The eight-week mentorship program begins on 26 September 2022. Applications close 10 July 2022.
Screen Queensland will support one Queensland practitioner who successfully receives a placement in Impact Australia 3.
Impact Australia, the highly coveted screenwriter accelerator, has returned for its third year. Impact Australia is designed to discover, cultivate and empower diverse Australian screenwriters, with the goal of accelerating projects to be pitch-ready for global buyers and producers.
During the program, participants will be mentored by industry-leading screenwriters from around the globe. The mentors will work with the creators to hone their project and prepare them for Pitch Day, where they will be given the opportunity to pitch their project to the global market.
Impact and Gentle Giant Media Group’s intensive eight-week program is supported by Learning Partner the University of Melbourne and state and territory screen agencies across Australia, including Screen Queensland.
ABOUT IMPACT
Founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and led by CEO Tyler Mitchell, Impact discovers, cultivates and empowers creative storytellers around the world through its innovative talent discovery and development accelerator, which enables promising writers to create their best work and break into the industry in a matter of months. Impact recently launched The Impact Network, a market-network designed for entertainment industry professionals. Impact’s talent identification system is able to rapidly evaluate thousands of submissions and ensures that all creators are given equal access, opportunity, and transparency, while removing any barriers to entry. Since 2018, Impact has built a robust network of more than 60,000 writers across over 125 countries and developed 71 projects – (a rate of three, high-quality pieces of original IP per month). 35 of the projects have been set up at major studios throughout the industry, including but not limited to: Netflix, Sony, FX, Amblin, Legendary, Village Roadshow, Quibi, Di Boneventura Pictures, Scott Free, Imagine Entertainment. 36 Impact writers who came into Impact without representation were signed by major agencies and management companies, including but not limited to: Verve, CAA, WME, UTA, Management 360, Lit, 3Arts, Anonymous, Grandview, Circle of Confusion and Writ Large. Impact’s content accelerators have featured 86 diverse writers: 44 men and 42 women, 33 BIPOC, 10 LGBTQIA+-identifying individuals, and 14 writers over 40. Impact also announced in October that the organization was a majority BIPOC company, further demonstrating its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The Impact Network is used by industry producers and executives from over 350 companies, including ABC, Amazon, CBS, Disney, HBO, Netflix, NBC, Paramount, Universal, Amazon, and Warner Brothers.
In addition, Impact is working with Netflix to source and develop original feature film content and Skydance Television to source TV pitches from the next generation of screenwriters. In 2021, Impact also partnered with Imagine Entertainment to source an emerging writer to pen an original family basketball film and worked with Screen Queensland to source crew attachments for Ron Howard’s in-production feature Thirteen Lives. They also launched their first international accelerator program in Australia in association with Gentle Giant Media Group and Screen Australia. Impact also recently launched a podcast, which is an outgrowth of its speaker series that accompanies the accelerator. “IMPACT: The Podcast” features conversations with world renowned artists such as: Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor); Issa Rae (Insecure); Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Trainwreck): The RZA (Wu-Tang: An American Saga): Dave Burd aka Lil Dicky (Dave): Jeff Schaffer (Curb Your Enthusiasm); Saladin Patterson (The Last O.G.); Academy Award winners Frances McDormand (Three Billboards, Fargo), Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man), and many more.
