This experience helped Ferris and Oliver to formulate an approach that’s flexible, emphasising agility, and a production style that is perhaps less hierarchical than what is common practice: “Decisions are shared, and everyone is involved,” Ferris said. “It’s a relationship drama that’s also a bit of a thriller,” he said. Told using an adventurous narrative where the action cuts between three stages of a relationship – that is three points in time – the film is, as the title suggests, a road movie. Inspired by the romantic films of Richard Linklater, it features Shalane Connors ( A Place to Call Home) and Ishak Issa ( Australian Gangster), with Aileen Beale ( Friday on My Mind). Oliver had a chance to test out his theories early in 2020 with Love Road, the first film on the Breathless slate (with co-producers Select Field), which he wrote and directed. This model is about trust, not tech, not employees. “Story,” he said, “was top of the list.”įerris says that the best thing about the Breathless model was that “every film we finally selected has its own model, with your filmmaking teams bringing in something specific. There was also an X factor column, indicating a project that had something.
One of the columns was feasibility – which happens to be our middle name.” “We ended up getting quite scientific about it,” Oliver adds. “We looked at anything and everything regardless of genre from chamber pieces to sci fi,” he said. Once Breathless announced a commitment to make five features in less than a year, it did not take long for filmmakers to come knocking, Ferris said. Inspired by the French New Wave – the company brand name is a self-conscious homage to Godard’s 1960 classic – Oliver says that limitations of time, money, scale and resources can be made into virtues: “it’s about making films rather than making business decisions.” That seems to be the approach to making films in Australia.” “But, it does lead to a very extended development, financing and marketing period… with thousands of strings attached.
“Other pathways are all very valid,” he said. The last decade of work for both, says Oliver, has informed a filmmaking philosophy that’s about, “experimenting with an alternative pathway to making movies. Ferris directed the experimental feature Penelope (2009) and the documentaries 57 Lawson (2016) and In(di)visible (2021), which screens at the Antenna Festival this month. Oliver produced short films, including the very successful Telegram Man (2009) and co-wrote the Steven Seagal actioner The Perfect Weapon (2016). Both have since built careers that merge a broad spectrum of production experience. Then, Oliver was a student (and entrepreneur) and Ferris, a founder of SFS, was the school’s director. The pair first met at the old Sydney Film School (SFS, 2004-2018) over a decade ago. “Ulysses and I have been talking about doing something like Breathless Films for years,” Ferris told FilmInk. Lonesome, which was lensed mid-2021, was the second feature of an ambitious five film production slate that Breathless spent most of 2020 developing. Teenage Kicks, Boreham’s debut, made a major impact in 2016, with one prominent critic dubbing the filmmaker, ‘a strong new voice in Australian Queer cinema.’ It currently has more than 85 portfolio companies including Pinterest, Carta, Roman Health, Compass, Unqork, and Hippo Insurance.“When I was writing the script,” Boreham, who is also a producer, explained, “I was thinking about the need for community and connection and how those things can be harder to find than in previous generations despite the interconnectedness we supposedly have through the digital landscape.”
Sinai Ventures will use the money to invest in late-stage software and technology companies across various categories. Blank won the U.S Dramatic Competition Directing Award at Sundance, and Netflix released the film on Oct. Blank portrays a down-on-her-luck New York playwright who decides to reinvent herself and salvage her artistic voice the only way she knows how - by becoming a rapper at age 40. Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Reed Birney, Imani Lewis, TJ Atoms and Jacob Ming-Trent also star. “The 40-Year-Old Version” is Rahda Blank’s semi-autobiographical comedy film which premiered on Jan. The fund said it aims to expand its slate of original intellectual property and grow its business by capitalizing on stories with authentic connections to drive its audiences to action. New Slate Ventures also is developing an untitled Michael Milken Limited Series, to be written by Terrence Winter (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Sopranos”).