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A dynamic slate of South Australian short films go into production with over $150,000 in Mercury Quicksilver Production Funding
17 December 2025
Following an impressive and highly competitive round of submissions, six original short films from 14 diverse South Australian screen creatives have been selected to go into production through The Mercury’s Quicksilver Production Fund, sharing in $157,500 in funding and professional mentoring support.
Funded by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), the Quicksilver Production Fund enables selected teams of emerging and early-career South Australian screen talent to produce a short film and access mentoring, professional script development, production support, filmmaking equipment and post-production facilities.
This year the initiative was additionally supported by Country Arts SA through the Country Arts Foundation, enabling greater opportunities for regional and First Nations filmmakers.
The Quicksilver Production Fund has a strong track record of developing local talent and showcasing South Australian stories to audiences on a national and global stage.
Quicksilver short I’m the Most Racist Person I Know (writer/director Leela Varghese, producer Suriyna Sivashanker) had its World Premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas earlier this year, where it won the prestigious Special Jury Award. It has since swept numerous awards internationally and locally, winning multiple trophies at the 2025 South Australian Screen Awards, including the Grand Jury Prize, and Best in Show at the Boston LGBT Film Festival, and picking up a nomination for the 2026 AACTA Award for Best Short Film.
Dragon’s Breath (writer/director Melanie Easton, producers Lisa Bishop, Poppy Fitzpatrick), won the 2025 AWGIE Award for short film and was selected for Flickerfest, while Finding Jia (writer/director Alice Yang, producer Maisie Fabry) was officially selected for SXSW Sydney and won both the Flinders University Short Film prize and the Audience Award at the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival.
The 2025 selected Quicksilver projects showcase a vast array of genres and captivating artistic visions, including: a genre-bending theatre production being adapted for screen; a live-action First Nations adventure-fantasy set 60,000 years ago; and a poignant observational documentary exploring the migrant experience through an entirely fresh lens – hoarding.
The six successful teams selected for the 2025 grants include two projects with majority First Nations key creatives: Battle of the Ancestors, from writer/director Natasha Wanganeen and producer Isaac Coen Lindsay; and Vermin, from writer/director Travis Akbar and producers Sierra Schrader and Travis Akbar.
Recipients also include the writer/director of 2024 Adelaide Film Festival short drama, Finding Jia by Alice Yang with documentary One Man’s Treasure (producer Stephen de Villiers), and 2025 Hanlon Larsen Screen Fellowship recipient Hannah Moore with Hera.
The Mercury CEO Sarah Lancaster said: “We are proud to support an impressive slate of projects that demonstrate bold imagination and the ability to stand out in the competitive landscape of short filmmaking. These works continue the national and international success of projects backed by the Quicksilver Production Fund. We’re thrilled to champion such talented teams and dynamic collaborations, bringing compelling stories that challenge, entertain, and deliver truly original experiences. We are enormously grateful to the South Australian Film Corporation for their ongoing support of The Mercury in championing short films and creating essential opportunities for emerging talent to break into the industry.”
South Australian Film Corporation CEO Kate Croser said: “The SAFC is proud to continue nurturing the growth and advancement of emerging South Australian screen creators through our ongoing partnership with The Mercury, and funding for its Quicksilver program. Initiatives like Quicksilver play a vital role in developing the next generation of South Australian storytellers, offering platforms for fresh voices and fostering collaboration among talent from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Congratulations to all the creative teams chosen.”
Quicksilver Production Funding Recipients
Astro Gato
Producers: Manuel Ashman and Justina Ashman
Director: Reginald Ashman
Writers: Reginald Ashman and Manuel Ashman
Logline: When an incoming asteroid threatens to end all life on Earth, only a street-racing cat has the skills needed to save the planet.
Hera
Producer: Jarrah Murphy
Writer/Director: Hannah Moore
Logline: A woman chainsaws a fallen tree in the South Australian bush like she’s done a thousand times before, except this time, she chainsaws her own hand, clean off.
One Man’s Treasure
Producer: Stephen de Villiers
Writer/Director: Alice Yang
Logline: A Chinese migrant’s dream of a better life becomes buried under the weight of what he can’t throw away.
The Fish Rots from the Head
Producers: Alex O’Neil and Nick Muecke
Writer: Luca Sardelis
Director: Nick Muecke
Logline: Six days before her parents return from holiday, Eugenia discovers she’s negligently killed their beloved pet fish. Eugenia would like to explain why it wasn’t her fault things turned out the way they did.
The Mercury, South Australian Film Corporation, and Country Arts Foundation First Nations and Regional and Remote First Nations Grants:
Battle of the Ancestors
Producers: Natasha Wanganeen and Isaac Coen Lindsey
Writer/Director: Natasha Wanganeen
Logline: Two Aboriginal sisters, separated for decades to protect their people, reunite for a mythic journey across ancient Australia, where they must embrace their celestial origins and ancestral knowledge to battle a dark force threatening to erase their culture, family, and the land itself.
Vermin
Producers: Sierra Schrader and Travis Akbar
Writer/Director: Travis Akbar
Logline: Aboriginal ranger, Jarrah, ventures deep into remote Country to check motion cameras, only to uncover footage of a murder before coming face to face with the killer, Reg, forcing the ranger to survive a deadly encounter.