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SA short film set for world premiere at Tribeca 2020
06 March 2020
System Error, a new short comedy from Writer/Director Matt Vesely will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April.
Exploring themes of mental health through the story of George, a robot who works in a dystopian convenience store, System Error was funded through the South Australian Film Corporation’s Short Film Fund initiative.
Every day, George works his job at a dingy convenience store, desperately hoping for a friend – but George is also an immobile robotic service unit, and immobile robotic service units do not have friends. Not yet, anyway.
The film stars David Quirk (Please Like Me, Rosehaven) and Nick Nemeroff (Conan) as the voice of George – the boxy, immobile robot who starts editing his code in order to better relate to Quirk’s human character, Sid.
System Error’s premiere is the culmination of a year’s work for Vesely in this dystopian storyworld. In addition to the short film, he created and performed in the hit Adelaide Fringe stand up comedy show Matt Vesely and George the Robot Perform a Very Normal Stand Up Comedy Routine, and has also written Overheater, a six part short-form series set in the same universe, thanks to development funding from Screen Australia.
Vesely says: “These are characters I’ve been working with for a long time, and I’m so excited to finally share them with the world. George is a unique sorta guy – kinda like HAL, if HAL was less a homicidal maniac and more a depressed stand up comic working a dead end job. I think audiences are going to fall in love with how sweet the big guy is. And maybe finally he’ll get the attention he craves and leave me alone.”
“I was really lucky to work with comedians David Quirk and Nick Nemeroff for System Error David is striking and hilarious as Sid, and brave enough to act his heart out opposite a flashing box. George was in fact written especially for Nick. There’s something very fitting about getting such a funny man to play a character that doesn’t even know how to laugh.”
“We’re over the moon for System Error’s premiere to take place in New York, where the Tribeca Film Festival team has really embraced George and the themes of mental health that the film explores. It’s a dream come true. Screening the film in front of an international audience will hopefully lead to production opportunities for Overheater, the 6×12 minute online series for which System Error is a proof of concept.”
Vesely’s previous short film, My Best Friend is Stuck on the Ceiling, premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2015. It was nominated for the DENDY Award for Best Australian Short at the Sydney Film Festival, receiving a special mention for the Short Screenplay Award, and had its international premiere at Palm Springs International ShortFest.
Since its success, Vesely has continued work with Adelaide’s Closer Productions, as a writer on ABC’s short form series F*cking Adelaide and script producer on acclaimed four-part SBS drama The Hunting. Veselywill fly to the US for the System Error premiere, before returning for the start of production on ABC comedy series Yes, Chef in late April, again as a script producer and as an episode writer.
System Error is a Closer Production in association with Epic Films, produced by Kirsty Stark and executive produced by Sophie Hyde.
Production Credits
Written and Directed by Matt Vesely
Produced by Kirsty Stark
Executive Producer Sophie Hyde
Starring David Quirk & Nick Nemeroff
A Closer Production in association with Epic Films
Runtime: 13m21s
Produced and Filmed in South Australia
Financed by the South Australian Film Corporation