Wide has come on board to represent international sales on Slovenian-Australian writer/director Sara Kern’s debut feature “Moja Vesna,” which premieres in the Generation Kplus section at the Berlin Film Festival.
“Moja Vesna” stars newcomer Loti Kovačič as Moja, a 10-year-old girl who lives with her grief-stricken Slovenian dad and pregnant 20-year-old sister Vesna in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Unable to accept the reality of her mother’s sudden death, Moja focuses on preparing for the baby while Vesna is lost in troubles of her own.
Adamant and full of light, Moja carries on, hoping in vain that Vesna will eventually fill the mother-shaped hole in her life. But Vesna pushes Moja to accept that their mother has in fact died, which causes the relationship between the sisters to strain. As the birth draws closer the grieving family continues to fragment. After meeting Miranda and her quirky daughter Danger,...
“Moja Vesna” stars newcomer Loti Kovačič as Moja, a 10-year-old girl who lives with her grief-stricken Slovenian dad and pregnant 20-year-old sister Vesna in an outer suburb of Melbourne. Unable to accept the reality of her mother’s sudden death, Moja focuses on preparing for the baby while Vesna is lost in troubles of her own.
Adamant and full of light, Moja carries on, hoping in vain that Vesna will eventually fill the mother-shaped hole in her life. But Vesna pushes Moja to accept that their mother has in fact died, which causes the relationship between the sisters to strain. As the birth draws closer the grieving family continues to fragment. After meeting Miranda and her quirky daughter Danger,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Sweetshop & Green will receive $50,000 to further its New Zealand production slate after being announced as the recipient of the New Zealand Film Commission’s He Ara Development Fund for 2021.
Delivered via the commission’s Te Rautaki Māori strategy, the initiative is designed to support Māori and/or Pacific Island filmmakers to create a diverse range of New Zealand content using their own way of working.
Sweetshop & Green is a New Zealand and Australian production company specialising in international co-productions, as well as developing and producing projects for identified global audiences.
Led by Sharlene George (Cook Islands Māori) in New Zealand and Gal Greenspan in Australia, the company is a new partnership between global commercial production company Sweetshop, and Israeli independent film production company Green Productions.
After starting its journey into film and television in October 2019, Sweetshop & Green has since built up a New Zealand slate made up of 90 per cent Māori and Pacific projects,...
Delivered via the commission’s Te Rautaki Māori strategy, the initiative is designed to support Māori and/or Pacific Island filmmakers to create a diverse range of New Zealand content using their own way of working.
Sweetshop & Green is a New Zealand and Australian production company specialising in international co-productions, as well as developing and producing projects for identified global audiences.
Led by Sharlene George (Cook Islands Māori) in New Zealand and Gal Greenspan in Australia, the company is a new partnership between global commercial production company Sweetshop, and Israeli independent film production company Green Productions.
After starting its journey into film and television in October 2019, Sweetshop & Green has since built up a New Zealand slate made up of 90 per cent Māori and Pacific projects,...
- 4/20/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Filming is underway in Melbourne on writer-director Sara Kern’s debut feature Moja Vesna, in what is the first-ever Slovenian-Australian co-production.
The story follows ten-year-old Mona who, after the sudden death of her mother, becomes the unexpected grown-up of her immigrant family in suburban Melbourne, seeking to reconcile her troubled, pregnant older sister, Vesna, and disconsolate father, Milos.
Committed to casting the lead role of Moja from within the Slovenian-Australian community, in Sweetshop & Green engaged casting director Fiona Dann (Catapult Casting) in December to begin the extensive search.
Non-professional actor Loti Kovacic will play the role of Moja after being selected via a grassroots call-out to the Slovenian community throughout Australia.
The cast also includes Mackenzie Mazur as Vesna and Slovenian actor Gregor Baković as Milos, with Flora Feldman taking on the role of Moja’s best friend, Danger, and Claudia Karvan playing her mother, Miranda.
Moja Vesna will...
The story follows ten-year-old Mona who, after the sudden death of her mother, becomes the unexpected grown-up of her immigrant family in suburban Melbourne, seeking to reconcile her troubled, pregnant older sister, Vesna, and disconsolate father, Milos.
Committed to casting the lead role of Moja from within the Slovenian-Australian community, in Sweetshop & Green engaged casting director Fiona Dann (Catapult Casting) in December to begin the extensive search.
Non-professional actor Loti Kovacic will play the role of Moja after being selected via a grassroots call-out to the Slovenian community throughout Australia.
The cast also includes Mackenzie Mazur as Vesna and Slovenian actor Gregor Baković as Milos, with Flora Feldman taking on the role of Moja’s best friend, Danger, and Claudia Karvan playing her mother, Miranda.
Moja Vesna will...
- 4/7/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
The Key Buyers Event: Digital, a film and TV market held in Russia, will return for a third edition in 2021. The event showcases new audiovisual content from the country and highlights emerging talent. This year’s focus will be international co-production, rather than the typical focus on distribution. The event is organized by promotional body Roskino and is supported by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of the City of Moscow and the Agency for Creative Industries. The 2020 edition gathered more than 1,400 participants and 600 international distributors from 70 countries, according to Roskino. A new strand will also be inaugurated this year that will highlight Russian projects for global film festival programmers. “Russian content has enjoyed increasing levels of success within the global market over the last three years. Russian films have increasingly become popular – the latest example is Sputnik, a sci-fi horror that has been acquired for an English-language remake in Hollywood.
- 4/7/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Behrouz Boochani (R) (Photo credit: David Collins).
Director Rodd Rathjen showed his mettle in his debut feature, human trafficking saga Buoyancy, so he is an obvious choice to direct an asylum seeker drama based on the harrowing experiences of Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani.
Rathjen will collaborate with Boochani, who will serve as story consultant and associate producer, on No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, developed with Screen Australia’s support.
Aurora Films’ Ákos Armont and Antony Waddington, who optioned Boochani’s 2018 novel, are producing with Hoodlum Entertainment and Sweetshop & Green’s Sharlene George and Gal Greenspan.
The project will be pitched at the Toronto International Film Festival’s International Financing Forum (TIFF) this month.
Boochani fled Iran in 2012 after the newspaper he co-founded was raided by the Iranian government. He attempted to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia but the vessel was intercepted and he ended up on Manus Island,...
Director Rodd Rathjen showed his mettle in his debut feature, human trafficking saga Buoyancy, so he is an obvious choice to direct an asylum seeker drama based on the harrowing experiences of Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani.
Rathjen will collaborate with Boochani, who will serve as story consultant and associate producer, on No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, developed with Screen Australia’s support.
Aurora Films’ Ákos Armont and Antony Waddington, who optioned Boochani’s 2018 novel, are producing with Hoodlum Entertainment and Sweetshop & Green’s Sharlene George and Gal Greenspan.
The project will be pitched at the Toronto International Film Festival’s International Financing Forum (TIFF) this month.
Boochani fled Iran in 2012 after the newspaper he co-founded was raided by the Iranian government. He attempted to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia but the vessel was intercepted and he ended up on Manus Island,...
- 9/1/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
MTV Launches BLM Shorts
MTV International is today launching a short-form series to support the Black Lives Matter movement, featuring the likes of Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Pinnock and other names, including Munroe Bergdorf, Ray Blk, Nathan Henry, Duckie Thot, Serious Klein, will explore issues impacting Black youth and speak about their own experiences and what it takes to create positive change. Ten-part MTV Generation Change: Black Lives Matter will roll out on MTV International’s social platforms, as well as Channel 5 and BET International. The series was led by senior producer Amie Parker-Williams, including Samiat Pedro, Tyrell Charles and Shamar Bean. It was also supported by digital content producer Emily Hooley and executive producers Jonathan Pascoe and Tanya Malcolm-Revell.
Australian Debut Gets Backing
Screen Australia and Film Victoria have backed Sara Kern’s Australia-Slovenia Pic Vesna, which will shoot in Melbourne before the end of 2020. The project...
MTV International is today launching a short-form series to support the Black Lives Matter movement, featuring the likes of Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Pinnock and other names, including Munroe Bergdorf, Ray Blk, Nathan Henry, Duckie Thot, Serious Klein, will explore issues impacting Black youth and speak about their own experiences and what it takes to create positive change. Ten-part MTV Generation Change: Black Lives Matter will roll out on MTV International’s social platforms, as well as Channel 5 and BET International. The series was led by senior producer Amie Parker-Williams, including Samiat Pedro, Tyrell Charles and Shamar Bean. It was also supported by digital content producer Emily Hooley and executive producers Jonathan Pascoe and Tanya Malcolm-Revell.
Australian Debut Gets Backing
Screen Australia and Film Victoria have backed Sara Kern’s Australia-Slovenia Pic Vesna, which will shoot in Melbourne before the end of 2020. The project...
- 8/26/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Nakkiah Lui, Sarah Kern and Tai Hara.
Screen Australia today announced $2.7 million of production funding, going towards two features, one TV drama, one children’s drama and five online projects.
The slate includes the Roache-Turner brothers’ Wyrmwood Apocalypse, sequel to 2014’s Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead; writer/director Sara Kern’s debut feature Vesna; Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick’s ABC comedy Preppers; and a second season of Komixx Entertainment’s Itch.
Screen Australia head of content Sally Caplan said: “This slate of projects is testament to the breadth of Australian storytellers and what they’re capable of creating when supported. We are committed to elevating the careers of emerging talent and it’s exciting to see the likes of Sara Kern making her feature film debut, Nakkiah Lui creating her first longer form TV series and actor Tai Hara moving into directing with online series Colour Blind.”
“I’m...
Screen Australia today announced $2.7 million of production funding, going towards two features, one TV drama, one children’s drama and five online projects.
The slate includes the Roache-Turner brothers’ Wyrmwood Apocalypse, sequel to 2014’s Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead; writer/director Sara Kern’s debut feature Vesna; Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick’s ABC comedy Preppers; and a second season of Komixx Entertainment’s Itch.
Screen Australia head of content Sally Caplan said: “This slate of projects is testament to the breadth of Australian storytellers and what they’re capable of creating when supported. We are committed to elevating the careers of emerging talent and it’s exciting to see the likes of Sara Kern making her feature film debut, Nakkiah Lui creating her first longer form TV series and actor Tai Hara moving into directing with online series Colour Blind.”
“I’m...
- 8/26/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Hoodlum Entertainment, Aurora Films’ Antony Waddington and Ákos Armont and Sweetshop & Green’s Sharlene George and Gal Greenspan are teaming up to produce an asylum seeker drama adapted from a 2018 book.
Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani chronicled his harrowing experiences in the tome No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.
Boochani fled Iran in 2012 after the newspaper he co-founded was raided by the Iranian government. He attempted to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia but the vessel was intercepted and he ended up on Manus Island, where he spent nearly seven years.
He wrote the book, which details the riots which erupted in 2014, in Persian on WhatsApp on a contraband phone smuggled onto the island, which was subsequently translated into English by academic Omid Tofighian.
It has been sold to 19 countries and won a slew of awards including the Victorian Prize for Literature, which the author accepted via video link while in detention.
Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani chronicled his harrowing experiences in the tome No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.
Boochani fled Iran in 2012 after the newspaper he co-founded was raided by the Iranian government. He attempted to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia but the vessel was intercepted and he ended up on Manus Island, where he spent nearly seven years.
He wrote the book, which details the riots which erupted in 2014, in Persian on WhatsApp on a contraband phone smuggled onto the island, which was subsequently translated into English by academic Omid Tofighian.
It has been sold to 19 countries and won a slew of awards including the Victorian Prize for Literature, which the author accepted via video link while in detention.
- 2/23/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Behrouz Boochani’s asylum seeker drama ‘No Friend But The Mountains’ heads to big screen (exclusive)
Iranian-Kurdish journalist’s book recounts seven-year detention on Australia’s notorious Manus Island.
A trio of Antipodean companies are joining forces on a big-screen adaptation of Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani’s award-winning book No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.
The autobiographical international bestseller recounts Boochani’s near seven-year detention in Australia’s notorious off-shore asylum seeker processing centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, from 2013 to late 2019. Boochani documented his time there throughout his stay, including riots over the appalling conditions in 2014.
Sweetshop & Green, Aurora Films and Hoodlum Entertainment are partnering to develop and produce the...
A trio of Antipodean companies are joining forces on a big-screen adaptation of Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani’s award-winning book No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.
The autobiographical international bestseller recounts Boochani’s near seven-year detention in Australia’s notorious off-shore asylum seeker processing centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, from 2013 to late 2019. Boochani documented his time there throughout his stay, including riots over the appalling conditions in 2014.
Sweetshop & Green, Aurora Films and Hoodlum Entertainment are partnering to develop and produce the...
- 2/22/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
The new company will produce films and TV dramas aimed at the international market.
Global production company Sweetshop and expanding Israeli company Green Productions are joining forces to launch a new Australia and New Zealand-based outfit, called Sweetshop & Green.
The new company, which will become fully operational in October, will produce films and TV dramas aimed at the international market.
Sharlene George, founding partner and global executive producer of Sweetshop, co-heads the joint venture with Israeli producer Gal Greenspan, co-founder and CEO of Green Productions. Both take the title of joint managing director.
Veteran Israeli producer Moshe Edery, president and...
Global production company Sweetshop and expanding Israeli company Green Productions are joining forces to launch a new Australia and New Zealand-based outfit, called Sweetshop & Green.
The new company, which will become fully operational in October, will produce films and TV dramas aimed at the international market.
Sharlene George, founding partner and global executive producer of Sweetshop, co-heads the joint venture with Israeli producer Gal Greenspan, co-founder and CEO of Green Productions. Both take the title of joint managing director.
Veteran Israeli producer Moshe Edery, president and...
- 9/9/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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