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SA’s Closer Productions receives AiF and Screen Australia Global Producers Exchange
22 September 2021
Screen Australia and Australians in Film (AiF) today announced Bec Summerton and Sophie Hyde of South Australia’s Closer Productions as recipients of the Global Producers Exchange, a joint initiative to support established Australian creatives in an increasingly global market by connecting them with key US decision makers and expanding their skills.
Global Producers Exchange provides Australia’s leading scripted producers the skills, knowledge, access and relationships necessary to succeed in the global market and to attract foreign investment and marketplace partnerships for Australian scripted content. The exchange aims to give Australian IP and cultural stories the opportunity to be developed with internationally based collaborators who possess a global outlook and a proven track record of success with international audiences, and to help position projects for success in the global market.
Hyde and Summerton were among six recipients including Blackfella Films – Darren Dale and Erin Bretherton, Causeway Films – Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings, GoodThing – Nick Batzias and Virginia Whitwell, Jungle Entertainment – Jason Burrows and Chloe Rickard and Wooden Horse – Jude Troy and Matt Okine.
Based at the SAFC’s Adelaide Studios, Closer Productions is an Australian production company working across film and television. Their feature dramas include 52 Tuesdays which won the Directing Award at Sundance (2014) and the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival (2015), and Animals (2019) based on the acclaimed novel by Emma Jane Unsworth. Their feature documentaries include Sundance favourites Shut up Little Man! (2011) and Sam Klemke’s Time Machine (2015), Australian Documentary Prize Winner Life In Movement (2011) and the AACTA nominated In My Blood It Runs (2019). Closer’s television work includes F###king Adelaide for ABC, The Hunting for SBS which became the network’s most successful commissioned drama and won two AACTA awards, and Aftertaste for ABC, which is currently in development for its second season.
The SAFC is a Supporting Partner for this industry development program along with Screen NSW, Film Victoria and Scripted Ink. Industry Partners are Australian Directors’ Guild, Australian Writers’ Guild, Screen Producers Australia, Screen Canberra, Screen Queensland, Screen Tasmania, Screen Territory, Screenwest and Screenworks.
Read the full announcement here.