Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) has announced that director /producer Rosie Lourde and writer/producer Katharine McPhee have been selected to participate in the JAFF Future Project with their feature film Wreck and Ruin, and that producers Lisa Scott and Rae Choi have been selected for JAFF’s new Producers Exchange.
This is the third year that AFF has facilitated Australian filmmakers to attend the JAFF Future Project, held annually in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, which champions bold voices and foster cross-border collaborations, connecting filmmakers with producers, financiers, and global industry partners seeking the next wave of original storytelling from Asia Pacific.
Wreck and Ruin, which also has Josh Trevorrow (Kumarangk: Sacred Women’s Business) attached as executive producer, is a supernatural thriller. After surviving a shipwreck that kills her sister, a studious young woman stranded on a remote tropical island falls for an alluring stranger whose tragic secret threatens to turn their romance into an eternal prison. The film is in development.
JAFF’s Producers Exchange is a new initiative which enables international producers to have a more strategic access to the robust Indonesian and Asian film industries and markets. AFF’s two selected producers are among 12 selected for the Exchange.
Producer Lisa Scott will present her feature project Under The Banyan Moon, a romantic drama about an Adelaide schoolteacher, fleeing a broken engagement for vibrant Yogyakarta, whose dormant creative spark is reawakened by an old flame and a captivating stranger, forcing her to choose between the life she keeps imagining and the one actually in front of her.
Producer Rae Choi will present her feature project Days Under the Sun, a coming-of-age drama, incorporating magic realism, in which a fiercely independent teenager, Kitty, is forced to join her mother, Lydia, on a reunion trip to Malaysia, where they continue to clash over unspoken disappointments and dreams. But when Kitty follows a mysterious butterfly into the forest and encounters a woman who looks remarkably like Lydia, she begins to see her mother in a new light.
AFF x JAFF Market initiative aims to cultivate enhanced connectivity between Australian and Indonesian filmmakers, to promote greater cultural understanding between the two countries and generate new opportunities for Australian filmmakers. The initiative is funded by the Australian Government, Office for the Arts. It is part of AFF’s Festival Bridges program which also includes a partnership with the Cannes Marche. The Festival Bridges program supports AFF’s aim to develop, support and engage the filmmaking community by a suite of initiatives including facilitated participation at international festivals and markets.
AFF CEO & Creative Director Mat Kesting said: “Film is such a powerful way to bring together people from all backgrounds and cultures in a shared emotional experience, and this is true for both audiences and the creative teams who bring films to the screens. AFF’s partnership with JAFF Market and JAFF Festival connects Australian filmmakers with their colleagues from our largest neighbour, Indonesia, to share creative visions and to collaborate in bold, new and exciting ways. We are immensely proud of this cultural exchange program.”
The market is held from November 28 – 30.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS:
Rosie Lourde is a storyteller traversing roles, formats and genres. Rosie was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for her feature directorial debut, the romcom Romance On The Menu (Netflix trending). Rosie is also known for horror short, Dashcam(Canneseries/Shudder), the sci-fi VR short Breach (Sundance shortlisted), the digital series Starting From Now (YouTube 250M+ views), the comedy series White Fever (ABC). Rosie produced Skin Deep, which received an Austin Film Festival Best Scripted Feature Honourable Mention, and was Director and Executive Producer of Romance On The Menu (2020) which trended twice on Netflix ANZ and was acquired by Hallmark. She was an Executive Producer of Sweet Milk Lake, as well as the documentaries Young Bloods (TikTok) and The Long Game (AFL).
Katharine McPhee has been developing a slate of work within Untold Productions with First Nations Ngarrindjeri filmmaker Joshua Trevorrow since 2019. She produced the short documentary Keep Yarning Strong, co-directed by Shantae Barnes-Cowan and Josh Trevorrow. She has consulted on projects for Emu Creek Pictures, Steel Springs Pictures and Pictures in Paradise, amongst other Australian production companies. One of her projects, Blak Coffee, was selected for Screen Australia and SBS Digital Originals Development initiatives in 2023.
Lisa Scott is one of Australia’s leading producers. Recent productions include RFDS S3 for the Seven Network, feature documentary The Speedway Murders, short film Blame The Rabbit, drama series The Tourist (S1) (BBC1 & Stan) produced in conjunction with UK producers, Two Brothers Pictures (Fleabag). Other productions include A Sunburnt Christmas (Stan), for Every Cloud Productions, The Hunting for Closer Productions, (SBS), Pine Gap (Netflix/ABC), Wolf Creek (Stan), ANZAC Girls (ABC) and three seasons of Janet King (ABC).
Rae Choi is a filmmaker with family ties to Hong Kong and Borneo, Malaysia. Her producing credits include the Canneseries-selected series Ina and feature Paris Funeral, 1972. Her writing and directing work includes the AWGIE-nominated When The Sky Was Blue and Some Kind Of Blue, which premiered at AFF. She has undertaken international producer placements with Heretic (Greece) and Paloma Productions (Denmark) through SPA Ones to Watch, and a director’s attachment to Robert
Connolly on his upcoming film Shiver.