Pitch Off! at Queer Screen Film Fest 2024

2024 Pitch Off Finalists 

All the fantastic finalists for Queer Screen’s Pitch Off 2024! This initiative is an opportunity for up-and-coming filmmakers to win $10,000 in funding for a short film project from Queer Screen! And this year, we are thrilled that Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce will also offer initiatives for eligible female and gender-diverse practitioners selected as finalists (see below). You can check out our previous finalists and winners here.

On Sunday 1 September, at 2pm, six finalists will participate in a live Pitch Off at Set Bar at Event Cinemas George St, Sydney. Each of them will present their film proposal to a live audience (yes, you can come along too to watch it all unfold) as well as a panel of experts from the film industry and the Gender Matters Taskforce.

BILLIE & JESSE

Director: AP Pobjoy | Writer: Ziggy Resnick, AP Pobjoy | Producer: Sayuri Kawamura
When a seemingly perfect lesbian couple faces a turning point as one partner transitions, a rural road trip with a secret pitstop tests their patience, love and everything they know about each other.

COVEN

Director: Shalane Connors | Writer: Shalane Connors | Producer: Emma Monk
A Mockumentary style comedy about a diverse group of Queer Womxn who practice the sport of “Witching”, told with tongue-in-cheek delivery that intends to portray the joy of the LGBTQIA+ experience.

THE DYSPHORIA

Director: Kylie Aoibheann | Writer: Kylie Aoibheann | Producer: Oliver Ellis
Desperate for gender affirming surgery, a young transgender woman performs a Satanic ritual to get the vagina she’s always wanted… but she unwittingly invites a demonic presence into her home which demands a terrible sacrifice.

INHERITANCE

Director: Mohammad Awad  | Writer: Mohammad Awad | Executive Producer: Patrick Abboud
Inheritance is a drama-thriller which explores how a fathers untimely death affects Ameen, his estranged queer Muslim son.

LATERZ

Director: Chelsea Ingram | Writer: Chelsea Ingram, Nora Alalou | Producer: Nora Alalou, Chelsea Ingram
Dazza and the crew go to great lengths to make rent.

THE SWELL

Director: Aliyah Knight | Writer: Aliyah Knight | Producer: Luca Blades
Folklore bleeds into reality when a teen girl is captivated by a mysterious young woman who inhabits the river, the beating heart of their small town.

Deborah Peart is one of Australia’s leading screen editors.

With a career spanning over 20 years, her credits are synonymous with some of Australia’s most groundbreaking and internationally successful television. This work includes Mystery Road and Lambs of God which both premiered in competition at Series Mania, Total Control the first Australian series to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, the most successful Australian release worldwide for Amazon Prime.

Feature film credits include Gracie Otto’s Seriously Red which screened at SXSW and the romance/comedy Addition from director Marcelle Lunam, which has its world premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

An accredited member of the Australian Screen Editors guild, she has been nominated for 9 Ellie Awards winning twice and has received 8 AACTA nominations taking home the award for her work on The Code and Mystery Road.

She is currently in post production on the series adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s The Last Anniversary, co-produced with Made Up Stories and Nicole Kidman and Per Saari’s Blossom Films.

Monica Zanetti is an award-winning screenwriter and director. She is the co-creator of the SBS series While the Men are Away of which she directed the bottle episode. Monica also wrote and directed the film Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)  which was based on her stage play of the same name. The film won the 2021 AACTA award for Best Independent Film and is now playing on Netflix and other streaming services worldwide. She recently was nominated for an Australia Directors Guild award for her work on the SBS series Iggy & Ace. Her earlier work includes writing on the Netflix series Sister and the Acorn series My Life is Murder. Monica currently has several works in development including an American feature film with Billy Porter’s company Incognegro.

Junes Zahdi is a multicultural, award-winning actor, producer, and writer, lighting up big and small screens in hits like, Counterpart, Strange Angel, The Mindy Project, and TIFF’s Concerning the Bodyguard.

Junes moved to New York in 2003, studying method acting at a prestigious conservatory. Upon graduation, he was cast as the lead in The Man Who Killed Castro, winning critical acclaim at film festivals worldwide, leading to further roles. After moving to Los Angeles in 2008, Junes dived into TV roles, including Lincoln Heights, alongside Vanessa Williams, Gigantic, directed by Fred Savage, and a number of independent films. Junes is also a talented choreographer and musician. His various musical endeavours include Larmoyant, a collaboration with Yves St. Laurent, Elephant and Home.

After winning nine Best Lead Actor awards for the controversial Feature MSOTG, Junes is now developing numerous socio-critical projects and screenplays.  Junes’ recent film credits include the MGM Feature Dog, as well as starring roles in the upcoming psycho-thriller The Final Judgment, and the Blumhouse/Netflix martial arts drama Absolute Dominion.

Melissa Lee Speyer is a playwright and screenwriter for film, theatre and television. She has worked as a Development Executive at Screen Australia and independent production company Wooden Horse and has previously taught screenwriting at AFTRS. She is a current member of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce. 

Occasionally labelled the Sex-Change Soccer Star Cyber Tranny Granny, Martine Delaney is probably better across Rainbow Australia for her advocacy and lobbying work. A founding member of Australian Marriage Equality, the organisation that led the national struggle, she also conducted a 15-year campaign leading to Tasmania enacting world-leading inclusive birth certificate legislation.

She’s been briefly dead, a stand-up comic, ghost tour guide, book in a Human Library, stood for Parliament, and manager of an internationally successful Aboriginal singer-songwriter. Also the first person on the planet to have played both men’s and women’s Division 1 football.

Since finding the screen world, Martine’s been in the writers’ room for Season 1 of International Emmy-winning series, First Day, and written for the Emmy-nominated Season 2; created, written and co-produced the SBS documentary, It Takes a Village. She’s also co-writing two features and has other optioned projects in development. She’s busy, and still poor.