Category Archives: Film

Film news with a particular orientation towards Australia.


‘Shayda’ director on producing her debut feature: “I needed to be at that table”

Directing, Diversity, Film

BY SANDY GEORGE Screen International 8 DECEMBER 2023

Tehran-born filmmaker Noora Niasari tells Screen about balancing light and dark in debut feature Shayda

Shayda

Australia’s Oscar entry Shayda first won over audiences at Sundance in January, where it won the audience award in the world cinema dramatic competition — and was scooped up by Sony Pictures Classics for North America. It has gone on to win further prizes, including the $65,000 (a$100,000) CinefestOZ film prize in September.

“Many people say, ‘It’s so authentic, it’s so honest’, and that’s beautiful, it’s what every filmmaker wants to hear,” says Tehran-born writer/director Noora Niasari. “But I had to dig into my childhood trauma every single day to bring that story to screen.”

Her memories, together with 50,000 words written by her mother, were the basis of the 1995‑set “quasi-autobiographical” story of Shayda (played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi), a woman sheltering from her husband Hossein (Osamah Sami) in a Melbourne refuge with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia).

“Things happened [in real life] that some audiences wouldn’t be able to believe,” Niasari says. “At a certain point, we [Niasari and script editor Lynne Vincent McCarthy] started mapping out the movie by keeping whatever served the narrative and the cinematic experience. Sometimes reality is harsher than fiction and we had to balance the light and dark.”

Moments of beauty — Shayda framed in the style of a Renaissance painting, for example, or dancing with her daughter — offer respite from the tension emanating from her fear that the little girl will be abducted. Niasari praises the young actress for her ability to lock into the emotion of a situation, noting that Zahednia cried, unprompted, in her first audition before snapping out of those feelings the moment it was finished.

“Selina is incredibly special, so emotionally intelligent and present,” says the filmmaker. “She had a deep connection with Zar. From their first encounter, they were painting each other’s nails and playing games. They were in sync, they had undeniable chemistry.”

Niasari, a film graduate from Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, had directed several short films and the 2017 documentary Antunez House prior to making Shayda. Asal Daram, who she had cast as a 15-year-old for her 2017 short Waterfall, was employed as the director’s assistant on Shayda to help shape Zahednia’s performance.

“We did a lot of workshopping, a lot of play, a lot of puzzling out how we would get the performance we needed without traumatising her,” Niasari explains. “She never knew what was really going on [in the story]. We would create scenarios to get the reactions we needed, so we could protect her from the content. I wanted more than anything to retain her joy and unburdened innocence.”

In one scene, a frightened Mona looks out of the back window of a car. Zahednia was told an angry dog was chasing the vehicle whereas, in the film, it is her on-screen father. A double who could not speak Farsi was on set when the father character said things that were inappropriate for Zahed­nia to hear.

Niasari, script in hand, instigated meetings with several experienced producers before Vincent Sheehan from Origma 45 impressed her with his passion for the project. He brought in Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton of Dirty Films as executive producers, giving financiers confidence. Investors included Screen Australia and The 51 Fund. Shayda also received backing from Melbourne International Film Festival’s Premiere Fund, and opened the Australian festival in August. SPC released for an awards-qualifying week in the US beginning December 1, ahead of a full rollout next year. Vertigo Releasing follows in the UK in March.

Niasari also acted as a producer on her debut feature. “There were cultural, personal and political aspects, and very real [potential] repercussions on my life, my family’s life,” she says. “I needed to be at the table, contributing to the discussions and being across every decision, creative or otherwise.”

Being a producer helped get Niasari what she wanted for the project, which included hiring Iranian-­Australian cinema­tographer Sherwin Akbarzadeh — her regular collaborator and fellow feature first-timer — and an on-set therapist for the cast and crew, including herself. Midway through production, Niasari even started a transcendental meditation course.

“On a film like this, the pressure and emotional toll can be overwhelming,” she says. “You have to carve out time and set boundaries so you can also tend to yourself. Only then can you show up for the film and your team in the best way.”

Niasari intends Shayda to be the first of a trilogy of films about Iranian women — she is planning an adaptation of Iranian-American author Mahsa Rahmani Noble’s historical fiction novel Raya as the follow-up. The project was brought to her by Gary Foster, who is producing alongside Kate Fenske for Sister. Niasari and Foster first met in 2018 when Niasari heard Foster speak at an Australian conference.

“It was a life-changing encounter and Gary has been a mentor to me ever since,” Niasari says. UTA and FilmNation Entertainment are handling inter­national sales on Raya, which is well underway. “We’ve cast the leads, we’re out to market and aiming to shoot in 2024 in Paris,” she says.

AACTA confirms dates for 2024 awards, announces five-day festival of events

Directing, Film, Latest News

Sean Slatter· IF magazine

Schuyler Weiss accepts the AACTA Award for Best Film during the 2022 AACTA Awards. (Photo by James Gourley/Getty Images for AFI)

A five-day festival will accompany next February’s AACTA Awards on the Gold Coast, with the dates for the 2024 ceremonies now confirmed.

Spanning February 7-11, the “celebration of film, TV, streaming, music, and digital content” will include a day devoted exclusively to First Nations content and creatives, networking hubs, and a Screen Careers Expo for those curious about pursuing a career in film or television.

The events will coincide with the AACTA Industry Awards on February 8 and the main ceremony on February 10, both of which will take place at the Home of the Arts (HOTA).

The 2024 Awards are the first to be held under the three-year deal between AACTA and the Queensland Government, with the February date designed to bring the ceremony in line with the international awards schedule.

AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said the academy looked forward to bringing the industry on the Gold Coast to celebrate the achievements of filmmakers, storytellers, and screen practitioners.

“It’s been an exciting year for the Australian screen industry with an abundance of original and innovative productions growing loyal fanbases here and increasingly engaging massive audiences overseas,” he said.

“As we approach the next AACTA Awards, the excitement is palpable.”

Screen Queensland CEO, Jacqui Feeney said the accompanying festival was an opportunity for local practitioners to connect with their peers and become closer to a “dynamic and creative industry that employs so many local people”.

“Screen Queensland looks forward to welcoming the wider screen sector to the Gold Coast in February — to the state’s most vibrant screen production location and the ideal place to celebrate excellence in our industry,” she said.

Tickets for the awards and festival events will go on sale in November to coincide with the announcement of the full program of activity.

The nominees will be announced in early December. Find out more information about the 2024 awards here.

Is a Deal With the DGA the Key To Ending the Writers Strike?

Directing, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

A still from 'Elvis' (2022)
‘Elvis’CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures

By Alyssa Miller

May 9, 2023

Pay the people what they’re worth, and protect our creatives at all costs. 

Hollywood’s labor wants a fair wage. As the WGA walks the picket lines outside the major studios, demanding the studio executives meet some kind of labor agreement that protects the livelihood of all writers in Hollywood, the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are entering negotiations on new contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. 

Similar to the WGA demands, the DGA and SAG-AFTRA are looking to strike a deal on streaming residuals. If you are curious about how much actors are currently making from streaming, check out our coverage on streaming residuals. With both contracts expiring on June 30th, there is a lot that creatives are going to fight for as the entire industry adjusts to the new landscape. 

While the actors’ fight is important to the industry, it is the DGA that could help resolve the writers’ strike. 

Let me explain. 

When the WGA went on strike 15 years ago, the DGA went into contract negotiations, leveraging the pressure on the industry-wide lockout that was in its third month. The DGA was able to find agreements that the WGA and AMPTP couldn’t agree on. The jurisdiction over the internet and a residual formula that was then known as “new media” helped end the exploitation of movies and TV shows for directors. 

The WGA used many of the same terms the DGA used in its 2008 contract, uniting and creating equality among the WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA. 

However, this year’s strike is different. 

A still from 'The Hudsucker Proxy' (1994)
‘The Hudsucker Proxy’CREDIT: Warner Bros.

Could a Deal with the DGA End the Writers’ Strike? 

According to Variety, WGA members met on May 6th, 2023, and were told by union leaders that they should not expect a repeat of 2008 even if the DGA reaches an agreement. 

The reason why is simple: the WGA and DGA have very different agendas. Many of the issues the DGA is facing do not address the concerns of the WGA. This year, the DGA is focused on getting a better deal on international streaming residuals. 

“The bigger the SVOD platform domestically, the higher the residual,” the guild stated. “However, under our current formula, no matter how many millions of global subscribers a service might have, the Studios only pay you a fraction of the domestic residual to compensate you for all of the global audiences that enjoy your work. This effectively cuts you out of your fair share of the worldwide distribution and success of your work abroad.”

Variety reports that AMPTP president Carol Lombardini has already made an offer to writers on that issue, which could be a launching point for the DGA’s negotiations. 

“If I were in Carol’s shoes, I’d say ‘Let’s do DGA,’” said John McLean, former CBS labor relations executive, and a former WGA executive director. “If we can give them something in international, you go to the actors and then make a deal with them. That does put the Writers Guild in a tough spot.”

However, the DGA and SAG-AFTRA have gone out of their way to express solidarity with the writers, with the DGA’s Jon Avnet appearing on stage with WGA leaders at a unity rally on May 3rd. 

You might be wondering what would happen if the DGA went on strike, which is something we’ve been thinking a lot about, too. A DGA strike could shutter all scripted productions immediately – including film and TV – which could give writers more leverage. The likelihood of this strike happening is unlikely, with the DGA striking only once in 1987 for three hours and five minutes on the East Coast and just twelve minutes on the West Coast. 

With the DGA’s unity and solidarity with the WGA, I hope that the DGA uses its leverage in the industry to push for fair rights across the board for all creatives. The DGA should always put their guild-specific issues first, like on-set safety, diversity, and protecting directors’ creative control, but aiding other creatives who are essential pieces to creating entertainment and media should be supported at all times. 

“I think they understand that all of labor has to stand up and fight against these companies that really do want to minimize us as much as possible,” Ellen Stutzman, the WGA’s chief negotiator, told Variety while picketing outside Netflix in Hollywood on May 8. “And the fact is, they can’t make the content without any of us or all of us.”

This is the summer of strikes. Whether the DGA or SAG-AFTRA strike is up to the people who control the wealth of the industry. We creatives just want a fair slice of the pie so we can live and create work that inspires and protects the next generation of filmmakers like you.

John Collee talks ‘Boy Swallows Universe’ and mentoring emerging writers

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting, Television

by Jackie Keast IF Magazine February 14, 2023

John Collee.

If you can tell a story in the pub, you can write a film script: You just need to know the techniques.

So says Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Tanna and Hotel Mumbai scribe John Collee, who is emphatic that there is no “dark magic” to screenwriting. It’s a craft that can be learned like cinematography or directing. He even compares it to furniture making or architecture.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as a born storyteller. Everyone tells stories. It’s in our DNA,” he tells IF.

Collee argues that for too long, Australia has undervalued culturally the role of the writer, particularly compared to the US and UK industries.

“It’s become a real gap in the Australian film and TV making picture,” Collee says, arguing screenwriting is not taught properly in this country.

“Traditionally Australian writing has just been, ‘Write a short film, then write a long film and see how you go by trial and error’. Even Peter Weir, the first director who I started working with, said he had no education in film writing. He went back to study film of his own volition after he’d made his first couple of movies, just to work out how it was done.

“I don’t think it’s been examined much in Australia, and obviously needs to be when you have a pipeline like Netflix and you want to start making a lot of local content. In the Writers’ Guild we’re lobbying Netflix quite hard to have an Australian content mandate in Australia, for Australian stories. But then you need to define what an Australian story is, and then you also need to teach people how to write.”

The Scottish-born screenwriter, novelist, journalist and former doctor tutored emerging writers via Netflix’s Grow Creative program late last year. Working with younger writers is something he is passionate about; he gives a lecture on writing for Hollywood at AFTRS annually and 20-minute version of much of his advice is up on Screen Australia’s YouTube channel.

Collee finds it inspiring to hear feedback from emerging writers, as it helps to examine the practice of writing and remind him why he does what he does.

“If you do a job all the time, then you, despite yourself, start to take shortcuts. You need to actually keep going back and reminding yourself why this is ‘this’.”

He also continues to work with directors at all stages of their careers. He recently penned short film The Story of Lee Ping, directed by Jasmin Tarasin, intended as a proof-of-concept for a larger feature. Following on from Hotel Mumbai, he wrote with Dev Patel and Tilda Cobham-Hervey short Roborovski, which the pair directed.

Of younger directors, Collee said: “I love their enthusiasm. They’re out there making stuff. The barriers to entry are very small now.

“You can actually now, with your iPhone, go off to some exotic place and shoot something that interests you. I love the freedom of that. In fact, a lot of big shot directors I know love it as well; they long to break free from all the hardware and money stuff. You actually don’t need that anymore. I’m longing for there to be a punk revolution where everyone gets that; people learn how to do filmic storytelling and just go off and do it.”

The Grow Creative workshops are an extension of Collee’s relationship with Netflix, having written upcoming Australian drama, Boy Swallows Universe, based on Trent Dalton’s semi-autobiographical bestseller.

Collee penned the review of the book for the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2018, calling it “without exaggeration, the best Australian novel I have read in more than a decade.”

He readily admits his review was his pitch to Dalton to adapt the book into a screenplay.

It seems to have worked: Collee has written all eight episodes of the series. His partners from the Hopscotch Features days, producers Troy Lum and Andrew Mason of Brouhaha Entertainment, produce.

The Boy Swallows Universe cast carries a hefty list of names: Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker, Phoebe Tonkin, Bryan Brown and Anthony LaPaglia, with Felix Cameron in the lead as Eli Bell.

Travis Fimmel (second from right) on the ‘Boy Swallows Universe’ set.

At the heart of its story, Collee says, is “parents fucking up”.

“You don’t definitely have to write about what you know. You have to write about what you feel.

“If you’ve raised kids, as I have – my wife and I, our children are all grown up, they’re in their 20s, but you always feel, ‘Oh my God, I’m not equipped for this. I’m doing it really badly, I’m making all these mistakes’. And there’s something so touching about all of the adults in Trent’s book; he writes with such affection about his parents who are complete dropkicks as human beings. The first father is a heroin addict, the second father is an alcoholic, and the mother, there’s all kinds of anxiety issues. They’re all over the place. And somehow they create this loving family just by virtue of the fact they adore their children. That’s really what sucked me into it.

“But also I’d become so tired of Aussie crime drama, which a) glorifies crime and b) sees a virtue in grunginess. When I was working in development at Hopscotch, I kept saying to Troy and Andrew, ‘Anything but grungy Aussie crime drama’. It seems to me that Australians equate being nasty to each other with drama. That’s the simplest way to create drama, dramatic scenes, to have to have people being horrible. Actually, being nice to each other is really dramatic as well. It’s actually dramatic in a better way.

“So a book that actually took that trope of grungy Aussie crime drama about alcoholics and drug addicts and people living on the edge, and then turned it around so that it was magical and heartwarming and inspiring – I thought was just a really new kind of Australian literature, I really did.”

Like most screenwriters, Collee has a back catalogue of films that haven’t quite gotten across the line. However, in proof that not all that goes in the bottom drawer is lost, a film Collee wrote 25 years ago, The Return, has just gotten up with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche to star. Directed by Uberto Pasolini and co-written with Edward Bond, it is a retelling of Odysseus’ return home from war.

Collee has several other projects on the go, including the tentatively titled The Light Fantastic, based on Mani Bhaumik’s autobiography, Code Name God. Bhuamik, an Indian billionaire, grew up in poverty and went on to become a quantum physicist in America; his book deals with the link between science and spirituality.

Working with Collee on that project is director Jon Amiel, whom he previously worked on 2009’s Creation, and producer Jomon Thomas, whom he worked with on Hotel Mumbai.

After Hotel Mumbai, Collee was also hired by Middle East and North African media conglomerate MBC Group to write a project about a riot in Mecca, which he is currently researching, and still boiling away in the background is Phillip Noyce’s Rats of Tobruk, inspired by the director’s father and the Allied forces that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps in 1941.

What excites Collee at this stage of his career?

“The kind of thing that brings you into a world you didn’t know about,” he says.

“I see every film as a philosophical enquiry. The theme of it has to be personal to you, but what I’ve discovered is that in any story, you can insert a theme that is personal into it, and then that’s what gets you going.”

Noora Niasari’s ‘Shayda’ impresses at Sundance

Directing, Diversity, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

by Jackie Keast IF Magazine January 23, 2023

‘Shayda’.

Writer-director Noora Niasari’s Shayda has been hailed by reviewers at the Sundance Film Festival as a powerful, gripping and affecting debut.

Shayda premiered over the weekend in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, with critics making special mention of the performances of lead actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, who won best actress at last year’s Cannes for Holy Spider, Osamah Sami, and young newcomer Selina Zahednia.

Inspired by Niasari’s own childhood, Shayda is set in 1995 and follows a young Iranian mother (Amir-Ebrahimi in the titular role) who finds refuge with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Zahednia) in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowrooz).

Aided by the strong community of women at the refuge, they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities, only to find themselves facing the violence they tried so hard to escape – namely Hossein, Shayda’s domineering and abusive husband (Sami), who seeks to be reunited with his daughter.

Vincent Sheehan produced Shayda through his new production venture Origma 45, with Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini the execuitve producers.

Writing for Screen Daily, Tim Grierson said that strong reviews, Blanchett as an EP, and the growing global awareness of the women’s rights movement in Iran “should help spark interest” in the Australian drama.

He noted a “palpable sense of dread hangs heavy over the film”, as the audience waits for the inevitable moment that Shayda’s husband will seek to separate her from her child.

“A story like this could lend itself to manipulative melodrama, but Niasari gives the material a pared-down simplicity, resisting big emotional twists or forced dramatic stakes. The muted approach only adds to the taut mood: Shayda is such a vivid presence that we keep fearing the moment when her resilient buoyancy may be destroyed by Hossein,” he wrote.

“Shayda is a tale of a woman who chooses hope over fear, which is all the more inspiring because the film shows us the many reasons why she should be afraid.”

In Variety, Tomris Laffly praised Ebrahimi’s “deceptively simple, even regal” performance, as she conveys her character’s “internalized battles through understated moments with nothing more than a delicate look or a pregnant silence.”

“Equally impressive are Zahednia as the wordlessly traumatized Mona — Niasari clearly has a special way with child actors — and Sami, a villain both blood-curdling and disturbingly familiar. The greatest asset of Shayda, however, is its unmistakably feminine spirit of perseverance, one that runs wild and free in this promising debut,” she wrote.

While conceding the film may skew towards the predictable at times, Laffly counters that this is as “the male abuser’s playbook is often predictable too”. She described Niasari’s filmmaking style as carrying “traces of a documentarian’s off-the-cuff alertness, braiding it with qualities akin to a thriller”.

“Through DP Sherwin Akbarzadeh’s fluid and immersive camera movements, the film’s opening is a perfect example of this verité-style intensity,” she wrote.

In The Hollywood Reporter, Shari Linden similarly commended the “quiet ferocity” of Amir-Ebrahimi’s performance and her chemistry with Zahednia.

“Amir Ebrahimi…. [is] quietly riveting, embodying a refusal to retreat into prescribed roles. And Sami, in what might have been a merely thankless, one-note part, makes the sanctimonious Hossein both monstrous and pathetic, overwhelmed by the threat he perceives in Shayda’s strength,” she wrote.

Linden also praised Niasari and Akbarzadeh’s collaboration, and the editing of Elika Rezaee.

“Throughout the film, Niasari and cinematographer Sherwin Akbarzadeh move the action between a realm of the secretive and fraught and one of brightness and play,” she wrote.

Shayda received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with The 51 Fund and was financed with support from VicScreen and the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund.

Executive producers from the 51 Fund, which provides financing to feature films of any genre that are directed by women, include Caitlin Gold, Lindsay Lanzillotta, Naomi McDougall Jones, Lois Scott, and Nivedita Kulkarni.

Madman is handling distribution in ANZ.

‘Shayda’: Sundance Review

Directing, Diversity, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

BY TIM GRIERSON, SENIOR US CRITIC Screen Daily 20 JANUARY 2023

In Australia, an Iranian immigrant fights for her life and her daughter in Noora Niasari’s powerful, semi-autobiographical debut

Shayda

SOURCE: SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

‘SHAYDA’

Dir/scr: Noora Niasari. Australia. 2023. 117mins

Making her feature debut, writer-director Noora Niasari has crafted a gripping drama about one Iranian woman’s struggle to extricate herself from her husband — an ordeal that could also mean losing her daughter. Named for its weary but resilient protagonist, Shayda is inspired by Niasari’s own childhood and stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi as a mother hiding out in a women’s shelter in Australia as she attempts to remake her life and process the abuse she endured in her marriage. A palpable sense of dread hangs heavy over the film, the audience bracing for the inevitable moment that her domineering husband tries to separate her from her child. 

Amir Ebrahimi gives a remarkable performance that’s a smart mixture of fiery and openhearted

Shayda premieres in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, its theatrical prospects bolstered by the presence of Amir Ebrahimi, who won Best Actress at last year’s Cannes for Holy Spider. Cate Blanchett serves as an executive producer, and strong reviews — not to mention the growing global awareness of the women’s rights movement in Iran — should help spark interest.

The story takes place in 1995, when Shayda (Amir Ebrahimi) is raising six-year-old Mona (Selina Zahednia), her loving, ebullient parenting style belying the anxiety underneath her warm smile. She has moved to Australia with her husband Hossein (Osamah Sami), but his abuse— including rape — has driven her to seek refuge in an undisclosed women’s shelter as she seeks to divorce him. But Hossein has been permitted visitation rights with Mona, and he fully intends to bring their daughter back with him to Iran.

Home movies of a young Niasari during the end credits signal the semi-autobiographical nature of the material: like Mona, the writer-director grew up in Australia after being born in Tehran. (Shayda is dedicated to “my mother and the brave women of Iran”.) And while the film isn’t quite a thriller, viewers will feel the lingering unease surrounding Shayda, who must contend with a nearly impossible set of circumstances. Refusing to let her husband know where she now lives, she grapples with the constant uncertainty of what might happen if the location of the women’s shelter is compromised. (The appearance of a mysterious car stationed outside the house is enough to make Shayda and the other residents nervous.) But there’s also Shayda’s thorny legal situation: as the bullying Hossein puts it, “You can’t stay here, get your divorce and keep the child.” Will Shayda have to choose between her freedom and Mona?

Amir Ebrahimi gives a remarkable performance that’s a smart mixture of fiery and openhearted. The film never lets us forget that although Shayda is mindful of the danger she faces from her violent husband, she isn’t willing to cower from life. After all, by rejecting customs like wearing a hijab, Shayda has already separated herself from an old existence she no longer desires. Shayda nicely balances the character’s understandable worry with a thirst to live — which includes the possibility of a new romantic relationship with sensitive, handsome Farhad (Mojean Aria), who is not aware that she is still married. 

Occasionally, Shayda meets Hossein at a mall so he can pick up Mona, and Sami is convincing as this conniving husband, who schemes to turn his daughter against Shayda while trying to determine if his wife is dating anyone. But it’s not just Hossein applying pressure on Shayda: her own mother, still living in Iran, calls to tell Shayda to forgive him, insisting that’s he a good man. In the Iranian community in which she finds herself in Australia, Shayda encounters plenty of patriarchal attitudes about marriage – a tension that will come to a head near the film’s end when Hossein confronts her in public.

A story like this could lend itself to manipulative melodrama, but Niasari gives the material a pared-down simplicity, resisting big emotional twists or forced dramatic stakes. The muted approach only adds to the taut mood: Shayda is such a vivid presence that we keep fearing the moment when her resilient buoyancy may be destroyed by Hossein. But Shayda also takes time to focus on the offhand, happy moments between her and Mona, and newcomer Zahednia is endearing without being cutesy. (The child actor is especially effective once Mona starts to grasp her father’s cruelty.) Shayda is a tale of a woman who chooses hope over fear, which is all the more inspiring because the film shows us the many reasons why she should be afraid. 

‘If I Went Back to Iran Today, I’d Be in Prison’: Why Noora Niasari’s ‘Shayda’ Is a ‘Drop in an Ocean of Change’

Directing, Diversity, Film, Latest News, Screenwriting

By Manori Ravindran Variety 18 January 2023

Five years ago, Noora Niasari asked her mother to write a memoir in order to fill in the gaps of some fuzzy childhood memories. The Iranian Australian director had been just five years old when her mother fled an abusive relationship and left her entire community to raise Niasari on her own in a foreign country.

An early draft of “Shayda,” which opens the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance on Friday, was based on that memoir and tracks Niasari’s mother’s life from her arranged marriage in Iran as a teenager to finding independence in Australia with her child. The resulting film stars “Holy Spider” breakout Zar Amir-Ebrahimi as Shayda, and Selina Zahednia as her daughter, Mona.

“There are a lot of fictional elements within the current version of the film, but it’s very much grounded in the emotional truth of our experience,” the Melbourne-based Niasari tells Variety.

Backed by Screen Australia and produced by Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films, “Shayda” is the helmer’s first feature film and follows a number of acclaimed shorts, including “Tâm,” “17 Years and a Day” and “Simorgh.” The director says she had to work up to “Shayda,” both technically as an artist, and emotionally as a daughter who’s still processing her past trauma.

That pain, however, would only deepen in the fall when, as “Shayda” was being edited, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody in Iran, after having been arrested by Tehran’s morality police for wearing a hijab “improperly.”

Noora Niasari (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute)Keiran Watson-Bonnice

Amini’s death sparked a revolution in Iran, now coined the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, which has seen women forgoing their hijabs in public, and even destroying them in protest, only to be faced with violent and sometime deadly rebukes from the regime. More than 500 people have so far died as part of the street protests, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Niasari hopes that “Shayda” — one of three films from directors of Iranian descent that are playing at Sundance (the others are “The Persian Version” and “Joonam”) — will be a “drop in an ocean of change.” While any sort of demonstration hasn’t yet been planned for Park City, the director says industry panels will address the situation and its impact on human rights as well as filmmaking.

“I don’t see it as something that’s going to be creating a monumental shift — I’m really realistic about the situation — I just hope that it’s a way to amplify and support what’s happening in Iran.”

Read on for Niasari’s full interview.

You’ve made a number of shorts ahead of this feature. Why was this the right moment to make this film?

I didn’t feel ready. I felt we were making the shorts, documentaries, traveling, working, being in writers rooms, doing directors attachments. All of these things were stepping stones to make my feature. And at the same time, I needed to process some things in my personal life in order to be ready to make this film, because it was very challenging, emotionally and psychologically. I don’t know if I would have had the ability to do it any sooner.

When exactly did you shoot?

In July and August of 2022.

Oh, wow. So you had seen Zar in “Holy Spider” then?

Well, actually, I hadn’t. I saw the film before filming, but when I cast Zar, it was before Cannes. It was in February 2022. I was introduced to her as a potential candidate for Shayda. We searched far and wide, and I’m very grateful that I met Zar because, as soon as I saw her first audition, I just knew she epitomized the character. The duality of her vulnerability and strength really blew me away and I knew that she was Shayda.

When did Cate Blanchett and her production company come on board?

They became involved toward the end of this development stage, just before we went to market with the script. One of the producers sent the script to [Blanchett] because he’d worked on a film called “Little Fish” with her some years ago. They read the script and loved it, and then we had a Zoom meeting. They were champions of the project from then on. It’s wonderful to have her in my corner.

This is such a personal story. What did you find the most challenging in terms of the shoot?

Anything that involves the father character, Hossein, was particularly challenging. At the same time, the actor that I cast [Osamah Sami] has been a good friend for 10 years. We both live in Melbourne, and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s also very funny guy who does a lot of stand-up comedy. He has a charisma, presence, humor and lightness that I loved, and it just allowed his character to have this other side that the audience could access. He’s not just a black and white character. As an actor, he made me laugh every time I was on set, which really helped with what I was going through.

There must have been some crossover, too, between your edit on the film and the revolution in Iran, right?

The first couple of weeks of the edit is around the time when Mahsa Amini was detained and murdered by the regime. It was very difficult for my editor [who is Iranian American] and me to concentrate because we were following the news every night, not sleeping, stressed out, trying to call family and not getting through. But at the same time, we found a new motivation to finish it, to make it the best we could because Shayda’s fight is also a fight for freedom and independence, and breaking away from these cultural norms and laws that restrict her from living a life on her own terms. It gave me a renewed motivation to finish the film, because I had a depressive episode after finishing the shoot where I found it very difficult to be productive due to the emotional toll of the filming process. I needed one or two weeks off. I’d cry a lot and process, but my editor was so beautiful in creating a safe space and creating a light energy. When the revolution started in Iran, we were very unified by this situation, and we felt helpless. But in finishing the film, we found a renewed purpose.

When it’s so easy for people to turn off the news and block out what’s going on, how do you think films like yours can change perceptions of these world events? Could there be a change in the collective consciousness and how we discuss what’s happening in Iran?

In the instance of what’s happening in Iran, and the kinds of films that we’re making, it’s important to highlight a subjective, intimate experience — a personal one. One that takes you into the journey of a character, what they’re going through on a day to day basis. Because obviously with headlines and in Instagram posts, you only get a glimpse of something. My main hope for “Shayda” is that it’s a drop in this ocean of change. I don’t see it as something that’s going to be creating a monumental shift. I’m really realistic about the situation. I just hope that it’s a way to amplify and support what’s happening in Iran. I don’t think it can be more than that, but at the same time, I think that’s valuable and I’m very grateful to be able to contribute in that way.

How do you feel about the film likely being prohibited from screening in Iran?

I’ve never thought that that was very realistic. The film is not political, per se. It’s about social issues and women’s rights and women seeking freedom in the West, so I’ve never really had a hope that it would screen in Iran. One of my actors, when the revolution was happening, said, “How amazing would it be if we were able to go back one day and actually screen the film?” And that was really the first time that I had a little vision about it. It was very beautiful. But no, I’ve never had a hope that I would screen there, just because I know about all the censorship in Iran. If I was to go back today, I think I’d be in prison. I don’t think I would be allowed to leave the country because of the film and the people that I made the film with.

“Shayda” has its world premiere in Park City on Jan. 20, with additional screenings from Jan. 21-27.

Rhiannon Fish, James O’Halloran bounce into Brisbane for Jo-Anne Brechin’s ‘When Love Springs’

Directing, Film, Latest News

by Sean Slatter IF magazine December 12, 2022

James O’Halloran, Rhiannon Fish and director Jo-Anne Brechin. (Image: David Fell)

The Steve Jaggi Company (SJc) is rounding out 2022 with another Brisbane-shot romance, this time working with director Jo-Anne Brechin.

After filming Colin Budds’ Love By the Glass in the city during October, the Queensland-based business has begun production on When Love Springs, starring Rhiannon Fish and James O’Halloran.

Fish, who acted in SJc’s A Royal in Paradise earlier this year, plays Rory Richards, a junior PR professional that heads to a quaint B&B on Lily Lake for her parent’s vow renewal.

Before she can relax, Rory runs into Jason (Callan Colley), the ex who broke her heart, and his new girlfriend. Panicked, Rory convinces the B&B’s future owner Noah (O’Halloran), to be her fake new boyfriend and in exchange, she’ll help Noah save his family’s B&B. Before they know it, sparks begin to fly between the unlikely pair.

The cast also Renee Herbert, Erin Connor, Steve Nation, and Francesca Savige.

When Love Springs is being produced by Steve Jaggi and Kelly Son Hing, with Vanessa Shapiro, Michael Gray, and Jip Panosot on board as executive producers.

It’s not the first time Brechin has collaborated with Jaggi, with the pair having worked together on 2017 coming-of-age dramedy Zelos.

Jaggi said his company was pleased to once again be producing a film with the “talented and experienced” director.

 “It has been a huge year for SJc, and we’re keeping the pedal down right till the end,” he said.

“It’s fantastic to be teaming up again with director Jo-Anne Brechin, five years after  working together on Zelos.”

Brechin commended the cast and crew for already being “amazing and so hardworking”, noting they had been able to find their groove “pretty quickly” on-set.

“We’ve created a beautiful setting full of old-school charm for this romantic story, and I’m excited for audiences to see the final result,” she said.

Athabasca Film will manage the domestic distribution of When Love Springs, which is being financed with the assistance of Xcelerate Action, while international sales and distribution will be handled by Nicely Entertainment.

BO Report: ‘Seriously Red’ has slowish start, ‘The Menu’ is served, ‘Strange World’ disappoints

Film, Latest News

by Jackie Keast IF Magazine November 29, 2022

‘Seriously Red’.

While Roadshow Films took local musical comedy Seriously Red wide, it had a relatively slow start at the box office last weekend.

The film entered cinemas amid a fairly busy weekend of new releases, though none exactly set the world on fire; the MCU’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever remains far and above the no. 1 title in its third weekend.

Black comedy horror The Menu fared the best, while exhibitors were disappointed by family turnout for Disney’s original animation Strange World. Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal romance Bones and All performed best at upscale venues.

Numero data puts the top 20 titles at $5.8 million, down 34 per cent on the previous weekend.

Not included the weekend figures is the result for Netflix’s Knives Out sequel Green Onion. The streamer doesn’t report BO for titles it releases theatrically, though exhibitors who IF spoke to who chose to screen the film – despite just a seven-day window – were highly enthused by the reaction.

Among those who were rapt with the response was Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, GM Alex Temesvari, who predicts the film would have played well into the new year if it had been able.

“Having the season capped at only one week is a truly baffling decision given it’s a film that has massive theatrical demand and would have given both Netflix and cinemas  a much needed smash hit before heading exclusively to their platform for streaming over Christmas,” he tells IF.

“Still, we’re grateful to have been able to run it on the big screen at all.”

Roadshow released the Gracie Otto-directed Seriously Red, starring Krew Boylan, Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, wide on 269 screens, with the film generating $166,667 to come in at no. 7. By screen average, the film was the lowest performer in the top 10, with just $659 per screen.

With previews and festival screenings, figures bump up to $265,764.

Seriously Red‘s opening lags other local comedies released this year like Wog Boys Forever, which bowed to $821,872 from 247 screens and How to Please A Woman, which opened at $501,064 from 294 screens.

The film, written by Boylan, follows a realtor who trades in her 9 to 5 career for life as a Dolly Parton impersonator. It bowed at SXSW in March, earned the public endorsement of Parton, and toured Australia’s biggest festivals. Reviews are somewhat mixed, though among the positive, some went so far to wonder as the film would be our next Priscilla (Tim Chappel, Priscilla‘s Oscar winning costume designer, worked on the film).

Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell hopes it will pick up on word-of-mouth, noting it deserves to find an audience.

“This pre Xmas period will be tough, but hopefully it will eke out a reasonable result, albeit off a patchy start,” he tells IF.

Temesvari was less optimistic, stating: “Unfortunately Seriously Red is seriously in trouble and has clearly been rejected by audiences. I can’t see it lasting too long which is a shame.”

Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly believes the film’s future lies in regional Australia, given that the film’s plot and marketing has centred on a country and western star in Parton.

“The film’s future more certainly lies in the regions, where highly-accessible recent Australian fare such as Penguin Bloom and The Dry tended to over-index.”

Connelly adds that there is considerable hunger for local comedy theatrically, pointing to the success of How to Please A Woman and 2020’s Rams, and pre-COVID, Top End Wedding and The Dressmaker, urging more filmmakers to consider the genre.

“With mixed reviews for Seriously Red it’s not clear whether the film will have strong word of mouth but with so few recent Australian comedies in the market besides the more urban-appealing Wog Boys Forever, I’d like to see more locally made comedies in the mix (with the caveat that they’re actually funny).

“When we collectively reflect on our big screen culture we tend to highlight the comedies that helped define us as a nation – Crocodile Dundee, Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla…, The Castle, Kenny – but with a few exceptions the last decade has been devoid of successful ones. Instead we have an abundance of dramas (many of which are incredibly heavy or dark in terms of themes) or genre thrillers made on a budget with a small cast (or high body count) in a bushland setting, both of which tend to be theatrically marginalised to upscale venues such as Cinema Nova and our contemporaries.

“Given the exceptionally funny comedies and comedians that populate our small screens, I wish I could fathom why we are not seeing more of them making the leap to the big screen.”

Melissa Black is writing a new direction

Film, Latest News, Screenwriting, Television

Vicscreen 23 November 2022

Melissa Black with clapper board on the set of The Smell of Bones.

Melissa Black was working as a librarian in Shepparton when she decided to take a giant leap of faith and enrol in a screenwriting degree at RMIT in Melbourne. “All my life I’ve wanted to work in film and TV, but it was only in the last five years that I realised I could,” she explains. 

Melissa researched viable pathways into this rapidly evolving industry and took the plunge. “That was the best decision I made, just starting.” 

Living in regional Victoria, over two hours from Melbourne’s CBD in a town called Tatura, doesn’t come without its challenges for an aspiring filmmaker. Just the other week Melissa found herself flooded into her hometown, with all major roads leading to the city inundated with water. “I did miss one day of a VFX shoot because of the floods,” she explains—a job she was invited back to after her recent Professional Attachment on season two of NBCs hit show, La Brea. 

The La Brea script supervisor attachment, facilitated through VicScreen, required Melissa to relocate to the big smoke for a six-week stint, with filming of the hit-US series taking place at Docklands Studios Melbourne and on location across Victoria.

“CHARACTERS ARE EVERYTHING TO ME. SO, WATCHING THEM DEVELOP OVER SEASON ONE, AND KNOWING THAT THE SHOW WAS MADE IN AUSTRALIA GOT ME SO EXCITED. THEN BEING ATTACHED TO THE PRODUCTION IN SEASON TWO…I WAS JUST THRILLED.”

Primarily, Melissa is a writer, she clarifies. She recently completed shooting a proof-of-concept shoot for her short film, The Smell of Bones, which was selected as a top-five AACTA Pitch: Focus finalist. The opportunity to shadow a script supervisor on the second season of a major international TV drama, however, was exactly the kind of experience she was looking for to hone her craft as a screenwriter.

“I fell into script supervising by working on shorts with uni friends,” she says. It’s a job that ties the pre-production, production, and post-production together, providing an excellent insight into the entirety of a screen project. 

“The script supervisor is there to represent the editor on set,” she explains. “It’s up to the script supervisor to be thinking about the cut. If a shot’s still owing for whatever reason, the script supervisor will take note of that. They will always have a copy of the most up-to-date script to support the production team, and the cast with lines and actions and other script information. In pre-production, script supervisors will time scripts and craft scene breakdowns to prepare for shooting.”
 

Melissa Black in the script supervisor chair on the set of La Brea S2. 

 “THE CREW FELT ENORMOUS…THERE WAS A LOT FOR ME TO TAKE IN AND LEARN. BUT EVERYBODY WAS SO GENEROUS AND SUPPORTIVE AND SHARED A LOT OF INFORMATION.”

Noting down shot sizes, camera lens changes, lighting variations, performance changes, as well as wardrobe, hair and make-up variables all fall into the script supervisor’s remit to guarantee continuity across each scene.

“Departments are really on top of what they do but taking photos and keeping an eye on these changes helps a lot, especially if you’re filming one part of a scene one day, and the other part two weeks later. For example, if a character turns to their left, and uses their left hand to open the door, taking note of that so it looks like the same shot.” 

There are a lot of moving parts on set, and they all contribute to the overall quality of a production. Ensuring continuity through script supervision is an important piece of the puzzle. “Even if [script supervising] isn’t a path I follow forever, knowing what’s expected; how directors work, what the editors are looking for, is so valuable…it makes me a better writer.”

Melissa is a big fan of historical and supernatural story elements, so La Brea’s first season was right up her alley. “Characters are everything to me. So, watching them develop over season one, and knowing that the show was made in Victoria got me very excited. Then being attached to the production in season two…I was just thrilled.”

Ahead of La Brea’s return to Melbourne, Melissa contacted the skills team at VicScreen and submitted her application to join the skills register in order to be in the running for a professional attachment.

“I received great support with that application process; I adjusted a few things in my life and I got it. I was very, very shocked, and very excited when I got this placement. I was also very frightened that something would come along to ruin it. And then, two weeks before I was due on set, I caught COVID-19. I was really frightened that my chance would just disappear somehow. But luckily, everyone was very understanding, and it was just postponed a week.” 

Melissa is a single mum to a 12-year-old boy. “So, the challenge is literally the distance and time it takes to get to the city,” she says, “as well as being away from him and having to lean and depend on my great support team.” Despite its challenges, being a single parent has emboldened Melissa to demonstrate what chasing your dreams looks like. “My son wants to work in the same industry, so he understands.” 

Melissa Black on location of La Brea S2. 

Over six weeks, Melissa worked across several episodes of La Brea under the guidance of professional script supervisors Ted Green and Janes Forbes, and a handful of rotating directors, gaining a first-hand insight into how a changing crew can achieve the same result through different methods. “The crew felt enormous…there was a lot for me to take in and learn, but everybody was so supportive and shared a lot of information.”

La Brea’s production is run on more of a US model, Melissa explains. “That was great for me to see and learn, because for this kind of career, I want to know how it’s done everywhere so that I can work everywhere. The majority of the crew were Australian, but there was a really good blend of people, and everybody was so knowledgeable… I can’t even explain how much I learned.”

Having spent 25 years working as a librarian, library manager, retail assistant and office administrator, Melissa isn’t exactly new to the workforce, however walking onto the set of a TV series as a newcomer in the industry could have been intimidating if it weren’t for the generosity of the crew surrounding her.

“The crew that I have come across have all been so encouraging with lifting people up in the industry. I actually got to pull up my sleeves and do the work myself. It wasn’t just observational. This attachment was such a brilliant way to fully immerse myself in a production.”

La Brea felt like a career-changing move, Melissa reiterates. “To create connection and network within in the industry, to learn, and to be part of the whole experience was phenomenal…It’s extremely hard work. Long hours, big days, but on top of that, it was so much fun.” 

La Brea is produced by Universal Television and Matchbox Pictures, both divisions of Universal Studio Group, in association with Keshet Studios.

If you are an early-career screen practitioner looking for your industry break (behind the camera), you can apply to join the VicScreen Professional Attachments Register here. 

You can also watch Season 2 of La Brea at 9Now here.