Funding Approvals
2023-2024 TELEVISION development
Premium
WILLY
10 x 24 mins
Ludo Holdings Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy, Drama, Animation
Creators Samuel Leighton-Dore, Bradley Tennant
Writer/Director Samuel Leighton-Dore
Producer Liam Heyen
Development Producer Chloe Hume
Executive Producers Daley Pearson, Charlie Aspinwall
Synopsis Willy is a 10-part coming-of-age animated series. It’s 2003 and 15-year-old Willy is on the cusp of a sexual awakening, which would be great if he wasn’t stuck in the rural sugarcane farming town of Toee. Willy's only salvation is his colourful imagination and the cast of fantastical friends who inhabit it, including razor-tongued rescue cat Beverley and a scornful op-shop portrait of the Virgin Mary. But soon the arrival of hot new neighbour Jack threatens to bust Willy’s carefully constructed inner-world wide open, changing the lives of Toee locals forever.
SENESCENCE
8 x 60 mins
Mess Productions
Genre Drama, Science fiction
Director Madeleine Parry
Writers Madeleine Parry, Maddison Connaughton
Producers Madeleine Parry, Peter Hanlon
Synopsis Ambitious 26-year-old dropout Mia gets caught in a corporate battle whilst trying to save her mother from a degenerative illness.
THE NIGHT WHISTLER
6 x 60 mins
Perpetual Entertainment
Genre Drama, Thriller, Crime, Mystery
Writers Greg Woodland, Pip Karmel, Shane Salvador
Producer Lisa Duff
Synopsis 1967 small-town bigoted NSW, a 12-year-old crime buff joins forces with an Aboriginal girl and a fallen detective to stop the mysterious animal-killer and psychopath who’s terrorizing his family.
THE SERVIENT
8 x 45 mins
Aquarius Films Pty Ltd
Genre Neo-noir Action Thriller
Creators Stella Ha Vi Do, Shiyan Zheng
Writer Shiyan Zheng
Producers Polly Staniford, Angie Fielder
Executive Producer Stella Ha Vi Do
Synopsis When a rising management consultant learns that her Vietnamese Tiger Mum has clawed her way to the top of Western Sydney’s underworld and is now under attack from rival gangs, she must do the one thing she swore she’d never do... help her mum.
THE OUTER DARK
8 x 60 mins
Rhapsody Films Pty Ltd
Genre Drama, Thriller, Crime
Director Rhys Graham
Writers Rhys Graham, Marieke Hardy, Thomas Wilson-White, Penelope Chai
Producer Alice Willison
Synopsis In 1993, four friends in their final year of high school find their destinies forever changed by one of Australia's most notorious serial killer cases.
CODEPENDENT
8 x 30 mins
Nondescript Productions
Genre Comedy, Drama
Writers Celeste Barber, Belinda King
Producers Celeste Barber, Alexandra Keddie
Synopsis Marriage counsellor, Darcy, is forced to face her own relationship demons when her husband of 15 years leaves her for someone new.
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ARE WE GOOD?
8 x 30 mins
Makes You Think Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy, Drama
Writers Ben Manusama (aka Ben Abraham), Liam Maguire
Producers Ben Manusama (aka Ben Abraham), Liam Maguire
Executive Producer Debs Paterson
Synopsis Inspired by real events, Are We Good? is a dramedy about a young Christian leader who, on the eve of being announced as a new pastor at his parents' church, confesses to his fiancée that he cheated on her with a man off craigslist. What follows is the messy, heartening, darkly-funny story of a man trying to reconcile the person he is with the religion he’s devoted his life to.
THE GOLDEN ASS
6 x 40 mins
Goalpost Television
Genre Family Drama, Comedy
Writer Lâle Teoman
Executive Producers Rosemary Blight, Kylie du Fresne
Development Producer Polly Rowe
Synopsis A mixed-Cypriot family descends into chaos when patriarch, Mazhar, has a spectacular meltdown in the Fruit and Vegetable section of the local supermarket. The resulting notoriety lures his adult children home but, instead of dealing with the mess, they are drawn into a desperate plan: to create a viral cooking show with Mazhar and his delinquent pet donkey as the stars. Can they reach 1 million followers or will death and dysfunction stand in their way?
HALF A MAN
8 x 30 mins
Christopher Squadrito
Genre Comedy, Drama
Writer/Producer Chris Squadrito
Script Editor Blake Ayshford
Synopsis After outing himself as bisexual, 30-year-old personal trainer Max Morello strives to keep his engagement afloat and his sense of masculinity intact – only to find his newfound evolution shifting the very nature of his relationship, his family, and his group of all-too Australian mates.
DIE AND LET LIVE
8 x 30 mins
Chemical Media Pty Ltd
Genre Black comedy, Drama
Creators Beth Knights, Tony Jackson
Writer Beth Knights
Producers Tony Jackson, Lucy Maclaren
Executive Producer David Collins
Synopsis When newly pregnant Olivia fakes her own death to escape a dangerous marriage to a criminal in Ireland, she re-surfaces with a new identity as a single mum in the suburbs of Perth – the most remote city on earth. Resourceful, ambitious, and not entirely averse to illicit activity, Olivia soon realises she can earn a decent living helping all sorts of desperate people fake their deaths too. While her black-market business is booming, Olivia’s hard-won new life is about to unravel with disastrous consequences.
GOING TROPPO
8 x 30 mins
Sanity Productions
Genre Comedy Drama
Writer Kate Wyvill
Producer Kate Wyvill
Script Consultant Katherine Thomson
Story Consultant Kamahi D’Jordon King
First Nations Consultant Nadine Lee
Synopsis An on the run, greed is good tax avoidance accountant flees Sydney and jail for anonymity in the sweltering madness of 1980s Darwin, the home of her long-lost apparently wealthy father. Discovering that her father is actually a destitute tempestuous drag queen and unimpressed by her sudden arrival, is as good a liar as herself and as emotionally immature, she embarks on a turbulent mission to win his admiration and turn his bankrupt gay bar into a spectacular success. Amidst Darwin’s tropical insanity where rules and conduct are bent as far as the humid heat will allow, she does her best to keep her head above water, reinvent herself and find a common ground with her infuriating father. Or dare she say it, love.
WISHES
26 x 7 mins
Karu-Karu
Genre Family, Adventure, Fantasy
Director Ana Maria Mendez Salgado
Producer Carlos Manrique Clavijo
Executive Producer Colin South
Synopsis Wishes is an animated series about a five-year-old girl, Lucy, and her young Guardian-creature Kino. Whenever Lucy feels the struggles of others and wishes she could do something to help, Kino materialises into Lucy's world of magical solutions, helping her shape them into selfless acts of kindness.
PICK UP
8 x 30 mins
Kindling Pictures Holdings Pty Ltd
Genre Drama
Creator/Director Taylor Ferguson
Writers Taylor Ferguson, Jessica Tuckwell, Enoch Mailangi
Producer Emelyne Palmer
Executive Producer Imogen Banks
Synopsis Pick Up follows Koen, a musician on the cusp of fame, battling a chronic illness. Introduced to fecal transplants, he begins an intense daily poo pick up from strangers. As his life grows increasingly public, Koen struggles to maintain his donors' expectations while navigating the bizarre world of bodily waste, upon which his health now depends. Pick Up is an eight-part series about the intricate dance of transaction and intimacy, the complexities of falling in love, and the daily demands of a chronic illness.
FRESH!
8 x 30 mins
FremantleMedia Australia Pty Ltd
Genre Comedy, Drama
Writers Nikki Tran, Simon Trevorrow
Development Producer Anna Curtis
Synopsis A sharp-tongued, headstrong asylum seeker, Nesrine, bends the rules of a chaotic and insular Melbourne market to claw back her former standing in life.
SHARPENED KNIVES
8 x 30 mins
Arenamedia Pty Limited
Genre Comedy, Drama
Writer Mararo Wangai
Producer Kate Laurie
Synopsis Kaka is an affluent Kenyan student living in Fremantle, attending a prestigious business school on family dime and barely passing. When his parent’s money inexplicably dries up, he is forced to work as a dishwasher in a volatile kitchen full of eclectic characters, each caught up in the labyrinthine Australian migration system that is built to keep them down.
BRAND-AIDS
8 x 30 mins
Tin Pang
Genre Dramedy
Director Tin Pang
Writers Tin Pang, Amy Stewart
Producer Tin Pang
Mentor/Executive Producer Linda Ujuk
Synopsis A group of advertising misfits from the minority bench are transformed into Mad Men for the woke age when their white bread agency forces them to give makeovers to ads that have been #cancelled. But will their newfound influence contort them into the very overlords that have constantly oppressed them?