Screen Australia has announced that 24 features, 5 online series and 2 high-end television projects will receive development funding, and 2 producers and 1 director will benefit from supported talent development placements, sharing a total of over $1 million in funding.

The extensive slate includes work from established talents such as Jocelyn Moorhouse, Leah Purcell, Vicki Madden, Rachel Perkins and Luke Davies alongside rising talents Sophie Hyde, Rodd Rathjen, Nicholas Verso, Abe Forsythe, Craig Silvey and Corrie Chen.

Among the projects funded for development are, Tasmanian-set gothic crime TV show The Gloaming, Vicki Madden’s follow-up to the award-winning Foxtel series The Kettering Incident. Feature film The Variations, a period piece which will see writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse reunite with producer Sue Maslin after collaborating on the hugely successful 2015 film The Dressmaker. A feature adaptation of Leah Purcell’s celebrated play The Drover’s Wife, which recently picked up the Victorian Prize for Literature and three accolades at the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Animals, a feature adaptation of the novel by Emma Jane Unsworth who is also writing the screenplay. Sophie Hyde is attached to direct what would be her second feature after her highly acclaimed debut 52 Tuesdays, which won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance in 2014. Writer/director Rodd Rathjen’s first feature-length project Buoyancy, with Causeway Films producers Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton. Online comedy series The Fair Way set in the inimitable world of semi-professional golf.