Director Cate Shortland is set to return to the big screen with her second feature film, the WW2-era family thriller, Lore. The project is one of a number of local films to receive production investment in the new financial year funding round of the national industry agency, Screen Australia.
Shortland has worked on television projects since her debut feature Somersault was released in 2004 to critical acclaim, made a clean sweep of that year's local awards season, and helped launch the career of its young stars Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington.
Lore is set in 1945, during the collapse of the German army . As the Allied forces sweep across the Motherland, five children embark on a journey which will challenge every notion we have of family, love and friendship.
Fred Schepisi's The Eye of the Storm, an adaptation of Patrick White's novel, received Screen Australia funding, as did a script by writer/director Sarah Watt.
The full list of film projects to receive backing by Screen Australia is as follows:
PRODUCTION INVESTMENT APPROVALS
Features
THE EYE OF THE STORM
Paper Bark Films EOS Pty Ltd
Executive Producers Jonathan Shteinman, Edward Simpson, Bob Marcs, James Vernon
Producers Antony Waddington, Gregory Read, Fred Schepisi
Co-producer Sally Ayre-Smith
Writer Judy Morris (adaptation from novel)
Director Fred Schepisi
Sales & Distribution The Little Film Company, Transmission
Synopsis Based on the novel by Nobel Prize–winning author, Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm is a savage exploration of family relationships – and the sharp undercurrents of love and hate, comedy and tragedy, which define them.
LORE
Porchlight Films
Producers Liz Watts, Karsten Stöter, Benny Drechsel, Paul Welsh, Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Writers Cate Shortland, Robin Mukherjee
Director Cate Shortland
Sales & Distribution Memento Films International (Sales), Haut et Court (France), Transmission (ANZ)
Synopsis In spring 1945, the German army collapses. As the Allied forces sweep across the Motherland, five children embark on a journey which will challenge every notion we have of family, love and friendship.
SAY NOTHING
Aquarius Films in association with Blue Tongue Films
Producer Angie Fielder
Writers Kieran Darcy-Smith, Felicity Price
Director Kieran Darcy-Smith
Sales & Distribution LevelK, Hopscotch
Synopsis Four friends lose themselves in a carefree South-East Asian holiday. Only three come back. Dave and Alice return home to their young family desperate for answers about Jeremy's mysterious disappearance. When Alice's sister Steph returns not long after, a nasty secret is revealed about the night her boyfriend went missing. But it is only the first of many. Who amongst them knows what happened on that fateful night when they were dancing under a full moon in Cambodia?
DEVELOPMENT APPROVALS
Single Project Development: Feature Development
THE CIRCUS
Executive Producer Leah Churchill-Brown
Producer Leanne Tonkes
Writer Emily Ballou
Director Emma Freeman
Synopsis The Circus is a haunting story of a family's struggle to triumph over adversity and rediscover the magic, hope and love that has escaped them. To the father and two children of his
grieving family, the circus seems a world of magic and escape, but to a beautiful woman who has spent her entire life travelling in a dusty caravan, a family seems a world of stability and love. Set against the contrasting worlds of the harsh Australian outback and the fantasy magic of the circus, this powerful and unexpected love story will change both circus and family forever.
A LIFE HALF LIVED
Producer Paul Sullivan
Writer/Director Denie Pentecost
Synopsis When her best friend commits suicide, a 20-year-old girl, Nic, who can only feel emotion through others, realises that the secret to feeling is remembering a forgotten pain that they both shared as children.
NO. 3
Hibiscus Films
Producer Bridget Ikin
Writer/Director Sarah Watt
Synopsis No. 3 is a portrait of three generations of women in their evolving roles as daughters, mothers and grandmothers, set over various time periods from the 1970s to the present day.
THE RATS OF TOBRUK
Executive Producer Jonathan Shteinman
Producer Peter Clifton
Writer Michael Thomas
Director Phillip Noyce
Synopsis The true 1941 story of the Rats of Tobruk during an eight-month seige when an Australian force took on and deferred the might of Rommel's Afrika Corps told through Australian General Mushead.
THE RIGHT HAND
Southern Light Films
Producer Timothy White
Writer/Director Julius Avery
Synopsis A young man is sent to prison where he becomes the apprentice to public enemy number one.
SKIN DEEP
Producer Don Linke
Writers James Melchior, Susan Yardley
Synopsis Nicola, desperate to be loved for who she is, suddenly finds herself engaged to two men called Felix, which makes falling in love with Patrick more confusing.
SURRENDER
Producers Drew Thompson, Antonia Barnard
Writer Michael Bond
Director Bruce Hunt
Synopsis Mulyan, NSW 1959. Anwell, a naive loner, meets Finnigan, the wild boy from the woods. The 12-year-olds form a unique friendship and make a pact, sealed in blood – Anwell will only do good, Finnigan promises to act out his bad. Finnigan's actions take the pact far beyond Anwell's intentions, soon the angel-child is dragged into a succession of acts of arson he has no control over. His only way out – beat his adversary at his own game. The conflict between the
boys leads to a terrifying and violent conclusion.
VALVE
Porchlight Films
Producer Vincent Sheehan
Writer Liz Doran
Director Andrew Lancaster
Synopsis A young man discovers he has an exceptional gift – the ability to hear infrasonic sound – and must risk everything when he accidentally hears something he shouldn't and uncovers a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.
THE WHITE MOUSE
Executive Producer Richard Stewart
Producers Peter Glover, Sue Milliken
Writer/Director Bruce Beresford
Synopsis After living and working in Paris in the 1930s, Nancy Wake married a wealthy Frenchman and settled in Marseilles. Her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and her work with an escape-route network for Allied soldiers. Eventually Nancy had to escape from France
herself to avoid capture by the Gestapo.
Innovation Program
WRAPPINGITUP.TV
Producers Kelly Chapman, Della Churchill
Writer Helen Wentland
Wrappingitup.tv is a unique and comprehensive online community designed specifically for people faced with wrapping up someone's life – now or in the future; or for planning their own estate. It will have global reach and be launched initially in Australia and soon after in the US. Dramatised re-enactments of real experiences of 'wrapping up' will inspire users to contribute their own stories, pictures and audio; and to offer support to others. Talking head mini-docs will provide expert advice by credible professionals. As well as offering valuable information, wrappingitup.tv is a virtual social community for the recently bereaved and estate planners: those who have already gone through the experience, those facing it, and those who are interested in what's involved.
