Galore, a film about a teenage love triangle set against Canberra's 2003 bushfires, has been selected for the Berlin International Film Festival  in February.

The film is the first feature financed through our ACT Screen Investment Fund and was shot in Canberra last year. A number of Canberrans filled crew positions on the production and the Berlin announcement follows Galore’s world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival earlier this year.

Writer-director Rhys Graham grew up in Canberra and pulled together a fantastic cast featuring some of Australia’s most promising young actors including Ashleigh Cummings (Puberty Blues), Lily Sullivan (Mental) and Toby Wallace (Never Tear Us Apart).

Watch the Galore trailer 

Producer Phillippa Campey said “it’s really a great honour to have been selected into one of the world’s best film festivals. We are thrilled to have our debut feature in the festival, alongside so many extraordinary films and filmmakers who we admire and are inspired by, especially given that Rhys’ work has been celebrated here in the past.”

The Berlin International Film Festival is widely regarded as one of the top three film festivals in the world. Galore will screen in the Berlinale Generation Competition Programme, the same programming strand that last year hosted the world premiere of two Australian films The Rocket and Satellite Boy.

Last month they were recognised locally for their exporting excellence, this month Canberra production company Bearcage has had more success, this time in China with their documentary The Story of Australia.

The Story of Australia, a six-part documentary series produced by Bearcage and China’s CCTV9, was broadcast in China to a staggering audience of more than 21 million people and earned the praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping saying it was very popular and an example of close personal relations between Australia and China.

Michael Tear, Managing Director and co-founder of Bearcage, as well as producer of the series said “As the first formal co-production between CCTV Documentary Channel and an Australian company, the project represents an initiative of great significance to both countries”.

“We are absolutely delighted that the series was so warmly embraced by Chinese audiences”.

The Story of Australia travels all over the continent and highlights Australia’s agricultural products, the mining industry, overseas students in Australia, city life and the stories of famous Chinese-Australians. Through these stories, the series review the relationship between Australia and China and look to its future.

Bearcage received support through the ACT Government’s ACT Screen Investment Fund  to help develop The Story of Australia. The Fund has also supported the production of three other projects by Bearcage namely The Digger, New Zealand from Above and The Boffin, the Builder and the Bombardier.

Based in Canberra, Bearcage started out primarily focusing on television commercials and corporate videos, but today is a full service production entity offering exceptional media production on a varied range of media platforms.

During its more than 20 years in operation, Bearcage has been recognised for its work nationally and internationally; being presented with more than 50 awards and appearing in festivals and competitions including Tropfest, New York Film Festival, Cannes Television Awards, St Kilda Film Festival and Boston Film Festival.

Adding to these accolades, the business just recently won the 2013 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Award  in the Arts and Entertainment Category. The annual awards are an initiative of the ACT Government and are designed to reward success and innovation amongst ACT exporters.

Apart from the obvious benefit of generating more exposure in the ACT for Bearcage, Mr Tear said that winning the award will also greatly enhance the future of his company by projecting it further on a national and international scale.

He also noted that winning this prestigious award displays to current and future customers worldwide that they can be confident that Bearcage is a reputable and reliable company to undergo work with.

As an Australia-wide category winner, Bearcage now qualifies to enter the Australian Export Awards, to be held in Melbourne this November.

CODE, a new six-hour political thriller which received funding through the ACT Government’s Screen Investment Fund , begins filming today.

Produced by Playmaker Media for ABC TV, the cast includes Dan Spielman (An Accidental Soldier, Offspring), Ashley Zuckerman (The Slap, Rush), Adam Garcia (Coyote Ugly, Bootmen), David Wenham (Answered by Fire, Killing Time), Lucy Lawless (Spartacus), Aden Young (I Frankenstein, Rectify), Chelsie Preston Crayford (Mystery of a Hansom Cab, Underbelly: Razor), Adele Perovic (SLiDE), Dan Wyllie (Rake, Puberty Blues), Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish, City Homicide), and Paul Tassone (Underbelly).

CODE was created by Shelley Birse and written by Birse, Blake Ayshford and Justin Monjo. Directed by Shawn Seet (Mystery of a Hansom Cab, SLiDE) and produced by Playmaker’s David Maher, David Taylor and Shelley Birse, it is being executive produced by the ABC’s David Ogilvy, Greer Simpkin and Carole Sklan.

In May, a delegation from the local Canberra film industry headed over to Cannes to take part in Marche du Film, the annual film market that takes place alongside one of the world’s major film festivals, Festival de Cannes.

This year was the first time a collective group representing the ACT Screen Industry attended the market. The group of 10, led by ScreenACT  Director, Monica Penders, included a number of Canberra-based producers and the ACT Screen Investment Fund Manager.

ScreenACT has been working hard over the past years to develop the feature film industry in Canberra. Before leaving, Ms Penders said ''We've just been doing so much development over the last two years, it's timely for us to do this''.

“ScreenACT has been working closely with the producers to maximize the opportunity and exposure.  Going as a group means we can support each other, keep costs down and really get the most out of the market by keeping our eyes open for not only personal opportunity but for one of the other local producers”. Read more in the ‘Canberra Times’ article, Future Fellinis prepare to flaunt films at Cannes .

Marche du Film has grown from humble beginnings with a few dozen participants and one screening room in 1959. Now, 50 years later, the market sees over 11,000 participants annually from over 100 different countries, making it one of the most important meeting places for the industry. Participants consist of a wide range of the film industry including international sales agents, distributors, production companies, national and state film agencies and investors. Find out more about the Marche du Film .

The group took over a number of completed productions and projects in development, including ‘Me & My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse’, produced by Daniel Sanguineti, and ‘The Farmer’, produced by Andrew Einspruich, which both came out of ScreenACT's low-budget feature initiative.

To help support this export market development activity, the producers also received matched dollar funding assistance though the ACT Government’s Trade Connect grant program. Both the Trade Connect program and the ACT Screen Investment Fund are initiatives within Growth, Diversification and Jobs: A Business Development Strategy for the ACT.

“We had some great group opportunities – to meet with among others, the producer of Twilight; the head of acquisitions for Warner Bros UK and international sales agent Simon Crowe – who all gave us top tips on getting the most out of Cannes and the market” Ms Penders said following the trip.

The ACT representatives held many individual as well as group meetings, including some that were arranged by Screen Australia  specifically for the ACT delegation.

Overall, the ACT delegation  had a successful trip to Cannes, with Ms Penders stating “The first overseas film market Trade Mission was more successful than I anticipated with a number of the teams actually getting offers for distribution from international sales agents and distributors for completed low budget feature projects and other films that are in development.”
This included:

• a feature film that received serious interest from Australian based international sales agents,
• a completed Zombie feature film, whose producer is now in negotiation with an international sales agent, and
• a completed low budget film whose producer is in negotiation with a sales agent for the South American Territories.

“To see the difference between the first day and the last – the ACT representatives were out there making multiple meetings, working the market and getting firsthand knowledge of just how global a product film is” said Ms Penders.




ScreenACT Director, Monica Penders presents Patrick Strafford Head of Acquisitions for Warner Bros UK with a boomerang.

 


Part of the ACT team that attended Marche du Film



International Village pavilion set up for Marche du Film



Are you looking for funding for your next screen project? Does your project provide economic, cultural and creative benefits to the ACT? The ACT Government’s Screen Investment Fund may be your answer.

Designed to support growth and sustainability in the ACT screen industry, the Fund can provide you with equity co-investment for creative, original and commercial projects. This includes film, television and digital media projects.

Established in 2010, the ACT Screen Investment Fund has supported a number of screen projects, the most recent being a documentary, ‘Canberra Confidential’. Presented by ABC journalist and Logie award nominee Annabel Crabb, Canberra Confidential explores some of the forgotten scandals, political secrets and espionage sagas that shook the nation over the past century. The documentary aired on ABC in mid-March and received positive ratings in all the capital cities, making it one of ABC’s highest watched programs on the night. Find out more about Canberra Confidential .

This isn’t the only success story for the Fund. In 2011, the Fund supported ‘The Digger – A History’, which went on to receive the gold award at the 2011 Cannes Corporate and Television Awards in the History and Civilization category. The Digger tells the story of those who have represented Australia in the various battlefields and trenches across the world - from South Africa and Egypt, to the Western Front, New Guinea, Korea and Vietnam. Find out more about The Digger – A History .

To find out more about the Fund, visit our ACT Screen Investment Fund page.

The ACT Screen Investment Fund holds up to four funding rounds each financial year. If you are interested in applying for funding be quick! Applications for the latest funding round close 5pm Monday 29 April 2013.

Annabel Crabb in ‘Canberra Confidential’.

Annabel Crabb & Director-General of  ASIO David Irvine, on location at the National Archives of Australia.