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A message from the CEO: 2025 in review

23 December 2025

It’s a wrap on 2025! Read the message from SAFC CEO Kate Croser, plus see the photos from our end of year celebration party.

Dear Screen Sector Colleagues,

As we come to the end of 2024, I want to take the opportunity to celebrate another wonderful 12 months of production, achievement, and international recognition for South Australia’s screen industry. 

As 2025 draws to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate another year of stellar achievement and success in South Australia’s screen industry.

Fifty years after the premieres of the South Australian Film Corporation’s iconic first feature films Sunday Too Far Away and Picnic at Hanging Rock, South Australia continues to punch well above its weight on the national and international stage. Our productions have travelled the world, our creatives have been recognised with major awards, and our crews and businesses have brought their trademark excellence to everything from intimate documentaries to major international feature films, TV series and blockbuster video games.

We’ve seen the ongoing success of productions filmed at Adelaide Studios and across the state, showcasing our landscapes, talent and technical capabilities, and highlighting the strength of our state as a centre for screen production.

South Australia’s screen industry is flourishing across production, talent and innovation – thanks to all of you.

• Screen production in South Australia in the 2024-25 financial year, supported by the SAFC, injected more than $129 million into the state’s economy and created more than 3,400 jobs for South Australians across crew, cast and performing talent.
   
• From film, to TV series and video games, South Australian productions resonated with audiences across the globe. Jimpa and Never Get Busted! premiered at Sundance while Lesbian Space Princess won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlinale, and documentaries Songs Inside and Mockbuster made waves both here and internationally. Prime Video series Top End Bub premiered to rave reviews, RFDS S3 earned the series’ highest ratings ever and family drama Kangaroo Island notched up more than 100 days in Australian cinemas, while Adelaide games studio Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong was one of the biggest hits of the year – it melted down digital storefronts on its long-awaited release and took out Best Action/Adventure at The Game Awards.
   
• We saw a strong pipeline for scripted production with major projects across the state including films Bring Her Back, The Fox, Penny Lane is Dead, The Run, Diabolic, It’s All Going Very Well No Problems At All and South Australian First Nations led The Debt selected for Film Lab: New Voices, as well as horror Ruby Ruby, just announced last week. TV series production continued strongly with ABC SAFC Content Pipeline supported drama Treasure & Dirt, Netflix series My Brilliant Career and Seven’s RFDS season 3.
   
• Unscripted production thrived with projects underway in SA over 51 weeks of the 2024-25 financial year including feature documentaries Troublemaker, We Are Not Powerless and series such as Eat The Invadersand Bull Shark Showdown.
   
• SAFC Screen Production Funding overwhelmingly supported South Australian IP, with 78% of funded projects in FY2024-25 led and majority owned by South Australians.
   
• Local crew were supported with South Australian practitioners making up 78% of crew members and 68% of Heads of Department (HODs) on SAFC funded productions, while the SAFC delivered skills development and training opportunities through 14 Professional Crew Attachments in FY 2024-25.
   
• Post production, digital and visual effects (PDV) work supported through the SA PDV rebate in FY 2024-25 supported more than 1,000 jobs across 31 productions including international hits such as Sinners, A Minecraft Movie, Marvel epic Thunderbolts and Disney’s live action Lilo and Stitch.
   
• The games sector soared, with the introduction of the SAFC’s new Digital Games Fund bolstering our support for industry; six SA made games supported through the SA VGD Rebate; nine local developers supported to represent the state at Gamescom in Germany; and our flagship SAGE: SA Game Exhibition event attracting a record 3,000 plus attendees to check out games from 37 local studios.
  
• South Australian screen productions, creatives and talent shone with 33 nominations across 24 categories for the upcoming 2026 AACTA Awards – Bring Her Back leading with 16 nods including Best Film, and Film Lab: New Voices film Lesbian Space Princess nominated for seven awards including Best Film and Best Indie Film.
   
• SA sound designer James Currie was named 2026 Senior South Australian of the Year, a deserving acknowledgement of his significant contribution to South Australian screen storytelling.
   
• The SAFC continued our support of The Mercury in fostering the emerging screen sector, with exciting new talents being uncovered through the Quicksilver program, and celebrated at the recent SA Screen Awards.
   
• We established the SAFC’s inaugural First Nations department and launched our new First Nations Advisory Group with members Sabian Liddle, Travis Akbar, Pat Caruso, Amy Rust, Adam Jenkins, Ricky Hutcheson and Shania Richards, whose leadership, cultural knowledge and creative experience will play a central role in guiding the SAFC’s First Nations strategy.
   
• And we launched the SAFC’s new Strategic Plan 2025-28, laying out our three-year pathway for growth and success in the sector.

This year the SAFC has continued to invest in development that backs talent early, production that creates jobs and grows capability, and programs that build the next generation of South Australian storytellers.

South Australia’s screen industry continues to go from strength to strength, backed by the SA Government through the SAFC – and we thank Premier Peter Malinauskas and Arts Minister Andrea Michaels for their ongoing support and investment in our sector.

It has been a year of ambition, creativity, success and above all, collaboration, driven by all of you right across the sector. The SAFC is proud to empower your work through our funding programs, our strategic initiatives, and our partnerships – but you are the driving force at the heart of the industry.

We thank and congratulate you all on a wonderful 2025, and we look forward to working with you in 2026 and beyond.

Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday season,

Kate Croser
Chief Executive Officer
South Australian Film Corporation

Updated SAFC Program Guidelines

Following a comprehensive review and industry and stakeholder consultation, the SAFC is pleased to be introducing updated guidelines across our funding programs from January.

This refreshed suite of programs will deliver on the SAFC’s new 2025-28 Strategic Plan, which has set a clear direction to empower world-class screen production and connect our state’s diverse voices, stories, artistry and identity to audiences in Australia and around the world.

The new guidelines will be effective from Tuesday 13 January, 2026, when they will be available for download from the SAFC website.

Existing program guidelines will be closed at 5.00pm on Monday 12 January, 2026.

Any applicants with current open SmartyGrants applications will receive a direct email notification containing further information about this transition process.

In the interim, specific application enquiries can be directed to the relevant SAFC Production Executive. General program enquiries can be directed to [email protected]

Celebrating another year of achievement in 2025

Earlier this month we were pleased to welcome members of the South Australian screen industry alongside stakeholders, SAFC Board members and staff to Adelaide Studios to celebrate another outstanding year of SA screen industry activity.

See the photos from the event below! All photos by Naomi Jellicoe.