by FilmInk Staff
Following an impressive and highly competitive round of submissions, eight diverse South Australian creative teams have been awarded a share of $136,000 in funding and mentoring support delivered through The Mercury’s Quicksilver Production Fund, funded by the South Australian Film Corporation. The grants will enable each team to produce a short film and access mentoring, script consultation, production support, filmmaking equipment and post-production facilities.
The Quicksilver Production Fund aims to nurture creativity and innovation within South Australia’s vibrant screen industry, offering emerging talent the resources and guidance needed to bring their unique projects to life. The selected projects showcase a vast array of genres and captivating artistic visions, including a dark comedy about a misfit racehorse and his down-on-his-luck con artist owner, a poignant story about a First Nations boxer forced to confront the social, emotional, and physical consequences of a media-fuelled witch hunt, a bittersweet film about two children who meet across three consecutive Christmases, and a family-friendly animation featuring a portal-hopping kangaroo. The eight successful teams selected for the 2025 grants include two projects with majority First Nations key creatives: Stewed (Screen Producers Australia ‘Ones To Watch’ 2025 recipient and Ruby Award winner Lilla Berry and Pearl Berry) and False Narrative (Thibul Nettle and Travis Akbar). Tim Hodgson and writer/director Nicole Miller (This is Port Adelaide, which premiered at the 2020 Adelaide Film Festival) have been awarded the whopping $50,000 grant to bring their dark comedy Lucky Nine Fingers to life. Recipients also include animator and illustrator Alice Lam, using the grant to move into a writer/director role with rising stars Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese – the creative forces behind the Berlinale award-winning animated feature Lesbian Space Princess – producing. Celebrated theatre creative Emily Steel, writer of critically acclaimed State Theatre Company of South Australia play Housework, and award-winning theatre-maker Emma Beech, who are both using the grant to make a move from stage to the screen are also among the successful creative teams.
The Quicksilver Production Fund is made possible with ongoing annual funding provided by the South Australian Film Corporation.
The Mercury General Manager Sarah Lancaster said: “We’re delighted to continue this collaboration with the South Australian Film Corporation to develop the next generation of South Australian filmmakers. This initiative underscores the Mercury’s role as an incubator for fresh voices and diverse storytelling within the screen industry. With one creative team receiving $50,000 to produce their project and take it to the world’s stage, all teams receiving above-the-line mentoring and guidance for all projects, and access to the new onsite filmmaking facilities at The Mercury, the Quicksilver Production Fund is a unique initiative that champions artistic vision and launches careers. I look forward watching the development of these unique projects and following their creative journeys.”
South Australian Film Corporation Head of Production and Development Leanne Saunders said: “The SAFC is pleased to foster the growth and development of emerging South Australian screen talents through our continued support for The Mercury and the Quicksilver Production Fund. Talent and career-boosting initiatives like Quicksilver are so important when it comes to cultivating our up-and-coming screen storytellers, providing opportunities for new voices to be heard and talents from a range of backgrounds and experience to collaborate on leading creative projects in new ways. We commend the Mercury on their selection of recipients for this latest Quicksilver round and congratulate all the creative teams chosen.”
The Quicksilver Production Fund has a strong track record of developing local talent and showcasing South Australian stories to audiences on a national and global stage. Recent successes include Dragon’s Breath (writer/director Melanie Easton, producers Lisa Bishop, Poppy Fitzpatrick) which screened at Flickerfest, was nominated for Best Short at the AACTA Awards and received the AWGIE Award for Best Short, and Finding Jia (writer/director Alice Yang, producer Maisie Fabry) winner of the 2024 Flinders University Short Film prize. While I’m the Most Racist Person I know (writer/director Leela Varghese, producer Suriyna Sivashanker) had its World Premiere at SXSW in Austin Texas this month and was awarded the prestigious Special Jury Award in the narrative short competition.
The selected projects are as follows:
$50,000 (one project)
Lucky Nine Fingers
Producer: Tim Hodgson
Writer/Director: Nicole Miller
Logline: Lucky Nine Fingers is a dark comedy about down-on-his-luck Marty, who attempts to settle old debts by overselling shares in a dud racehorse. Only to find this ‘sure bet’ scheme comes back to bite him!
$20,000 (one project)
Forget Me, Not
Producer: Sarah Wormald
Director: Tamara Hardman
Writers: Sophie Morgan, Tamara Hardman
Logline: Following a near drowning, Sadie awakens in a secluded seaside home and must rely on her partner Adrian to fill in the substantial holes in her memory, but when a strange mark appears on her skin, she questions if her relationship with Adrian was as perfect as he claims it was.
$10,000 (five projects)
Stewed
Producer: Lilla Berry
Writer/Director: Pearl Berry
Logline: After waking up in an unknown place with no memory of how she got there, Kelly is forced to reflect on her self-destructive behaviour as she tries to piece together the night before.
False Narrative
Producers: Thibul Nettle, Travis Akbar
Writer/Director: Travis Akbar
Logline: When a rising First Nations boxer is falsely accused of heinous crimes after his image is mistakenly used in a viral news report, he must confront the social, emotional, and physical consequences of a media- fuelled witch hunt while battling for his identity, accountability, and resilience.
The Other House
Producers: Charlie Milne, Juniper Dew
Director: David Friswell
Writer: Charlie Milne
Logline: A bittersweet short film about two children who meet across three consecutive Christmases while their families fall apart year by year.
Finding Harmony
Producer: Lysah Phoenix
Director: Cameron Edser
Writer: Lysah Phoenix
Logline: A bunny who experiences the world dioerently and a portal-hopping kangaroo show the forest community that true harmony emerges when everyone’s unique way of being is embraced.
Strange Devil Signals
Producers: Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
Writer/Director: Alice Lam
Logline: Three twenty-somethings struggling to run an amateur radio station find their work cut out for them when the station is cursed by a witch, and starts receiving calls from the literal depths of hell.
$8,000 (one project)
Ananab Ananab
Producer: Emma Beech
Writer/Director: Emily Steel
Logline: When an eleven year-old boy loses his mum’s attention to her new Pentecostal Christian faith, he fakes speaking in tongues to get it back.
ABOUT THE MERCURY
The Mercury has a legacy spanning 50 years as a member-based centre for screen culture in the heart of Adelaide’s West End. Proudly South Australian, The Mercury is a not-for-profit organisation that operates the independent Mercury Cinema and, utilising funding from the South Australian Film Corporation, provides pathways for emerging filmmakers starting their professional screen industry career. The Mercury’s subscription model at $25/month or $300/year offers unlimited screenings to Silverscreen and Cinematheque programs, free entry to the Script Club, Launch Lab, all industry programs, complimentary use of all production facilities and equipment, one-on-one script consultations, industry mentoring, ability to apply to the Quicksilver Production Fund and a discounted South Australian Screen Award submission fee. With alumni including Emmy award winners, Oscar nominees, a Cannes Special Jury Prize winner and the Best Director winner at Sundance Film Festival, our passion for quality is undeniable.
The Mercury also boasts two cinemas – a 186 seat Mercury cinema, and the 36 seat Iris – both of which ooer a comprehensive film program of contemporary, classic and cult favourites films. Centrally located, The Mercury neighbours the Jam Factory, Nexus Arts, The Lion Arts Factory, ILA, UniSA West Campus, TAFE SA, AC Arts & the Flinders University Festival Plaza.
ABOUT THE 2025 QUICKSILVER FUND
The Quicksilver Production Fund provides eight creative teams with grants ranging from $8,000 to a whopping $50,000 to produce a short film or the pilot of a web series. Projects can be narrative fiction, documentary or animation, up to 15-minutes in duration. At least two of the $10,000 grants will be awarded for projects with a majority of First Nations as key creatives, as part of The Mercury’s commitment to fostering the development of South Australia’s First Nations filmmakers. In addition to the provision of cash budgets, in-kind support will also be provided by way of equipment and facilities hire at The Mercury, public liability and volunteer insurance cover, a suite of contract templates & production forms, paid project mentoring from an ATL industry mentor, and the use of the Mercury’s Iris Cinema auditions and a cast & crew screening.
The Quicksilver Production Fund is made possible with funding provided by the South Australian Film Corporation.
