by FilmInk Staff
When Christopher Amos built Chrysaor Studios on the Gold Coast, he says he was trying to solve a problem he had encountered himself: he wanted to make a low-budget independent feature using virtual production, but could not do it in Queensland.
So he built the facility he needed.
Screen Queensland helped. Its Capital Grants Program provided support that allowed Chrysaor to establish its virtual-production capability, something Amos has acknowledged as critical to getting the studio off the ground.
Six months on, however, Amos is asking a more difficult question: what happens after the infrastructure has been built?
According to ScreenHub, Chrysaor has had 76 live conversations with producers since opening, hosted dozens of tours and staged nine productions and activations — yet has no major bookings for the remainder of 2026. Amos says the problem is not a lack of interest in the studio but the difficulty that domestic producers, particularly in Queensland, face getting projects financed and into production.
That experience raises a bigger question about Screen Queensland’s priorities.
The agency has a dual role: investing in locally made films, series and games while also attracting international and interstate productions.
Screen Australia’s 2024–25 Drama Report found that 85 per cent of Queensland’s total drama production expenditure came from a number of high-budget international titles, with the state recording $925 million in drama production expenditure.
International productions employ Queenslanders, bring skills and infrastructure and inject substantial money into the economy.
But Amos’s experience highlights the other side of the equation: an industry can attract productions without necessarily developing enough locally owned production to sustain itself when those productions leave.
That question becomes more important as public funding tightens.
In August, the Queensland Government announced $50 million in incentives for Screen Queensland over two years. Media Watch subsequently examined the way the announcement was reported as a $50 million “boost”, pointing out that compared with the previous two budgets it represented a $30 million funding cut. ABC News reported that the new allocation was at least $13 million a year below the previous annual level.
Screen Queensland CEO Jacqui Feeney says the agency is revising its incentive rates to balance momentum with sustainability.
But with less money available, the balance between attracting international productions and developing Queensland-owned work becomes harder to ignore.
None of this means international production should disappear.
But Amos’s experience poses a legitimate challenge to Screen Queensland: is enough attention and funding reaching the local producers who have to build the industry between the blockbusters?
Chrysaor is already there. The infrastructure exists. The talent exists. What Amos says is missing is the finance and visibility to turn that capacity into Queensland-owned production.
If 85 per cent of the state’s drama expenditure is coming from high-budget international titles, perhaps the next measure of success should not simply be how many productions Queensland can attract — but how many Queensland productions it can help create, own and sustain.
That is the harder test for Screen Queensland under Jacqui Feeney.
It’s a fallacy to think that overseas sourced and tax incentivised productions are providing meaningful development paths for local crew when in fact it’s just the opposite. They will tell you about their initiatives at Screen Queensland for production attachments that only last for 6 to eight weeks And no single person receives a consecutive opportunity. So what you have is about 1000 university graduates per year fighting for about 10 positions. Take a look at the credits of all the recent so-called Hollywood blockbusters to shoot in Queensland and you’ll find that the top tier positions are all filled by Americans because they get a free holiday down under and their friends look after their friends. The reason Screen Queensland gets away with it is the positive media spin that they can put on it by mega stars Having selfies with politicians whilst inflating The so called “benefit to the economy”. If you ask Screen Queensland directly the number of crew that were directly employed and how much they were paid they will politely tell you “oh that’s commercial in confidence”.
Screen Queensland needs to take a long hard look at itself and immediately cancelled the video games development strands because let’s face it video games are not artistic ventures or cinematic films. No matter how you try to spin it as screen “culture” a video game is not a film. Secondly there should be a 5 year non-compete clause in these executives’ contracts to stop them moving around between agencies and post-production houses that equally benefit from the PDV funding output. That is another strand that needs to be cancelled immediately.