producers of Screen Australia production applications have notably higher representation in 2024/25, with women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people representing 64% of producers. Writers sit above parity at 59% and directors at 54%.
Online drama production shows significant representation of women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people with all three categories – producers, writers and directors – well above parity at 88%, 79% and 70% respectively.
TV/VOD drama production shows improvement on the previous year with all roles exceeding 60% representation: producers at 65%, directors at 62% and writers at 61%.
Documentary production exceeded parity in 2024/25 with 56% across all key creative roles. Producers led the roles with 60% representation, and directors and writers reached parity at 53% and 52% respectively.
Notably, feature drama production continues to show marked variation between key creative roles. Feature drama productionwriters and directors are below parity with women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people representing 45% and 36% respectively, while producers exceeded parity at 59%.
On the afternoon of June 2, 2002, I was happy. There was no reason to be, and I’m not usually an optimistic person, so it felt great, but strange. The St Kilda Film Festival Awards were that night, and I’d already been told we hadn’t won because one of the judges had very much hated our short film Wilfred. And yet there I was, bouncing around that apartment.
That night, I arrived at the Palace Theatre, took my seat, and seconds later a woman sat down eight seats away. A minute passed. For no real reason, I leaned forward and looked down the row at her at the exact moment she leaned forward and looked back at me. In her memory of the event, she felt it was a serendipitous connection between two people. Whereas all I remember was, “Oh no, I’ve been caught checking her out.”
Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar filming Lowdown.
At the after-party, the woman came up to me and said she was disappointed that Wilfred didn’t win best comedy. She said her name was Amanda and I asked if I could buy her a drink. I was surprised she said yes. A little later, she excused herself to talk to other people and, as she walked away, I remember thinking: “That’s her. That’s the one.”
Dad always said, “Son, when you know, you know”. But Dad also gave Christopher Skase a reference saying he was a fit and proper person to buy Channel Seven, so I took that rule with a grain of salt. But here I was. I knew. And I knew.
I tracked her down later and asked if I could buy her another drink. Again, she said yes. Again, I was surprised. There was another guy also interested in her that night. He asked for her number under the guise of organising a card game, which is Amanda’s weakness – she loves games nights. And as she gave him her number I was nearby, watching on, thinking, “There’s gonna be no card night, mate. No card night.”
Brotchie was a member of the band Not Drowning, Waving.
There was no card night.
Amanda and I went home to her place to watch the Big Brother finale, which she had taped. After that, we talked and talked. For some reason, the conversation got onto cricket and she correctly named the Australian batting order for the 1980-81 series against India, which of course meant we would have to move in together. Later, she would tell me that when I hugged her goodbye, she felt home. I felt the same.
We moved in together within six weeks, and I lived to impress her. In those early days we would lie in bed in the dark chatting until very late and I would try to make her laugh. When one of my jokes didn’t get the requisite vocal response, I would lean over and touch her cheek to see if she was at least smiling. If she wasn’t, that simple act ensured she did. It sounds creepy and manipulative now I’m saying it out loud – but it was lovingly creepy and manipulative.
When I first proposed, she said something along the lines of “wow, that’s a big step”. Now, an emotionally mature person would’ve responded by saying: “That’s completely fine. You take as much time as you want. I’ll be here when you’re ready.” But I said: “No, don’t worry about it then. I’m sorry I asked!”
I didn’t propose again until there was assurance – probably in writing and notarised – that she would say yes.
When we got back from our honeymoon, she acknowledged that an unwelcome pattern had emerged in her directing career. She would work with the writer on their scripts. (Her script editing always made scripts soar beyond their potential.) Then, just as the film was about to be financed, the producers would decide to replace her with a mediocre man – who no one would ever hear from again. And if we did hear from them again, it’s because they were selling duplexes in Parramatta. This was the playing field for Australian female directors in the late ’90s, early 2000s. Even if they’d won an AFI award as Amanda had. But she never held grudges. In our household, I ran the office in charge of grudges. It was an efficient operation. Particularly, when it came to anyone who’d wronged her. The receipts were logged and noted.
Brotchie studied a PhD in linguistics.
Sometimes, I would randomly bring up slights others had inflicted on her. And she’d say, “Oh that. I’d forgotten about that. Can’t you let it go?” And I’d say, “No. I’m German, babe. This is what my people do.”
So with her directing career going through a quiet period, Amanda decided to return to uni to do a PhD in linguistics, where she would live on a remote island in Vanuatu, creating a writing system and grammar for a language that had never been written down before, and then analysing its narrative structure.
To do this, she would need to learn Bislama – the lingua franca of Vanuatu – so she could communicate with the people about the language they were trying to preserve – and she would live in a hut in an isolated village for five months with one tap, malaria and 10,000 giant centipedes. If one of the centipedes stung you, the pain sensation was similar to a hot needle repeatedly stabbing you in the arm for three hours.
When Amanda told me of the plan, I remember being confused about why she was doing it. But I was looking at it from my point of view. What I hadn’t quite got my head around was that I’d married an adventurer. This was her métier. She loved it. She loved the challenge, the new experiences, the sleeping in the jungle. Whereas I love a concierge and a turndown service.
Before she left, I gave her a handmade book filled with blank pages for her to write a diary of her adventure. I have that diary at home. About a quarter of the way through, she writes about me visiting the island and describes me getting off the plane and looking (quote) “smaller than she remembered”. Which is not the compliment it sounds like.
When she returned home, we wrote the TV show Lowdown while she finished her PhD at the same time. I have memories of her sitting at her computer, her whole torso shaking with laughter. That generally meant she wasn’t writing the PhD. She was writing Lowdown, or more particularly, the character of Alex, which she used to exorcise everything that frustrated her about me.
Amanda loved learning. She was always curious. And honoured every challenge with a thoroughness and attention to detail. As Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies said of her: “She was bright and sharp and kind and questioning and always determined to make things better, better, better. Ooh, she could be beady, peering at the script, niggling away at something … until we all realised she was right! God, we adored her.”
Her perfectionism wasn’t pervasive. It was a happy perfectionism which got the job done.
Zwar and Brotchie at the AACTA Awards in 2013, the year The Lowdown won Best Television Comedy Series.
That’s why not getting pregnant confounded her. We went on an Odyssean journey to get pregnant. Miscarriages, IVF, donor eggs. Finally, we decided to move to the US to adopt. We were matched with a birth mother through an agency. Met her in Florida. Flew her to LA. Paid for her medical expenses. Amanda took her under her wing, looked after her cat, and made her life blissful. The woman had the baby. She gave it to us. We were parents for two days and then the woman decided she wanted the baby back. We were gutted.
But after spending a week on the couch, crying, fate intervened and Amanda’s directing career took off. First, she directed Girlboss for Kay Cannon, then Picnic at Hanging Rock, A Place to Call Home, How to Stay Married, The Letdown with her friends Sarah Scheller and Alison Bell. After that, England and Sally Wainwright came calling with Gentleman Jack, Renegade Nell and Riot Women, and then Russell T. Davies tapped her for Doctor Who.
Amanda suffered from depression. She went through a lot of hardship. She pulled herself out of it with meditation, structure and Wordle. And she was so happy in the final five years of her life. She loved her job. She loved her friends and family. She was so proud of her nieces Taylor and Brit. And nephew Cody. She said they were like oxygen to her. And then there was her sister, Rebecca. Rebecca was Amanda’s rock. The Dean Martin to Amanda’s Jerry Lewis. No matter where Amanda flew in her life – physically or emotionally – Bec and her husband, Daryl, were her safety net: they were there with emotional support, a bed, excellent advice, and sometimes a truck to carry stuff.
There was her pharmacist father Norman, whose precision, sense of style and love of cricket she admired and inherited. And then there was her mother, Joy, actress and director. As a female director, she put cracks in the glass ceiling so Amanda could soar.
Some quick facts: Amanda had an other-worldly sense of smell – that she could also use to detect bullshit. She never called it out directly. Instead, she’d ask calm, reasonable questions, gently backing liars into a corner like a sweet, five-foot-three Perry Mason, until they either told the truth or burst into tears.
She never dissed anyone’s creative output, she’d just refer to things as“not being her cup of tea” – which, coming from her, was devastating. She had a profound sense of justice. She liked things to be symmetrical. And she had an extraordinary ability to make people feel seen.
Amanda smiled at me whenever I walked into any room she was in. A smile that never stopped taking my breath away. Even when she was very sick, she would smile whenever I turned up. A few months ago, I thanked her for doing that and told her how much it meant to me. I’m not sure she was aware she even did it. The honour of having that in your life – the agony of it being taken away.
So here we find ourselves in an Amanda-less physical world. That smile, that laugh, that wit, and that unflappable happiness is no longer here.
And when I say unflappable. Not even dying rocked her. Five days before she took her last breath, the palliative care doctor told her, “Unfortunately, all we can do now is make you comfortable.” Amanda said, “Not unfortunately. I’ve had a great life. And now I’m getting ready for the next adventure.” The author Bradley Trevor Greive said it best when he called Amanda: “A deeply serious thinker. Slight of frame, huge of heart, she bent light with her gaze and held countless worlds inside her mind.”
On her last night of being conscious, she said she was so happy and so grateful. And here we are – so grateful and sad. Sweetheart, if there is an eternity, I will be looking for you throughout it. To find you and hold you again would mean everything to me. Goodbye, my beautiful girl.
The Australian exhibition sector is feeling upbeat with the country’s box office on track to exceed A$1bn ($650m) in 2025 for the first time since 2019.
Teens and young adults who are returning to the cinema – or discovering it for the first time – are partly to thank for this, say exhibitors.
“We thought they had so much content in their hands that they wouldn’t come back but they’re worn out by scrolling and are finding particular pleasure in the cinema experience,” says Benjamin Zeccola, CEO of Palace Cinemas.
Australia is a top 10 market globally, estimated to have the highest box office per capita in the world, and is the most affordable country in the world for cinemagoing, determined by dividing the average ticket price by the minimum wage, according to the Cinema Association Australasia (CAA).
“There’s more positivity in the market, especially with the behaviour of Generation Alpha,” says Marc Wooldridge, founder of exhibitor Maslow Entertainment. “[Film sharing platform] Letterboxd is driving interest, along with A24 and Neon’s [good] taste and marketing prowess.”
Ample product and a mix of films across genres and audiences is aiding recovery, he adds.
Australian cinemagoers are unique, suggests Zeccola. They want authenticity and “don’t tolerate bullshit or being condescended to”.
Back in business
According to Screen Australia, 2024 saw 55.4 million admissions in total, delivering A$951m ($619m). As of late September 2025, CAA is sticking to the forecast made at the beginning of this year that Australia’s gross box office in 2025 will exceed A$1bn ($650m). If correct, it will be for the first time since 2019 that this marker has been reached.
The box office grossed more than A$1bn ($650m) every year between 2009 and 2019, with the record of A$1.26bn ($820m) set in 2016.
In the first half of 2025, gross takings were A$591.4m ($385m), 30% more than the corresponding period last year, according to Comscore. Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie was the highest-grossing film with A$56.3m ($36.6m), nearly double the second highest-grossing title, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, which grossed A$29m ($29m), and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning which ranked third with A$23.1m ($15m).
Source: Philippe Antonello / Focus Features
‘Conclave’
As of late September, the five biggest independent film releases were Paddington In Peru (A$17.8m/$11.6m), papal drama and awards juggernaut Conclave (Roadshow, A$8.8m/$5.7m), China’s animated global phenomenon Ne Zha 2 (CMC, A$7.5m/$4.9m), romantic drama We Live In Time (Studiocanal, A$6.8m/$4.4m) and action film Ballerina (Roadshow, A$4.5m/$2.9m).
A24, now releasing select films directly into the Australian market, has taken Halina Reijn’s Babygirl to a US$2.3m gross and Alex Garland’s Iraq war-set drama Warfare grossed US$1.3m.
According to boutique arthouse exhibitor Palace Cinemas, which has 211 screens at 24 locations, the best performer on its screens to the end of September was Roadshow’s Conclave. According to CEO Zeccola, the exhibitor accounts for more than 60% of the box office of all foreign-language films from Europe. He says approximately 50% of all tickets for French-language film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (which grossed US$460,000 in total), for example, and nearly all for Greek-language film Stelios (US$461,000) were sold at Palace venues.
Sister distributor Palace Films, which releases about 12 films a year, has had hits with two French titles, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s The Count Of Monte Cristo and Pascal Bonitzer’s The Stolen Painting this year. They grossed A$1.3m ($846,000) and A$600,000 ($391.000) respectively.
The last six months have not been without their setbacks for Palace: Zeccola was disappointed with the December 26, 2024, release of Paolo Sorrentino’s Italian-language Parthenope (US$214,000) but said it’s on par with A24’s US release where the film grossed $290,000. It was a similar story with two other non-English language films, Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story (US$260,000) and Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts (US$260,000), both from France.
“While financially okay, they were such beautiful pieces of filmmaking and storytelling that I can’t help but feel a bit sad that they didn’t reach wider audiences,” he says.
Meanwhile, Madman, one of Australia’s most active distributors, has enjoyed success this year with three very different titles: Miki Magasiva’s feel-good New Zealand title Tinā (A$3.3m/$2.1m), Gints Zilbalodis’s Oscar-winning animation Flow (A$1.3m/$846,000) and Peter Cattaneo’s UK-produced The Penguin Lessons (A$1.2m/$781,000) starring Steve Coogan.
Additionally, encouraging results are coming from films released in cinemas with enthusiastic audiences from the Chinese and Indian diaspora communities in Australia.
“We’ve seen strong growth in international content, with 10% of our admissions over the past year coming from foreign-language films,” reveals Louis Georg, programmer and foreign content manager at Hoyts cinemas. “China is at the forefront of this surge and we’re proud to hold the number one market share for Chinese content in Australia.”
In addition to Chinese hit Ne Zha 2, nine films from China and India have grossed more than A$1m ($651,000) in Australia this year. They include: Niu Vision Media’s Detective Chinatown 1900, China Lion Film’s Creation Of The Gods II: Demon Force, Mindblowing’s Saiyaara And Chhaava, Tolly Movies’ Coolie and Cyber Systems’ L2: Empuraan.
Local hits
Source: Courtesy of Causeway Films
Bring Her back
The highest-grossing, locally-produced film of 2025 to date is Roadshow’s December 26 release of Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams musical drama Better Man, which grossed A$5.3m ($3.5m).
Further local films to have fared well in 2025 to date are Danny and Michael Philippou’s horror title Bring Her Back (Sony) and supernatural body horrror Together (Kismet), which grossed A$2.5m ($1.6m) and A$1.2m ($781,000) respectively; The Correspondent (Maslow Entertainment) and Spit (Transmission) are the only other local titles to gross more than A$1m ($651,000).
In September, Kate Woods’ family comedy Kangaroo, the first film from Studiocanal production arm Cultivator Films Australia, opened strongly at the beginning of the school holidays, grossing A$2.6m ($1.7m) in its first two weeks.
For Maslow Entertainment, whose release slate comprises up to 80% homegrown product, releasing Australian films can be risky.
Founder Wooldridge, one-time Australasian managing director of Twentieth Century Fox, says working on local films is “emotionally and intellectually fulfilling,” though not always “financially fulfilling”.
“It’s extremely rewarding when something works for an audience. You don’t need to go to the cinema, you have to want to,” he says. “It’s an emotional choice, not a logical one.”
Cutting Edge, one of Australia’s leading post-production houses, has gone into liquidation after nearly three decades in business.
Brisbane-based Robson Cotter Insolvency Group has been appointed to wind down the 27-year-old company, the collapse of which has sent shockwaves through the Australian industry.
Representatives for the company could not comment on when contacted by C21. A public notice states the liquidators were appointed to wind up the company following a meeting on June 27.
C21 can confirm Cutting Edge’s head of features and television, Marcus Bolton, is no longer with the company amid speculation that all staff from its Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast studios have been let go.
Cutting Edge worked across film, TV and advertising and was deeply embedded in the Australian production landscape, contributing to a wide range of projects across the industry.
Most recently it was sound and picture vendor for season one of Jungle Entertainment’s Good Cop/Bad Cop for The CW in the US and Stan in Australia.
Other recent projects include servicing high-profile inbound productions Nautilus (Prime Video), Land of Bad (Highland Film Group, Hoodlum Entertainment), Ticket to Paradise (Universal Pictures) and Thirteen Lives (MGM), in addition to local productions.
The news comes amid a crisis in the global post-production and VFX industries, which has seen numerous players go out of business, including Jellyfish https://www.c21media.net/news/animation-vfx-giant-jellyfish-pictures-halts-operations-amid-financial-struggles/ and Technicolor Group https://www.c21media.net/news/vfx-and-animation-group-technicolor-close-to-collapse-as-search-for-investors-draws-blank/ in Europe and the US.
