Emerging SA filmmaker Victoria Cocks, a former Flinders University Screen and Media student, will direct a new vampire film to be shot in South Australia later this year.
The Screen Australia and SA Film Corporation this week announced production funding In The Blood, a “high-concept vampire film” written by the multi-award winning short film writer-director Nigel Karikari.
First-time feature filmmaker Victoria Cocks, 30, cut her teeth with internet cult hit series Wastelander Panda, which she wrote and directed with fellow Flinders alumna, SA film producer Kirsty Stark.
Ms Cocks says she’s very passionate about creating genre movies; creating “something real that isn’t from this world.”
“I only want do to genre and make something that isn’t real come to life,” she says.
“The highlight of my career so far was receiving a Director’s Guild award for Wastelander Panda in 2015.”
The adventure drama fantasy, filmed in a post-apocalyptic ‘world’ in Far North SA, was based on an original idea conceived by Victoria and Flinders contemporary Marcus McKenzie during a university lecture.
She’s now looking forward to working with a “terrific script written by Nigel Karikari that will make a compelling film”.
In The Blood is a story of family, both of blood and clan, about a mother’s redemption and the coming of age transformation of the son she once abandoned.
Selina, a lethal self-serving vampire, returns to a remote farmstead to destroy the last vestiges of her own troubling humanity, her long abandoned now teenage human son.
In The Blood will commence pre-production in August 2017 with delivery in mid-2018.
The producer Trevor Blainey (Noise, Cut Snake) says he’s looking forward to working with “a talented new director Victoria Cocks who I know is ready to make her mark with this film”.
Screen Australia Chief Executive Graeme Mason, said the feature debut was a “fantastic calling card” for both Victoria Cocks and Nigel Karikari.
“They are exciting new talents and In The Blood will provide them and producer Trevor Blainey with the opportunity to work on a project that we hope will have broad appeal not only here, but internationally.”
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) CEO Annabelle Sheehan said: “Victoria Cocks is a truly innovative filmmaker. Her success with the online drama series Wastelander Panda established her as a director with a unique vision.
“We celebrate her launching her feature film career with In The Blood, and are proud to be supporting a South Australian director.
“Creating screen content brings together skilled practitioners from all aspects of the arts and securing this feature film for both production and post-production in South Australia will provide jobs for an estimated 150 SA crew and cast.
Ms Sheehan says “some of the very best Australian genre films have come out of South Australia, and In The Blood is sure to join them”.
Meanwhile, a number of short films directed, produced and written by Flinders University students and graduates are finalists in this year’s SA Screen Awards.
Representing Flinders are Kirsty Stark, Brendon Skinner, Simon Williams, Brendan Williams and Sam King (for the successful ABC iView web series Goober), Sean Lahiff (Smashed), Lucy Gale (Jemima The Fish), Caroline Man (Spin Out), Paul Forza, Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen (And Beyond), and several other projects.
They include Flinders representatives Tamara Hardman and Kurt Roberts (Space is Smaller than the Space Between Us), Stephen Banham (Almost Midnight), Stephanie Jaclyn (Freemales the WebSeries), Sam McKenzie (Pursuit), Catherine Francis, Alex Salkicevic and Brody Murray (Triple Impact – Heinrich’s Revenge), Tom Goodall, Manuel Ashman and Liam Harvey (Liberation Kitty Slayer), Paul Forza (Convergence and The Elderly Gentleman), Tim Carlier (Paco), Jeremy Nicholas (Variation on a Theme of Violence), Sam King and Bryan Mason (Lost in Pronunciation) and Kirsty Stark with Walter.
The Flinders finalist entries, as above, were in the categories (and some multiple categories) of Best Short Film, Best Drama, Best Web Series, Best Comedy, Best Animation, Best Non-Narrative, Best Screenplay, Best Directing, Best Performance, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Music.
These and other finalists are in the running for the SASA awards to be announced at the Mercury Cinema on Friday 12 May.