SQ News

Three films creep it real when SCREAM! Queensland hits LA


Three Queensland filmmaking teams will develop and produce short horror films as the winning entries in Screen Queensland’s new initiative SCREAM! Queensland.

Screen Queensland Board Chair Linda Apelt congratulated the three Brisbane-based teams who will take their work to international audiences as part of Screamfest in Los Angeles.

“SCREAM! Queensland has been a screaming success,” Ms Apelt said. “We received a great response with nearly 100 entries.”

Winning concepts are:

  • In Hobby Shop, a little girl’s passion for toys becomes all too real. Co-produced by Ryan Greaves and Isabel Stanfield, co-directed by Isabel Stanfield and Stephanie Liquorish, co-written by Stephanie Liquorish, Zac Loy and Jacob Irvine.
  • Post Mortem Mary is set in 1860s Maleny where a young girl is forced to overcome her fear of death as she stares it in the face. Produced by Daniel Schultz and written/directed by Joshua Long.
  • In Slaughter at Lonesome Rock, a police woman investigating two abandoned cars on an isolated country road is drawn into a horrifying encounter. Directed and co-written by Lucas Thyer, co-produced by Jeff Tseng and Caitlin Johnston, and co-written by Simon Jeffares.

Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira said the successful teams would attend a workshop in May with horror filmmakers Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong (Bait, Acolytes).

“The three teams will then work on their own horror films of 8-10 minutes, each with a budget of up to $40,000,” Ms Vieira said.

“The three completed films, to be produced in Queensland, will premiere in October at Screamfest, the largest and longest running horror film festival in the United States, in what we hope to be an annual partnership.”

SCREAM! Queensland is part of Q Originals, a Screen Queensland initiative to create opportunities for the state’s creative talent to develop standout stories for the screen.