by James Fletcher
Starting his career in the industry as a sound recordist on Burke’s Backyard, Ashley McLeod went on to establish one of Australia’s most respected Location companies with Sach Australia, before selling the enterprise to form ACM Films, his own production company which recently saw their first feature film, Sweet River, nominated for the 2022 Feature Film Production of the Year SPA Award.
“I was completely blindsided, I must say,” jokes McLeod after receiving the news of his film’s nomination. “It’s an honour.”
A haunting psychological thriller filmed in the Byron Bay and Tweed Heads region in Northern NSW, and distributed by Pivot Pictures, Sweet River was released as a Netflix film in Australia and New Zealand in 2020. Within the first week of release on the streaming service, Sweet River found its way into the Top Five films list, an impressive feat for a smaller budget thriller that taps into the darker mythology of the Australian experience.
“The project was born with myself and the director, Justin McMillan,” elaborates McLeod on Sweet River’s evolution to the screen. “We both live in Byron Bay, and we’ve been involved with the commercial industry, making TV commercials, content films, for the last 20 years. “Basically, one summer’s day, we were catching up at the pub for a beer and both having a collective whinge about the state of the industry and being a freelancer in the creative world; and our desire to tell a story in a long format.
“I think around the second or third beer, we decided that we weren’t going to wait for permission for someone to let us make a film. We were going to make it happen ourselves, and cut to six months later, we had a final script.”
Sweet River follows Hanna (played to perfection by Lisa Kay, a recent émigré to Australia after establishing her chops in the UK on shows such as Heartbeat and Vera), a grieving mother who returns to the sleepy rural town of Billins in search of her young son’s body. Ripe with a foreboding atmosphere, the dramatic thriller takes a metaphysical turn, leaning heavily into the secretive small-town culture of Australia’s rural communities.
Produced on a modest budget, Sweet River has deservedly found itself in the company of some impressive fellow nominees for the Screen Producer Awards Feature Film Production of the Year gong, including recent high profile releases The Invisible Man, Nitram, I Am Woman and High Ground.
“They’re all such fantastic films,” reveals the producer with genuine admiration. “I’m just honoured to be nominated, to be honest. I think the other films have had much more support and a wider exposure behind them, so I don’t expect Sweet River to win, but I am very honoured to be on the list.
“But I think our success is totally attributable to the way we approached the film, the way we executed the film, and then working alongside our distribution partners, Pivot Pictures. It’s a real nod to the entire team from day zero to day 100. It’s a collective effort.”
Sweet River is available to stream now on Netflix. The Screen Producers Awards will take place on March 30, 2022 on the Gold Coast.
Sweet success ?