Writer / Directors Renny Wijeyamohan (Run Girl) and Sonia Whiteman (Uproar) have become the only Australian creatives selected to take part in the 2024 Series Mania Writers Campus for their latest project in development, SCALPEL.
Held at the Creative Bazaar and Series Mania Forum in Lille, from 15 – 21st March, the Campus will see just 16 TV writers converge from across the globe for an intensive week of development. Run under the editorial supervision of Series Mania founder Laurence Herszberg, impact producer Isabelle Lindberg Pechou and script editor Ludo Smolski, the successful participants will also have the opportunity to meet renowned showrunners and producers during masterclasses and networking events, before presenting their projects during a pitching session in front of Industry. Previous special guests include Ron Leshem (Euphoria), Bryan Elsley (Skins), Amit Cohen (No Man’s Land), Eli Horowitz (Homecoming) and Sarah Treem (The Affair).
The duo’s series, SCALPEL, follows a promising young Tamil-Australian surgeon, Nishan, who risks everything he’s worked for, when he’s forced to become an underworld “doctor-for-hire” after his delinquent cousin is gunned down in a gangland shooting.
Wijeyamohan and Whiteman said: “Off the back of our success as part of the creative team on ABC’s The Disposables, we are thrilled to be selected for the Series Mania Writers Campus, where we can deep dive into the development process with world-class mentors. We’re super excited about SCALPEL – it’s fresh, it’s gritty, it’s topical, and we’re excited to pitch it to Industry at the Series Mania Forum.”
The Series Mania Writers Campus was created to gather screenwriters from around the world for an intensive week of workshops, with a focus on pitch preparation and strengthening their projects for presentation to the European and international industry.
ABOUT RENNY WIJEYAMOHAN
Renny is a Tamil-Australian writer / director, ex-lawyer and the Founder of Open Door Films. In 2014, he received an ARIA Nomination for Best Music Video and in 2015, a CMAA Nomination for Video Clip of the Year. In 2017, he completed an internship at See-Saw Films under Emile Sherman, Rachel Gardner and Libby Sharpe. He is working with Photoplay Films’ Karen Radzyner on the UK-AU co-production of SONG OF THE SUN GOD, an adaptation of a Tamil-Australian novel, currently in development. In 2022, he was commissioned by SBS for the Curious Australia initiative as Writer / Director / Producer for his half hour documentary, RUN GIRL his first project for TV. In 2023, he launched his first broadcast drama as Writer / Director / Producer, THE DISPOSABLES for ABCTV with fellow Producer, Karen Radzyner, and fellow Writer / Director, Sonia Whiteman. Along the way he’s written and directed many commercial content pieces for brands like Afterpay, David Jones, Sportsbet, Mountain Designs and Holden.
ABOUT SONIA WHITEMAN
Sydney based Writer/Director, Sonia Whiteman was born in Brazil, raised in Aotearoa, and attended the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne where she completed a bachelor of Film and Television. Sonia has written and directed a number of short films that have screened at festivals around the world, including Oberhausen, Cinema Jove, Bruxelles and Los Angeles. LEN’S LOVE STORY (Damon Herriman, Mia Wasikowska) was the only Australian film selected in Competition at Clermont – Ferrand 2007 and was picked by the New York Magazine as one of the Top 5 best shorts at TriBeca Film Festival. HANDYMAN (Odessa Young, Danielle Cormack) was a Best Australian Comedy Finalist at St Kilda Film Festival. Sonia is the Co-Writer of feature film UPROAR starring Julian Dennison, Minnie Driver and Rhys Darby which had its World Premiere at TIFF 2023. She co-directed, co-wrote and story produced THE DISPOSABLES, a 3 x 22 min/1 x 60 min and 32 short Vertical eps – a youth environmental action series (Photoplay Films and ABCTV) and has a number of projects in various stages of development.
