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SAFC announces inaugural Placement L.A. recipient
11 October 2016
Adelaide-based producer Gena Ashwell was today announced as the inaugural recipient of Placement L.A., an annual professional placement in Los Angeles for established women producers from South Australia.
Placement L.A. was recently announced as a key part of the SAFC’s Gender Agenda, a comprehensive new suite of initiatives designed to address the gender imbalance in the industry and drive established and emerging South Australian female practitioners forward into the next phase of their career.
Supported with $15,000 from the SAFC Placement L.A. sees Gena travel to Los Angeles in November 2016 for a four-week placement, a unique opportunity to work alongside one of the industry’s most eminent producers, Cassian Elwes (Dallas Buyer’s Club, The Butler, Blue Valentine), in his Los Angeles office. Elwes is a prolific producer and executive producer with extensive experience in film financing and distribution and multiple Oscar® winning and Oscar® nominated credits to his name.
As head of William Morris Independent for fifteen years, Elwes arranged finance and distribution for more than 300 films, including Monster’s Ball, for which Halle Berry won the Best Actress Oscar®, the first African American woman to do so. Since then Elwes has either produced or executive produced over 50 films including John Hillcoat’s Lawless.
Placement L.A. also includes attendance at The American Film Market & Conference (AFM), November 2nd – 9th, in Santa Monica. Access to the AFM, has been generously provided by the AFM in support of the initiative, and includes full registration for the week’s events, including access to all conferences.