Six emerging screen creatives announced for 2022 Emerging Writers’ Incubator initiative

SBS has today announced the six screen writers selected for the 2022 SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator, chosen from hundreds of submissions tojoin leading Australian production companies for a year of paid employment as they forge their careers in the sector. 

The SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator is a nationwide industry initiative supporting the development of under-represented screenwriting talent in Australia, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; people who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; people who are Deaf, hard of hearing or with disability; people who are female or gender diverse; people who identify as LGBTQIA+; and people located in regional and remote areas. In its second year, the initiative is delivered in partnership with Screen Australia, state and territory agencies Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, Screen Territory, Screenwest, the South Australian Film Corporation and VicScreen, and with the assistance of the Australian Writers’ Guild.

Each year, six writers join the teams of Australian production companies acclaimed for their delivery of Australian drama, for a 12 month paid placement where they will gain significant work experience and further develop their skills, knowledge, and networks while working across the production companies’ slate of drama productions. They are also supported by the Australian Writers’ Guild with access to creative and training workshops.

The successful emerging writers selected for 2022, and the production companies they are joining, are:

• NSW: Skye Leon joins Jungle, supported by Screen NSW
• NT: Patrick Hogan joins Brindle Films, supported by Screen Territory
• QLD: Aven Yap joins Hoodlum Entertainment, supported by Screen Queensland
• SA: Elena Carapetis joins Highview Productions, supported by the South Australian Film Corporation
• VIC: Becki Bouchier joins Sweetshop & Green, supported by VicScreen
• WA: Kelli Cross joins Easy Tiger Productions (who will welcome Kelli into their NSW offices), supported by Screenwest.

Loani Arman, Commissioning Editor, SBS Scripted, said: “The Emerging Writers’ Incubator reflects our commitment at SBS to investing in an increasingly inclusive sector. Over the last year, we’ve seen the benefits that the initiative brings to both the writers involved, and the production companies they join, and we’re really excited about the impact that will have on the future of storytelling. Congratulations to all those that applied this year, especially our six successful candidates who’ve taken different paths to get to this point in their careers and bring their unique perspectives to their work that reflects voices and experiences historically under-represented in our sector. We believe in their voices and are proud to be working with our industry partners to support their continued development.”

Screen Australia’s Head of Development, Louise Gough, said: “Congratulations to these impressive storytellers, we’re pleased to support them deepen their skillset and take the next step in their careers through these year-long placements. Thank you to all who applied and the interest shown in the program. We were thrilled to see the gains made in the first year, both by the talented writers and the host companies, and it’s exciting to be partnering again with SBS and the state agencies to facilitate this opportunity for a new group of diverse voices and the capacity and meaningful engagement of host production companies.”

Kyas Hepworth, Head of Screen NSW, said: “The Emerging Writers’ Incubator is about focused skill development and nurturing of our home-grown talent. As the NSW film industry continues to expand, we need to create more opportunities for our practitioners and writers. I am excited to see how this opportunity will propel Skye Leons’ career forward as she learns from the best at Jungle.”

Screen Queensland Chief Creative Officer, Dr Belinda Burns, said; “Screen Queensland is proud to support the SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator initiative, which provides a platform for underrepresented screenwriters to create and share vital, innovative stories for the screen. Congratulations to Queensland writer Aven Yap, who will join the team at award-winning production company Hoodlum Entertainment and have the opportunity to work on incredible, Australian-made stories for the next 12 months.” 

Jennie Hughes, Director Screen Territory, said: “Screen Territory is very pleased to participate in the SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator, a wonderful initiative in providing a stepping stone for the upskilling and training of our emerging Territorian screenwriters.

“Brindle Films is one of the NT’s premiere production companies, and we look forward to seeing the growth in Patrick’s career as he is mentored by Rachel Clements and Trisha Morton-Thomas across their exciting slate of projects.”

Rikki Lea Bestall, Screenwest CEO, said:“We’re incredibly proud to be supporting Kelli Cross as she embarks on the next stage of her career through this wonderful opportunity. Easy Tiger has a fantastic track record for producing high quality Australian drama; we’re excited to see Kelli gain invaluable experience and share her storytelling talents with the team.”

Kate Croser, CEO of the South Australian Film Corporation, said: “The SAFC is delighted to once again support this initiative as part of our ongoing commitment to grow and diversify the pool of credited South Australian key creatives, and foster a screen industry which reflects the diversity and vibrancy of the South Australian community. We congratulate South Australian writer Elena Carapetis on being selected to work and collaborate with Adelaide’s award-winning Highview Productions, led by producer Lisa Scott.”

CEO of VicScreen, Caroline Pitcher, said: “VicScreen is committed to supporting the development and growth of the future generations of our industry. Congratulations to Becki Bouchier and all the shortlisted Victorians, who demonstrate the extraordinary depth of our local talent pool. Sweetshop & Green are globally renowned for their artistic vision and advocation of diverse stories, and we look forward to following Becki and all the other participants’ careers through the program and beyond.”

Susie Hamilton, Professional Development Manager, Australian Writers’ Guild, added: “The Emerging Writers’ Incubator has become one of the most valuable and practical industry opportunities available to promising, new writers. This year’s successful candidates are an exciting group of talented creatives who will undoubtedly thrive with the program. The AWG is delighted to continue its support this year.”

The six successful writers for 2022 were selected by SBS, Screen Australia and state and territory agencies from hundreds of applicants. The following applicants were shortlisted from each of the participating states and the Northern Territory this year:

• NSW: Rojé Augustin, Taofia Pelesasa and Tim Spencer
• NT: Onil Lad, Samantha Alexis Laughton
• QLD: Amelia Pitcher and Tianna Roberts
• SA: Stephanie Jaclyn and Christina Soong
• VIC: Vivian Nguyen and Holly Tosi
• WA: Jessica Bailey, Rafeif Ismail and Emma Vickery

Six writers who were selected in the initiative in its first year in 2021 have undertaken placements around the country with Sebastian Chan at Bunya Productions (supported by Screen Canberra), Lâle Teoman at Goalpost Pictures (supported by Screen NSW), Nicholas Lin at Ludo Studio (supported by Screen Queensland), Ansuya Nathan at Closer Productions (supported by the South Australian Film Corporation), Alberto Di Troia at Tony Ayres Productions (supported by VicScreen) and Cassandra Nguyen at Komixx Entertainment (supported by Screenwest).

Co-funded by SBS and Screen Australia, with participating state and territory screen agencies, the SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator will support the careers of 18 emerging writers over the three years of the program, with six successful candidates partnered with production companies around Australia each year.

This initiative is among the range of initiatives and partnerships delivered by SBS to invest in a more inclusive screen industry, and storytelling on Australian screens. Read more about this work here. 

For a PDF version of this media release, click here. 

 

About the 2022 Emerging Writers’ Incubator selected writers:  

Becki Bouchier (VIC)
Becki Bouchier is a Singaporean/Australian writer and filmmaker living in Naarm/Melbourne. She works across film, advertising and content creation. As a writer/director, Becki’s work explores the challenges faced by women, with a focus on mental health and gender roles. Her 2018 short film, Big and Tall and Hairy, won Best Director and Best Film at the 48 Hour Film Project in Melbourne. Her screenplays have been shortlisted for a range of competitions with the Australian Writers’ Guild, the Austin Film Festival and many more, and she has been accepted into the Australian Writers’ Guild’s prestigious Pathways program for two television pilot screenplays. In 2019, she made her first foray into theatre, writing and directing the play Chasing Yesterday, which premiered at the Melbourne Fringe to a sold-out season. Becki completed an artists’ residency with Platform Arts in 2020, and participated in the 2021 associate artist program with The Voice in My Hands independent theatre company. In 2022, she was nominated for an AWGIE award for her short film Snapshot. Becki has completed a Master of Film/TV (Narrative Directing) at the Victorian College of the Arts. She is incredibly passionate about bringing her stories to the world via film, and with the recent push for gender equality and cultural diversity within the industry, she feels there has never been a better time to make herself heard.   

Elena Carapetis (SA)
Elena is an acting graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and the former Resident Artist at State Theatre Company South Australia (2017 to 2019) where she worked as an actor, director and playwright. She’s also performed in work for Bell Shakespeare, Windmill Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Vitalstatistix, Brink Productions, Flying Penguin, Malthouse, The Misery Children, and Belvoir. She was the recipient of a Sydney Theatre Award for her performance in Lachlan Philpott’s Truck Stop at the Q Theatre. She most recently appeared in The Bleeding Tree for Theatre Republic. In 2019, Elena made her main-stage directing debut for STCSA with End Of The Rainbow, and directed The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race as part of the 2021 season.

Screen acting credits include Irreverent, Upright, The Tourist, After Taste, The Hunting, Blue Heelers, Water Rats, All Saints, Murder Call, Children’s Hospital, Heartbreak High, Marking Time (television), Dead Europe, Burning Man, One Eyed Girl and Look Both Ways (film). Her first play, The Good Son, premiered with a sell-out season and earned her a 2015 Adelaide Critics Circle Award as the writer. Elena was commissioned by State Theatre Company South Australia to write the Ruby Award-winning play Gorgon. As Resident Artist for the company, her plays Sista Girl (co-written by Alexis West), A Doll’s House and the trilingual epic drama, The Gods of Strangers, were performed as part of the STCSA seasons. She is currently under commission to write a major work for STCSA’s 2024 season, and her anarchic response to Sophocles’ Antigone featured to critical and audience acclaim in STCSA’s 2022 season.  Elena is the daughter of Greek and Cypriot migrants and has the privilege of living on Kaurna Land. 

Kelli Cross (WA)
Kelli Cross is a Nyoongar/Malgana/wadjela woman from the Fremantle area of Perth. She discovered a passion for the arts during her school years, compelling her to leave early and pursue a career as an actress, first in Perth, then later in Brisbane at ACPA. Those plans were put on hold to raise a young family back home in Perth. But over the years since, she has never given up this desire for storytelling, only now she is stepping behind the camera and focusing on creating her own stories, while juggling the demands of motherhood. Since she started writing and directing her own short films, Kelli has completed an attachment to Rachel Perkins on her feature, Jasper Jones, as a part of the ADG’s Directors Attachment Scheme in 2015. Before that, she won her first award for “Best Indigenous Film” for One Fine Day at the 2014 Shorts Film Festival in Adelaide, and was recently nominated for other awards such as the Australian Directors Guild Awards and the Melbourne Webfest in 2018, for directing the web-series Aussie Rangers which is screening on ABC iView. Kelli has recently finished directing two episodes of The Heights (Season 2) as part of their director mentorship program. She is also currently developing her first feature film script, Black Sheep White Xmas, and is in the development stages of RED, a feature length film of eight stories in one ‘compartment eau’, with seven other writer/directors from across WA that will be exploring the theme of missing Indigenous women. 

Patrick Hogan (NT)
Patrick Hogan is a screenwriter who has worked in film and television in the Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia. Studying screenwriting at RMIT in Melbourne, his first job in the industry was the Script Assistant under Sam Meikle for the ABC series MaveriX. This opportunity landed Patrick more jobs in the script department, learning from some of Australia’s most experienced screenwriters on projects such as True Colours, Mystery Road Origins and Kid Snow. He produced eight episodes of an IGTV interview series called On The Spot, and has been awarded grants from Screenwest, Screen Territory, the WA Museum and many more. Recently Patrick was awarded funding from Screen Territory to develop his series Black Rose. Patrick’s queer journey bleeds into a lot of his stories and he aims to speak from the heart with authenticity and a pinch of sarcasm and a bit of comedy into the mix.  

Skye Leon (NSW)
Skye Leon is a writer/director/producer with a passion for creating heartfelt and optimistic stories that move audiences toward empathy and compassion. Before starting the Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production at AFTRS in 2019, Skye spent nine years as a Youth and Community Worker, serving with teams in Australia, the UK, Europe and Canada. These experiences developed her ability to adapt to new environments and collaborate, empathise and engage with people from many different walks of life. In 2020, Skye produced the AFTRS Masters graduation project, SUNNIES, written and directed by fellow First Nations filmmaker Izzy Khan. SUNNIES was selected by AFTRS for festival distribution, co-won the CILECT CAPA 2021 prize and premiered at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival. After completing her degree, Skye was selected for an internship with ABC Children’s, as part of the AFTRS graduate program. A proud Yangkaal and Worimi woman with English and Chinese ancestry, Skye is committed to telling stories that explore Australia’s past and present from diverse perspectives. 

Aven Yap (QLD)
Aven Yap (@herroavena) is a classical pianist turned filmmaker. Born in Malaysia and raised in Brisbane, Aven has worked across a diverse slate spanning Asia and Australia. His credits include the true-crime documentary Mama’s Boy (Melbourne Women in Film Festival 2018) and the multilingual factual series The Yoga Revolutionwhich was shot in five Asian countries. His award-winning short film Piano Mums (St Kilda Film Festival, Cinefest Los Angeles, Queen Palm International Film Festival) has a feature adaptation in development with investment from Screen Queensland and Screen Australia. In 2018, Aven was one of six writers selected by the Australian Writers’ Guild to participate in the Equity Foundation’s inaugural Talent Diversity Showcase. Aven previously worked at Orange Entertainment Co and The Post Lounge in development and production roles, and before that, worked with WildBear Entertainment across 40+ hours of history, science, and natural history television for ABC and the Emmy-nominated feature documentary on Disney+ National Geographic, Playing With Sharks. Aven holds an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from Trinity College of London and has been playing piano for over a decade. 

About the 2022 Emerging Writers’ Incubator participating production companies:  

Brindle Films
Based in Alice Springs, multi award-winning Brindle Films is a prolific Northern Territory screen production company, founded in 2011 by producer/actor/writer/director Trisha Morton-Thomas and producer Rachel Clements who have collaborated on over 80 hours of film and television, from remote Aboriginal communities to international locations, including MaveriX for ABC and Netflix, 8MMM Aboriginal Radio for ABC, and Finke: There and Back and The Song Keepers for theatrical release. Creating high quality and innovative scripted and documentary content for television and theatrical release, Brindle Films has become one of the Northern Territory’s most respected production companies. 50% Aboriginal-owned, the company’s name reflects a commitment to creating unique and diverse Australian stories through collaborations with filmmakers of all ethnic backgrounds, be they black, white or brindle. 

Easy Tiger Productions
Easy Tiger is a boutique, award-winning, talent friendly Australian production company, established in 2017 under the global FremantleMedia banner by producer Ian Collie who previously ran the Drama division of Essential Media. 

Easy Tiger’s credits include the ABC drama comedy Rake (five seasons, plus a US format), starring Richard Roxburgh, Jack Irish (two seasons, plus three telemovies) starring Guy Pearce and based on the award-winning crime novels of Peter Temple, and a further Peter Temple adaptation the telemovie The Broken Shore. It is also the producer of Nine Network top-rating drama comedy Doctor Doctor (two seasons), distributed internationally (Sky Germany and others) as The Heart Guy.

Easy Tiger received international acclaim for its four-part SBS drama Sunshine – which opened the inaugural Melbourne chapter of Séries Mania in 2017, and features Anthony la Paglia, Melanie Lynskey and a fine array of new actors from the South Sudanese community of Australia.  

Highview Productions
Highview Productions is a producer of quality scripted drama and comedy. Since the company’s inception in 2019, despite a global pandemic, Highview has produced two very successful dramas: A Sunburnt Christmas (Stan) nominated for 2021 AACTA Best Telefeature or Mini Series in collaboration with Every Cloud Productions and The Tourist which premiered on BBC1, Stan & HBO Max in early 2022 to critical acclaim, smashing ratings records on all platforms and was produced in conjunction with the Emmy-winning UK producers, Two Brothers Pictures. 

Lisa Scott, founder of Highview Productions, is one of Australia’s leading producers of television drama. Nominated for numerous AACTA, Logie and Screen Producers Awards, her previous credits include The Hunting for Closer Productions, SBS’s most successful Australian drama to date, Pine Gap, a six-part geopolitical thriller for Netflix/ABC, internationally celebrated miniseries ANZAC Girls, and producer of three seasons of the acclaimed Janet King.

Hoodlum Entertainment
Hoodlum is an Emmy® and BAFTA Award-winning production company founded in 1999 by Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield and operating between Australia, the US and the UK. The company’s global slate runs across scripted and unscripted television and feature film with productions currently in development with partners including ABC Signature, Fox, Peacock, Netflix, Stan, CBS International and A&E amongst others.

Hoodlum’s most recent productions are the romantic comedy feature films CHRISTMAS ON THE FARM, which premiered on Stan, and A PERFECT PAIRING for Netflix, due for release in May 2022. Hoodlum also recently released the third season of FIVE BEDROOMS, which premiered on Paramount Plus in Australia and Peacock in the US. Other recent productions include the third season of HARROW starring Ioan Gruffudd, the second series of the ABC Signature / Amazon series THE WILDS, and AACTA winning series ALL MY FRIENDS ARE RACIST, streaming on ABC TV + iview. 

Jungle Entertainment
Jungle Entertainment produces premium drama and comedy for a worldwide audience. We collaborate with the very best creators and work tirelessly to champion their unique vision. We are known for a signature comedic tone, through which we explore the light and the dark in every story.

2021 saw four Jungle productions on air in the US, including Wakefield (Showtime/ ABC Australia/ BBC Studios), the fourth season of NO ACTIVITY (Paramount Plus), the third season of MR INBETWEEN (FX) and the second season of A MOODY CHRISTMAS (Fox). NO ACTIVITY is currently one of the highest selling comedy formats around the world having been remade in 11 territories including the US. The US adaptation is directed and written by Jungle partner Trent O’Donnell and stars Will Ferrell, Bob Odenkirk, Amy Sedaris and JK Simmons. 

Sweetshop & Green
Sweetshop & Green is an Australian and New Zealand production company focused on producing local film and TV projects for global audiences. The company is a new partnership between Sweetshop founder Sharlene George and awarded producer Gal Greenspan (Green Productions). Sweetshop & Green’s sensibilities lie with culturally diverse stories that are artistically driven. Recent production highlights include Sara Kern’s Moja Vesna (Berlinale 2022), Mark Albiston’s Datsun (SXSW 2022, Berlinale 2022) and Taratoa Stappard’s Taumanu (TVNZ). They specialise in international co-productions, developing and producing distinct projects for identified international audiences.