Screen Australia Announces $5.7m In Documentary Funding
Grantees include Australia-Germany co-production 'Saving Tuvalu' and a feature doc about the Bondi Beach terror attacks.
Screen Australia has announced more than $5.7 million in production and development funding across 47 documentary projects.
The stacked slate comprises climate storytelling from the Pacific Islands, Australian wildlife, disability activism, and international co-productions, indicating Screen Australia's current editorial priorities around locally specific stories with global reach.
According to Head of Documentary Richard Huddleston, recent research indicates that 71% of Australians take action after watching local content, reinforcing a need for homegrown storytelling.
Leading the slate’s international prospects is Saving Tuvalu, an Australian-German co-production directed by Kate Blackmore, Amelia Tovey, and Tuvaluan collaborating director Bernard ‘Kato’ Ewekia.
Saving Tuvalu won the AIDC FACTory Central Showcase award at the Sheffield DocFest this year, and has already been commissioned by ZDF/ARTE for French and German-speaking territories.
The doc follows three young Tuvaluans confronting an impossible set of choices about their culture, identity and rising sea levels threatening their homeland. It is co-produced by Media Stockade, Tellus Films and Filmtank, with support from Screen NSW and the Shark Island Foundation.
Bondi, a 90-minute doc from award-winning production house Mint Pictures and director Amanda Blue, covers the aftermath of last year’s terror attacks on Bondi Beach. The story will be told through survivors, victims' families and first responders.
Bondi is produced in association with SBS, and international sales are being handled by TVF Media. The doc will arrive in a crowded space – ABC's Four Corners ran a two-part special on the attack in February 2026 – but SBS promises an expansive narrative with unprecedented access to the events.
Among the wildlife and natural history projects, Australia's Lost Eden from Southern Wild Films follows a young Tasmanian devil across a year of shooting in one of the last major wilderness areas on earth, with international sales by Terra Mater Studios.
Flyways director Randall Wood turns the camera on himself for The Brain Garden, a feature documentary about recovering from traumatic brain injury that draws on neuroscience and nature in equal measure, developed with Screen Queensland.
The slate also includes Stella: I Am Not Your Inspiration, a documentary about the late Australian disability activist and comedian Stella Young, directed by Sarah Barton and Liz Burke (the team behind Defiant Lives), tracing her trajectory from a small Australian town to the edge of international recognition before her death at 32.
Estranged, from Olivia Martin-McGuire, follows her and her trans sibling on a global road trip examining queer community perspectives on family estrangement. Hell Has No Fire Escape, debut director Georgina Savage's feature about a South African pastor drawn into an online love scam, blends vérité footage with dreamlike fantasy sequences.
And finally, Leigh Bowery: Eternal Sunshine, directed by Ilinca Calugareanu and produced by Elinor Hughes, covers the eponymous Australian-born performance artist and cultural provocateur. Bowery’s work transformed London's underground scene in the 1980s before his tragic passing at 33. The project is currently at the development stage.
Full production and development lists are available on the Screen Australia website. Further funded projects will be announced at the ABC Media Showcase on October 21.
