Screen Australia has selected 11 emerging filmmaking teams to share in $989,000 of Hot Shots Plus funding, which will encompass both production funding to make a short-form narrative proof-of-concept (POC), and development funding to progress their POC to a longer form project.

The 11 projects cover a range of platforms; seven are short films that will aim to progress to a feature film, two are Virtual Reality (VR) shorts with plans for a full VR series, one is a short film that will serve as a TV series concept, and one is a pilot for a web series.

“A number of our country’s most exciting new voices burst onto the scene with a feature inspired by a short film, as was the case with Jennifer Kent, whose short Monster went on to become The Babadook, and Yolande Ramke and Ben Howling’s short Cargo, whose feature length version has been picked up by Netflix,” said Nerida Moore, Senior Manager of Development at Screen Australia.

“We recognise there are now a number of ways to develop a proof-of-concept and we wanted the revamped Hot Shots to reflect this. We are delighted to see such a diversity of platforms and voices represented in this group of recipients, who are now presented with a unique opportunity to build on previous successes and kick start their careers.”

From 162 applications, 26 projects were shortlisted in May with the help of 10 external assessors. Initially the available pool of funds was $750,000 however due to the exceptional quality of the applications this was increased to $989,000.