Media Release: Screen Canberra’s CBR Screen Investment Fund Supports Record Number of Local Projects
Tuesday, 11 October
The 2021 – 2022 fiscal year saw a record-breaking number of 23 local screen projects funded by Screen Canberra’s CBR Screen Investment Fund.
The Fund, which is delivered by Screen Canberra in partnership with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government, is a multipurpose and strategic initiative that aims to foster projects with creative merit, encourage market engagement and contribute to the growth and sustainability of the local screen industry.
Monica Penders, CEO of Screen Canberra, is delighted that they are able to support so many worthy projects and practitioners.
“The demand has never been higher for screen content, and we have such a strong pool of talented and skilled professionals based here in the region, so it’s important that we are able to support them and the local industry.
“I’m also delighted to see projects that focus on such a diverse range of storylines, including stories from Indigenous Australians, women’s sport, Australian history and young people. Screen Canberra encourages diverse screen professionals, including First Nations people, people living with a disability, those identifying as LGBTIQ+, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to share their stories and projects with us.
Sophie Harper, Senior Fund Manager for Screen Canberra, says the Fund is helping to grow the local sector.
“The value of the CBR Screen Investment Fund for supporting local screen professionals, businesses, local and incoming productions and the growing sector continues to prove itself,” says Sophie. “In 2021–22, the Fund committed over a million dollars to projects with Canberrans in key roles, across its Development, Production, Enterprise and COVID support strands – 96% of all funds committed. Outstanding work is coming out of Canberra. More and more of it. Four years since its inception, the Fund is definitely making an impact.”
The CBR Screen Investment Fund Production Round 18 and Development Round 18 are open for applications now: screencanberra.com.au/funding/cbr-screen-investment-fund.
Round 18 applications close on Thursday, 13 October, at 11 pm AEDT.
Projects that received CBR Screen Investment Funding in 2021 – 2022:
CAMP CURRICULUM – Television Series – Development Loan
Juliet Moody
A burnt-out teacher is forced to retrain at a boot camp for failing educators and finds herself the unwilling defender of her profession amidst a bunch of teacher misfits.
FIVE EYES – Television Series – Development Loan
Hoodlum Entertainment
As Western democracies crumble in the wake of the Great Pandemic, a series of terror attacks rock the capitals of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
PARANORMAL BLACKTIVITY – Television Series – Development Loan
Yoowarni Productions
Imagine if Mulder & Scully were brother and sister, lived in Australia, and were Aboriginal…
SANTA WHITEBEARD – Feature – Development Loan
Tama Films
A runaway orphan girl convinces notorious pirate, Santa Whitebeard, to search for a fabled treasure in the North Pole. Along the way, she must challenge Santa’s cutthroat convictions in order to fulfil his true destiny as Father Christmas.
CHRONICLE – Streaming Service – Enterprise Loan
Wildbear Entertainment
History documentary streaming service.
AUSTRALIAN HISTORY (Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) –
Documentary – Production Investment
Wildbear Entertainment
For ABC TV and iview in partnership with the National Museum of Australia and Australian National University.
Archive, narration, graphics and interviews with charismatic Australian historians, witnesses, and thinkers. The project contains the second edition of an ongoing body of work that maps, in entertaining ways, the reforging of Australia and its peoples after World War 2, the era of ABC TV.
Diversity and the struggle for universal rights, acceptance and justice are fundamental to this period of Australian history. Every series features Australians from a broad range of backgrounds in its stories, onscreen commentators and offscreen storytellers.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS – Television Series – Development Loan
Superlative Pictures
Where the political gets personal and the personal gets political…
When Sarah (30s) lands in her new role as a political adviser in Canberra’s British High Commission after a traumatic breakup, she realises her sex life and the local dating scene could be key to uncovering secrets that could save the Commonwealth – but all whilst trying to not fall in love again.
RED STRADIVARIUS – Feature – Development Loan
Hannah de Feyter
Intimidated by her rivals at an international violin competition, a highly driven 12-year-old girl makes a pact with the Devil in order to guarantee her win.
SOUTHPAW PROJECT – Feature Documentary – Production Investment
LGR Productions
Re-teaching himself to play left-handed, The Southpaw Project follows Blake’s five-year pursuit to be the first true “ambidextrous cricketer” to play in the Big Bash League – batting, bowling and fielding left and right-handed.
MY MOB – Television Series – Development Loan
Yoowarni Productions
MY MOB follows the anarchic life of an aboriginal family as they traverse a modern Australia.
WITH MY LITTLE EYE – Television Series – Development Loan
Eyespy Project (Georgina Jenkins, Felicity Packard)
Based on a true story. When 1950s secret agent Dudley suddenly dies and ASIO casts his wife and children out from the only life they’ve ever known – helping Dudley spy – the family fractures. Assuming Dudley is on a secret mission, his daughter Sue-Ellen begins a search for him, eventually realising that to accept his death and heal herself, her mother and siblings, she must unlock the family’s long-held secrets.
CIPHER – Television Series – Development Loan
Naomi Telushkin
An ASIO acting coach trains a brilliant, volatile female spy to infiltrate a white supremacist terrorist organization — and starts to suspect that she’s becoming seduced by the terrorist ideology herself.
DARK TIDE – Television Series – Development Loan
Lewis & Ulhmann Productions
When ex-elite soldier Beth Hammer stumbles upon a deadly conspiracy in the South Pacific, she knows there is only one option: to return to Canberra and into a battle for the nation’s soul. Disgraced and shunned by her peers, Beth will uncover an audacious plan to hold Australia’s Prime Minister to ransom. In a world of no secrets, there is nowhere to hide.
GO BIG – Feature Documentary – Production Investment
LGR Productions
Uncover the history of Australia’s most successful women’s basketball program as they chase their first-ever three-peat during a global pandemic.
KIDS RAISING KIDS – Feature Documentary – Production Investment
Only Human Productions
Exclusive access inside a one-of-a-kind high school for teen parents.
6 FESTIVALS – Feature – Production Investment
Superlative Pictures
Maxie, Summer and James are three best friends in their mid-teens bucket-listing 6 music festivals over 6 months running, in anger and denial, from the cancer diagnosis James is facing. On their 6-month journey they will become tight with up-and-coming artist, Marley, whose own challenges will help them accept the reality they so want to avoid.
DEVELOPMENT SLATE – Loan
Wildbear Entertainment
To develop film and television projects to be produced in the Canberra office.
