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Two SA screen creatives selected for AiF UNTAPPED 2024
28 August 2024
Australians in Film (AiF) and Screen Australia today announced South Australian screen creatives Sophie Morgan and Tamara Hardman as UNTAPPED 2024 Development Lab recipients, part two of their groundbreaking talent development program for the next generation of undiscovered and historically excluded Australian screen voices.
The first stage of UNTAPPED 2024, which is supported by the SAFC, included four open-access online masterclasses for all eligible applicants, featuring conversations with SA filmmaker Danny Philippou (Talk to Me), Alice Bell (Expats), Noora Niasari (Shayda) and Sabir Pirzada (Star Wars: The Bad Batch). These provided UNTAPPED applicants with a window into the artistic processes and strategies for creative success from some of the most innovative artists working today.
Six participants, including Sophie and Tamara as a two-person team, were then selected for the UNTAPPED Development Lab, which is designed to upskill the international knowledge of emerging Australian filmmakers. They will receive individualized mentorship, creative feedback and professional development support from leading writers and directors.
This will include one-on-one story consultation and pitch coaching from screenwriting mentors Ellen Shanman and Patricia Verducci, and group sessions with accomplished Australian writers and directors such as Monica Zanetti (While the Men are Away) and Catherine Smyth-McMullen (The Sandman).
Tamara Hardman is a South Australian writer and director whose short films have played at both national and international festivals, including Byron Bay Film Festival, Adelaide Film Festival, BUFF Malmo, Flickerfest and Palm Springs International ShortsFest. Her latest short, Are You Really The Universe? stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey and won Best Short Film at the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival. In 2022, she was selected for the AFTRS SA Talent Camp, and in 2024 she was shortlisted for the SAFC, Screen Australia and Adelaide Film Festival’s Film Lab: New Voices initiative. Tamara has worked at Closer Productions since 2018 as the director’s assistant to Sophie Hyde. She loves love, sincerity and beautiful things with a violent passion, and aims to combine these in her storytelling and directing style.
Sophie Morgan is a writer and filmmaker originally from the Adelaide Hills. She was co-writer and producer of the Screen Australia-funded web series The Big Nothing, which was released on Dust. In 2022, Sophie completed her Masters of Screenwriting at the Victoria College of the Arts. Her TV pilot script Torch Fort was selected for the MRC and Australian Writers Guild Script to Screen initiative and was a second rounder in the Austin Screenwriting Competition in the Drama Teleplay Pilot category and AMC One-Hour Pilot Award. Sophie’s feature film concept, Ageing Young, was one of six films accepted into the Epic Films and Madman Million Dollar Baby development program. She aims to combine her experience in non-fiction with her screenwriting by focusing on storytelling with a clear social impact informed by lived experience.
Together, Tamara and Sophie are developing a fantasy/mystery feature called Forget Me, Not for the UNTAPPED 2024 Development Lab.
Logline: When Sadie wakes up after a mysterious accident with almost no memory, she must rely on the man claiming to be her boyfriend to piece together who she is. Stuck in a beautiful seaside home, Adrian helps Sadie start to piece together her life, but when a buried memory returns, she is forced to question not only her relationship but also her own existence.
Australians in Film Executive Director Peter Ritchie said: “Every year UNTAPPED unearths Australia’s best emerging screen talent, providing them with a unique international platform and perspective. With enormous thanks to Screen Australia, and with recent learnings from the FUTURE VISION summit on the ideation process under its belt, AiF will support the next generation of Australian storytellers with the tools they need to find a global audience.”
Screen Australia COO Grainne Brunsdon said: “We’re thrilled to partner with AiF on this important development program dedicated to supporting emerging talent, and arming them with the skills to thrive in the global market. Congratulations to the participants. These projects are bold and distinctive and demonstrate the depth of talent in our sector.”
For more information on the UNTAPPED program and selected participants, visit australiansinfilm.org