Funding firm Screen Australia has hired former ABC executive Margaret Ross as online investment development manager.
Margaret Ross
Ross joins after more than 10 years at ABC, most recently in the children’s and family content division as executive producer, scripted and factual. Previously, she worked as a digital producer at Indigenous broadcaster NITV.
Ross will succeed Alice Adams, who is retiring this month. Alice Adams has been with Screen Australia since the early days of the online investment division, working on initiatives such as SBS’s Digital Originals and YouTube Australia’s Skip Ahead.
During his tenure, Adams developed a string of projects including Lobby Hood, Appetite, First Day Season 2, The Formal, and Frank.
Meanwhile, Screen Australia’s online and gaming division announced A$750,000 (US$490,000) in funding for nine online screen projects featuring new formats of serialized content from TikTok and Instagram.
Screen Australia’s Head of Online and Games Lee Naimo said the Online Development Fund was still in its early stages and supported projects in production and development. “It’s great to see so many up-and-coming creators taking advantage of this opportunity and taking the time to develop their online projects,” he added.
Over the past five years, Screen Australia has provided more than A$23.5 million in funding to online creators for projects across a variety of platforms including Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
Production support projects include the five-part YouTube series Buried, also funded by VicScreen. The series tells the story of a busy mother who kills a cyclist on her way to school in the morning. Deadbeat Ends Meet is a four-part animated series for Instagram created and written by cartoonists Evie Hilliar and Holly Tosi (Neighbours). Last Party of Summer is a 24-part TikTok series about coming-of-age parties from writer/director Mark Day and producer Lawrence Phelan.
Sports documentary series Young Bloods is a 30-part TikTok series from director/producer Hugh Humphries that takes you behind the scenes of the next generation of Australian Football League players with access to the Sydney Swans Academy . This project is funded in partnership with Screen NSW.
