2012 DigiSPAA

2012 DigiSPAA

With the deadline for 2012 DigiSPAA fast approaching, filmmakers have less than two months to enter their films into Australia's premier digital filmmaking competition and possibly join the ranks of Khoa Do, Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen and John L. Simpson as breakthrough talent.

This year the competition boasts a prize pool of $15,000 cash, $20,000 worth of post-production, a guaranteed screening of the winning film on the Movie Extra channel and a return airfare and free registration to the prestigious CineMart International Film Festival Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

Applications close at 5pm on Friday 14th September 2012. Eligible films are feature length, with a running time of at least 61mins, digitally produced and completed to advanced post-production stage no earlier than 30 August 2011, and independently funded.

DigiSPAA embraces the importance and growing prevalence of digital filmmaking in the industry and aims to support filmmaking that is affordable, creative and appealing to audiences. Epitomising this philosophy, this year's competition is themed 'Uncovering new storytellers, telling new stories'. Last year, a total of 25 independently-funded digital feature films were entered into the competition.

Previous winners have enjoyed exceptional success since winning the grand prize of the 'SPAArtan Award'. Rory Noke, 2011's winner is in discussions with distributors for the release of 10 Metres and was recently awarded South Australia Film Corporation's Emerging Writers and Producers Grant.

The 2010 winner Little Sparrows from Writer/Director/Producer Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen, Producer Eva Di Blasio and Executive Producer Peter Thomas, won Outstanding Drama at the WA Screen Awards, was selected for the 17th London Australian Film Festival and the Dungog Film Festival and has also been picked up for distribution internationally.

2009 winner Mother Fish (previously Missing Water) from Writer/Director/Producer Khoa Do had its national theatrical release in 2010 through Titan View. Most recently, SBS commissioned Khoa Do's mini-series Better Man as the station's first drama series in three years.

The 2007 winner Men's Group from producer John L. Simpson went on to win Best Feature at the 2008 Inside Film Awards, and had a national theatrical release in November 2008, to much acclaim and was released on DVD through Madman Entertainment.

DigiSPAA is a creative project of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), an industry body that represents Australian independent film and television producers on all issues affecting the business and creative aspects of screen production.

For full details, application form and guidelines go to www.digispaa.org.au