5 January 2010 Film Victoria continues to foster innovative local TV
5 January 2010
Film Victoria has confirmed a commitment of $1.18 million in funding to four projects, wrapping up a year which saw almost $2 million in production investment in the first six months of 2009-10.
Film Victoria Board President John Howie confirmed that RUSH, series 3, THE LIBRARIANS, series 3, BED OF ROSES, series 3, and the factual production MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! will receive $1,179,748, which yet again demonstrates the agency’s commitment to the local television and factual content industry.
“With such a sustained level of interest from producers to create engaging television, we are delighted to support these projects which are made in Victoria and shown on Victorian screens,” Mr Howie said. “Audiences are tuning into well-crafted television programmes across public and commercial broadcasters and it’s exciting to see this fuelling a high demand in investment for television development.”
RUSH, series 3, produced by John Edwards and Mimi Butler and written by Adam Todd, returns to the city of Melbourne and represents enormous production activity and significant employment and business opportunities for Victorian cast, crew and service companies. The series has achieved both ratings success and critical acclaim, with an average weekly audience of just under one million viewers.
Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler’s THE LIBRARIANS, series 3, continues to revolve around the activities at Middleton Interactive Learning Centre. The series is filmed in entirely in Victoria and holds an average audience of more than one million viewers. The second series was the number one ABC download for the duration of its six week run.
BED OF ROSES, series 3, produced by Stephen Luby and Mark Ruse, has attracted a large and loyal audience of around one million viewers and an unprecedented secondary audience who have downloaded the show. It broke the record for that year for number of downloads, which were in excess of 800,000.
MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED, produced by Veronica Fury and written and directed by Mark Hartley, will explore the history of exploitation films produced in the Philippines from the mid-1960s through to the early 1990s. Hartley’s 2008 debut feature NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD screened at international festivals and won an AFI Award in the same year. MACHETE MAIDENS will be delivered as a one-hour TV documentary and an 80-minute feature version as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund.
Stay informed of funding deadlines, opportunities and announcements via www.film.vic.gov.au, e-news or twitter (http://twitter.com/filmvictoria).
