Endemol Shine Australia and Screen Australia have announced the first four participants of the Early Career Writers Program, which aims to develop the next generation of screenwriting talent.
Slade Camilleri, Sally Alrich-Smith, Becky Bouchier and Luke Agius will be based at Endemol Shine Australia’s Sydney headquarters for the next eight weeks, during which time they will be immersed in all aspects of script development and responsible for all They will take turns taking roles. Successful screenwriting department.
The initiative has been called for nationally and is supported by the Writers Guild of Australia. Screen Australia and ESA previously collaborated on the NCIS: Sydney S1 Script Department program, which offered early and mid-career screenwriters a 10-week full-time paid opportunity to work in the NCIS: Sydney script department.
Sarah Richardson, head of scriptwriting at ESA, said it was an honor to be working with the film company again.
“The entries we received were outstanding and these four writers were exemplary,” she said.
“Endemol Shine Australia is excited to mentor, mentor and encourage their learning and professional development. They are the future of our industry.”
Screen Australia’s head of development, Bobby Lomia, described the program as the “perfect platform” for successful candidates to hone their skills and open doors to new opportunities.
“These four award winners have a strong desire to learn and a passion for creating new stories for the next generation. I can’t wait to see what they achieve,” he said. Said.
Learn more about recipients below.
Luke Agius
Agius began his filmmaking career at the age of 12, making numerous films and eventually culminating his skills to study Media Arts Production at the University of Technology Sydney. Since then, he has produced several award-winning short films, music videos, and corporate content for major brands such as Google, directed his first feature film The Ferryman before he was 23 years old, and is currently working on Amazon Available to watch on Prime. Luke is also the writer and director of Screen Australia’s short web series Go Figure, which received over 100,000 views across social. His second feature, The Undesirables, is currently in post-production.
Sally Alrich Smith
After studying Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney, Alrich-Smith trained in musical theater at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in 2016, before returning there to complete her Master of Fine Arts in 2018. did. Writing for performance. He is currently a regular writer on Home and Away and previously served as senior storyliner. In 2023, her play Wavelength won the Australian Theater Festival New York City New Play Award and was read to a sold-out audience on Theater Row in October of the same year. Her television pilot script, Dirty Road, received critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2021 Writers Guild of Australia Monte Miller Award, and is currently in development with CJZ Productions as an eight-part television series. Most recently, Alrich-Smythe completed a six-week professional script development assignment at ScriptedInk and Studio Canal/StudioPlus as a Development and Acquisition Intern.
Becky Bouchier
A Singaporean-Australian writer and director, Bouchier’s work explores the challenges faced by women, focusing on mental health and gender roles, and won an Australian Writers Guild AWGIE Award and an Australian Writers Guild AWGIE Award for her short film Snapshot. Nominated for an Australian Directors Guild Award. It had its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival. In 2022, she was a recipient of the SBS Emerging Writer Incubator and worked for 12 months as a staff writer at the production company Sweetshop and Green. Her dark comedy/drama pilot script Jelly was shortlisted for AWG’s Emerging Writer Award, and two other television pilot scripts, Blackout and Bad Timing, were invited to AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase . Bouchier’s romantic comedy feature, Modern Day Romance, was nominated for both the Monte Miller Award and the John Hinde Award.
Slade Camilleri
Slade Camilleri is a screenwriter and script editor from Melbourne, Australia. Slade, who completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) at Victoria College of the Arts in 2017, went on to work as a production assistant on a number of films, including Darklands and Speedway Murder. In early 2023, Slade was brought on to relaunch Neighbors and spent a year as Senior Script Coordinator before taking on his current role as apprentice script editor/storyliner and writer of six episodes. did.
