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Liam Heyen: producing Jimpa, advice for Digital Originals, and career takeaways
122 Plays7 days ago
Jimpa producer Liam Heyen joins the latest episode of Breaking Screen ahead of the film's release in Australian cinemas on February 19th.
Directed and co-written by Sophie Hyde, Jimpa stars Olivia Colman as a filmmaker who is forced to reckon with the past when her teenager (played by Aud Mason-Hyde) declares they want to move to Amsterdam to live with their gay grandfather, “Jimpa” (played by John Lithgow).
In this wide-ranging interview, Liam talks about why he was drawn to producing, starting the production company Mad Ones Films with Cyna Strachan in the pandemic, making Latecomers, Erotic Stories, upcoming Homebodies and their first feature film with Jimpa, tips for funding applications, his biggest learnings to date, and much more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgments
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Breaking Screen, a podcast about the Australian screen industry and the creative people within it. I'm your host, Caris Bizzaca and I'm recording this podcast from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, where I'm very grateful to be a visitor and be able to work on these lands. Always was, always will be.
Introduction of Guest Liam Hyen
00:00:22
Speaker
Today's episode marks my first for 2026 and while we've previously started episodes with a news wrap-up, we're going to just jump straight into the interview. So today's episode features producer Liam Heyen of Mad One Films, a production company he co-founded with Cyna Strachan in 2020.
00:00:41
Speaker
Since then they've produced SBS series including Latecomers, Erotic Stories and Homebodies, a digital original series that was just announced will have its world premiere at Series Mania in France this year.
Premiere of 'Jimper' at Sundance
00:00:54
Speaker
They also produce the feature film Jimpa an international co-production with Closer Films and Viking Films, which is releasing in Australian cinemas on February 19th after premiering at Sundance Film Festival and screening at Adelaide Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and it was opening night at Mardi Gras Film Festival.
00:01:15
Speaker
Directed and co-written by Sophie Hyde, Jimpa is a semi-autobiographical film, and it stars Olivia Colman as a filmmaker who is forced to reckon with the past when her teenager, played by Sophie's own child, Aud Mason Hyde, declares they want to move to Amsterdam to live with their politically engaged gay grandfather, Jimper, played by John Lithgow.
Liam's Early Inspirations
00:01:37
Speaker
Throughout the episode, Liam talks about starting Mad Ones with Cyna during the pandemic, and his biggest learnings as a producer on Jimpa tips for applying for funding and initiatives like digital originals and much more.
00:01:51
Speaker
Here's that chat.
00:01:55
Speaker
So we ah always start off every episode with the same question, which is to talk about the inciting incident for your career. So what would have been the inciting incident for yours?
00:02:09
Speaker
It's a good question.
Career Decision: Film vs Traditional Path
00:02:10
Speaker
I think Probably, i have this really distinct memory of, grew up in northern New South Wales and I had family in Sydney and I was visiting my Sydney family, probably, i don't know, I would have been 12 or 13 and we decided to go and see Happy Feet.
00:02:28
Speaker
cinemas and I was told we're going to go to the film studios to see Happy Feet and I remember just being so excited that I was going to go to the film studios, that Fox Studios and then like obviously rocked up and it was the entertainment quarter which for those who know Sydney it's not the most inspiring place and it is next to Fox Studios, but it's in fact not inside. But I think how excited I was to get myself in close proximity to where the movies were made was probably the first sign of maybe what I was going to do with my life.
00:03:04
Speaker
And then I remember being in year 12 in school and sort of like trying to work out what I was going to put down as my uni preferences. And I was a pretty big nerd at school and so like I was going, hmm, I could be a doctor, I could be a lawyer. And then I saw a film production degree at um Griffith Film School, Queensland College of the Arts. And that just sort of became very clear that that was the thing that I wanted to do at uni. Everything else started to feel very unappealing. Thankfully, i have a very supportive family. like I'm the eldest child.
00:03:41
Speaker
eldest sibling and also the eldest grandchild on both sides of my family. So like sort of surprisingly, no one really questioned that choice, or at least if they did, they didn't do it to my face. So I'm really grateful that no pressure was put on me to, I guess, do something that made a little bit more sense to my family.
00:04:01
Speaker
And I think like I look back now with a bit of hindsight on my childhood and i did drama, I did musicals, I was like making... movies to put on YouTube in the park with my friends Kelly and Bonnie and directing my cousins in performances at Christmas and stuff. So I think it all it all makes sense now.
00:04:21
Speaker
m And why do you think then you were drawn to producing in particular, ah you know, as opposed to directing or writing
Passion for Producing
00:04:29
Speaker
or? I think it was pretty bossy. comes with the territory of being the eldest cousin, eldest sibling.
00:04:37
Speaker
So it makes sense in that regard. I think it's like for me what I like about producing is the balance of the logistics and the creativity and it sort of suits my brain to go better between the micro and the macro. I can do that fairly easily.
00:04:53
Speaker
i don't think I'd be a very good director because actors make me really nervous. So I don't, don't know about giving me an actor direction. I think that's sort of a a magic art in and to itself. And I'll leave that to the directors. Um,
00:05:08
Speaker
And I think like with producing, at least the kind of producing that I want to do, which is like a bit more bigger, ah like holistic kind of creative producing, I think you have to be an interested person and have an interest and desire to know a fair bit about each different step of the process of like bringing something to life. So, which I am certainly. So i think some producers definitely are a little bit more, they're they're more specialists, I guess, like you have your line producers and more like executive producer financing types, but being able to dip in and out of each step of the process, I think is a exciting thing that keeps the day to day for me really fresh.
00:05:54
Speaker
ah Yeah, definitely. And so obviously you have Cyna own ah production company, which you started with Cyna When and why did you start Mad
Founding of Mad One Films
00:06:06
Speaker
Ones?
00:06:06
Speaker
Yes, I started Mad Ones. Well, it's ah it's it's a bit complicated. i've went to AFTRS in 2014 to do a final kind of year specialist study. I did the graduate diploma in producing there, which was a year.
00:06:22
Speaker
which is where Cyna and I met. And straight out of doing that year, I started a job at Goalpost Pictures and Goalpost had just made the sapphires. And I worked there for six years and was really privileged to work on some amazing projects.
00:06:39
Speaker
while I was at goalpost and met some incredible people, many of whom I'm still in constant touch with and and working with. and But I think I always knew I wanted to run my own race a little bit, as did Cyna
00:06:53
Speaker
And so Mad Ones was actually the name of a sort of fake company that Cyna created for a branding exercise when she was doing her own degree, which was design. And um we met at Afters and we started making short films together with the directors that we went to Afters with. And we just started producing them under this banner of Mad Ones.
00:07:15
Speaker
We sort of initially thought Mad Ones might be a bit more of a creative collective. And we've ended up it's It's a bit more of a traditional production company now. um When things got kind of serious for us and when we the company became an official thing was in 2020 when I finished at Goalpost and it was i got made redundant because of the pandemic and that was a big shock. and and um I think for me that was a... Like a catalyst?
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was a catalyst for me to actually do some thinking around like, I guess that instinct that I did want to run my own race and go, okay, well, you know, this sort of slightly surprising thing has happened.
00:08:03
Speaker
Maybe it's now or never to start a company. I knew that if I took another job somewhere, once the craziness of the pandemic sort of died down, like maybe I would end up being somewhere for another three, four, five years. So we registered the company in 2020 and and That's, I guess, where Mad Ones officially started.
00:08:25
Speaker
So now it's, what is it, we're in 2026, it's been five years. And i think we're starting to, we always gave ourselves five years of like, let's just try it and see what happens. And we had this moment recently going like, what does it actually mean to call e ourselves Mad Ones? like The initial company name was taken from Kerouac quote in On The Road. And we decided the idea of being mad ones in a kind of enthusiastic way, like go mad or like mad, rather than going mad, i guess, is um was, it suited us. And here we are.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah. I kind of love that. You know, other people in lockdown, they like took up like making sourdough or something. was doing that too. drink And like drinking a lot of beer, like got really good at drinking beer. But um but yes, and making the sourdough, but also it was a very, it was actually a very productive time for me and Cyna also for a couple of key collaborators of ours like Madeline Gottlieb we the three of us sort of like wrote a pitch deck for a tv show that we had been talking about wanting to make and we did that in the lockdown and that is looking like it'll be our first long-form tv series that goes into production hopefully in the next year or so so it's the fruits of that lockdown period I guess are still ah still being still paying off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. yeah
00:09:54
Speaker
And like amazing to see what you've done since then. So um late comers, 6x10 series, then you moved into Erotic Stories, which was another SBS series, 8x30 minutes, and obviously now feature film with closer productions with Jimper. You've got Vanessa Garzi's feature on the horizon from the um Screen New South Wales ah short to feature initiative. um I feel like when i looked at those projects, yeah, each one seemed like it was presenting a new challenge. So... whether it was like going from the 10 minutes in latecomers to 30 minutes with erotic stories yeah or going from a series to a feature. or Do you try and challenge yourself with each new project or is this just how it's kind of naturally evolved over the years?
00:10:48
Speaker
Essentially, yes.
Challenges in Film Projects
00:10:49
Speaker
I think it is the challenges part of what um what i look for. i think it's maybe a little bit subconscious, but I think it is an exciting thing for me to start a project and and there be some sort of elements in the project, whether that's a creative thing, like a more existential question about like, how do we tell this story in the right way or something really technical or specific? I think I really liked that challenge.
00:11:21
Speaker
I remember starting out on latecomers and talking to Hannah Noh who I produced it with and just going like, how do we make this show? Like, it actually feels extremely daunting. We have two lead characters with cerebral palsy. We're going to go on this big casting process. But then also, like, logistically, what does it mean to produce something where you have two actors who use wheelchairs? And that was, I mean, it was such an amazing, like,
00:11:46
Speaker
experience making latecomers and I've, it was one of those magic projects where you sort of all become best friends while making it and it feels really substantial. but And I think partly that was because of the shared challenge that we were all sort of like undertaking together. Um,
00:12:04
Speaker
But, yeah, I like the more technical stuff as well. Like but I really loved music and musicals and while I was at Goalpost I worked on Iron Woman, the Helen Reddy biopic feature film. With Tilda, who's in Chilver. With Tilda, yes. Yes, there is a yes exactly. That's where I met Tilly who played Helen. And one of my jobs, you know, I was an associate producer or something like on the producing team and I was tasked with working with the music producer to basically just like – produce the music, I guess. And that was a really, we we re-recorded all the songs and there were songs that were in the film sung by Helen that
00:12:44
Speaker
Helen never sang, so like we sort of had to do our own recordings anyway. And that was a really fun, like knotty sort of both practical and also creative challenge. So I'd love to do some more projects with music in them.
00:12:57
Speaker
And I can keep talking about the idea of the challenges. Like i remember on Jim Parr when Olivia Colman signed on to play the lead, Which was an existentially terrifying kind of prospect for me. Like i sort of, my body shut down a little bit going, oh my goodness. I think she's just probably one of the best living actors on the planet. And so you're kind of like, whoa, how do i have a conversation with that person or could that person? I remember looking around and kind of going like, oh, cool. She wants to do the movie. Like whose job is it to do this deal?
00:13:31
Speaker
with her agent now and then being like, oh God, that's me. don't know what stuff is up. Imagine being the person that fumbled the ball with Olivia Colman. So I think there's, like, going to be able to hold your nerve and not show that trepidation as a producer sometimes despite taking over your whole body.
00:13:50
Speaker
Yeah. And like you're talking about, I suppose, some of the the technical production sides there, but in looking at your past slate and maybe what's coming up as well, what kinds of stories or projects do you feel like you're drawn to that you're interested in telling that you maybe want to tell in the future?
00:14:12
Speaker
I think what we as a company generally look for is offbeat, character-driven stories with a lot of heart. think our latest film that we're in post-production on at the moment, which is Tilda Cobham-Hervie's debut, which is called It's All Going Very Well, is a great example of that. Tilly plays an artist who sort of just turned 30 and is trying to work out like what her life looks like. She sort of feels like she's at the start of her adult life and she's working as a sort of a carer art therapist at a care home and she becomes friends with this resident there who's sort of at the end of his life and it's kind of
00:14:55
Speaker
a film about the two of them learning from each other, like those kind of like offbeat character-driven stories, commercial, you know, scent. Like we obviously we want to make things that people watch. Like it sounds obvious, but I think some people are very happy making things films that are sort of very, very arthouse to the point where the audience is really contained, I guess, or restricted. And I think with a political lean, we prioritise stories from the LGBTQI plus community and the the disability communities and work with a lot of female and non-binary directors as well. None of these things are like rules that we really adhere to, but it's just the nature of often working on quite personal projects.
00:15:39
Speaker
I think you have to be able to you know have a conversation with the director or the writer of the project like every day for four years if you're making a feature film with them so I think we're naturally drawn to the working with people that are from the communities that we identify with and also with people that we just kind of friends with or get along with on a personal level because it's It's hard to produce for someone I find if you don't actually 100% absolutely back that person in as a human.
00:16:13
Speaker
m Yeah, definitely. And so you have Jimper is releasing. It'll be in Australian cinemas on February 19. And then you also mentioned that, you know, you're in post-production Tilda's project, that you potentially have this TV series going into production. So I'm just wondering with your slate Do you kind of always look to be having projects at different stages? And yeah, how long did it take to actually build the slate to get to that point, if that's the case?
00:16:49
Speaker
I think there always should be a project that feels like it's the next project.
Balancing Film and TV Projects
00:16:54
Speaker
And I mean that in a very like practical sense, you know, I think there's a point in a project's life where as a producer, you have to acknowledge that it's more likely going to happen than not, even if you're filled with doubt and insecurity and, imposter syndrome and so i think like we always are striving to know what we feel is the next thing to go into production so it's really important to have a project that's in that kind of advanced stage at any time because like one of the biggest challenges of running a company is that you can't really rely on anyone else to generate the work so You know, when I was at Goalpost, it was it was great because I would just show up to work every day and leave and kind of, you know, often you take the work with you emotionally, but like I wasn't going, oh dear, if this doesn't happen, how do I pay person X, y and z That was, you know, what my bosses at the time were obviously dealing with.
00:17:51
Speaker
But I think in terms of having projects in development, We're not overly strategic about it. We're not like we need to have x amount of things in funded development and across like but we do film and TV. So I think probably the most strategic we get is just always being aware of how many features we have on our slate versus how many series we do and knowing that they have their own pros and cons and For us as a company, both creatively and also financially, so like generally speaking, a production company is going to earn a lot more money from a TV series than they are from a low-budget independent Australian film. Often they can cost you money. So I think we're trying to always weigh up the split between features and TV, which we see as sort of two separate silos within the company, even though we work across both.
00:18:44
Speaker
And you and the company have been successful for a number of really competitive grants or like funding opportunities initiatives. So I was wondering if you have any tips for people when it comes to applying for these really competitive things, things like digital originals, um you were successful with Screen Australia Enterprise and the Screen New South Wales, short to feature Fast Track.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah. any Any tips for people when filling out those grant application forms? Yeah. The grant applications, they're so much work. Yeah. We've been really lucky.
Navigating Funding Applications
00:19:19
Speaker
i think we received enterprise funding from Screen Australia in 2024. We sort of applied for that while we were in pre-production of Jimpar. Like I remember being in Amsterdam and kind of just being like, I think I have to pull an all-nighter to just do this enterprise application and then go to the production office. But we got that and it was a really amazing thing for us because we sort of got enterprise at the same time that Gympa was like well and truly definitely happening. And those two separate but somewhat interrelated things like really has helped us turbocharge I think our... momentum as a company our enterprise application was primarily pitched as a way for us to hire our first staff member and also pay ourselves wage um which is you know crazy which is nice yeah yeah it's like i guess it's how it should be but it's not always practical but So we hired a development executive, Alice McCready Dando. I mean, Alice, we just can't, she's still working with us and we sort of can't imagine operating as a company without her anymore. It's been an extremely, extremely lovely experience of bringing someone else into the company. And digital originals is so competitive. Like think my advice for someone
00:20:43
Speaker
applying for digital originals is its own sort of separate bit of advice versus like something like enterprise and the screen NSW short feature fast track. Like I think those initiatives, that funding, like my biggest advice is quite obvious, which is read the assessment criteria. yeah because i've say this because I definitely have put in applications where I didn't and then not gotten funding and been like, wait, I thought that was just like such a good fit. And then there's this kind of technicality and often it's a technicality that you can, like I could have absolutely have adjusted for or spoke to in the application. But I think it's really important to like read those assessment criteria, read the applications,
00:21:30
Speaker
think with digital originals, it's about really tailoring the creative of the show that you're wanting to make to the format in a way that I think is less important when you're working in a long form format, like a feature format or a long form series. i think the digital originals, everyone probably knows this, but it's a six by 10 minute online series. But then you also, you make a sort of hour long series I guess, like TV movie type version that plays on SBS broadcast and then their episodic version is on on demand. And I think Latecomers was a very early digital original project. And I think like we learned a lot from making that in terms of
00:22:16
Speaker
how much story you can fit into six by 10 minutes and also the kind of storytelling that you need to do. 10 minute episodes are so difficult.
00:22:27
Speaker
It's like doing six short films in a way that i have to link. They have to link to the same code and they have to sort of have a cliff. I guess like each episode has to have a sense of the throw to the next one.
00:22:40
Speaker
um So I would say with digital originals, it's about containing the story, containing the characters. We've just went in post-production on our second digital original project, which is called Homebodies, which was created by AP Popjoy and directed by Harry Lloyd. AP also directs an episode.
00:22:59
Speaker
And Homebodies, is ah there's four actors in the whole show, and the majority of it is a three-hander within a family unit, a sort of unusual family unit. And I think that was very much like...
00:23:10
Speaker
We designed homebodies with what I guess we learned from latecomers in terms of narratively what works and doesn't work for that format. Yeah, definitely. And okay, so I do want to talk about Jimpa because it's releasing in cinemas. Everyone should go check it out. Please. But I suppose just, you know, as a bit of an introduction to the film, could you give us a brief idea of what the story of Jimpa is about?
'Jimper' Film Synopsis
00:23:41
Speaker
So Jimpa is, it's a queer family drama and it's about a family, Australian family who traveled to Amsterdam to visit the patriarch, the grandfather of the family, who's a very political, exuberant gay man named Jim. And Jim's lived in Amsterdam for the majority of his adult life. And his his daughter, Hannah, played by Lever Coleman, and his grandchild, who's a trans non-binary teenager, named Francis, who's played by Ord Mason Hyde. They travel to visit Jim and Francis has always idolised Jim as their sort of like queer hero and is sort of faced with maybe the realities of what having a relationship with a grandparent can actually be like and that they come from a different generation. And so the film kind of is about Hannah, the mother,
00:24:38
Speaker
navigating this sort of dynamic between her father and her teenager. And Hannah is a filmmaker in the film and she's making a film about her parents and the the fact that her parents, from her perspective, had a very non-confrontational divorce when Jim came out as gay.
00:24:56
Speaker
And she's trying to make a feature film about her parents' divorce that doesn't have any conflict in it. So she's a very conflict-adverse character who finds herself between her two kind of loved ones.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah. And from what I understand, it's loosely semi-autobiographical for director Sophie Hyde. Yeah, it's like an autofiction sort of semi-autobiographical story. It's Sophie Hyde, the director. it's Her dad was called Jim Parr.
00:25:28
Speaker
Jim Pie comes from the name Jim and the word grandpa, which is what he wants his grandchild to call him. And um so Sophie's dad, Jim, was this amazing gay man who was very, very politically active during the AIDS crisis. And Sophie grew up with her dad being out and has a trans non-binary child who happens to also play the character that that's inspired, they inspired. So it gets very meta at times for sure.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah. And um so how did you actually come about working on Jimper? So Sophie and I had met each other at a workshop that Screen Australia had put on for an initiative that used to exist called Hot Shots. It was in 2015, I think, and i was producing a short film through the Hot Shots initiative. And Sophie was the facilitator, like one of the facilitators of the workshop. And Sophie and I just got talking together.
00:26:30
Speaker
after the workshop and shared sensibility, I guess, in terms of the films that we liked and we wanted to make. And after that, we'd bump into each other at like MIFF and film festivals and we're kind of like pen pals on Instagram.
00:26:43
Speaker
And um then when I left Goalpost in 2020, I think it was around that time Sophie and Matt Cormack, who the co-writer of Jun Pa, they were writing the first draft of the film. They had received some development funding to essentially write the first draft and when that was done, Sophie sent it to me and said, I think,
00:27:02
Speaker
this might be something that is of interest to you. Do you want to jump on? And i think she was looking for a producer to who was going to work really hard and get their hands really dirty and understood why the film could be really special.
00:27:17
Speaker
And that was 2021 and we made pretty quick progress with the film. We sort of applied for more dev funding and we started shooting it in early 2024.
00:27:28
Speaker
twenty twenty four Yeah, amazing. And it's taken long time for it to come out. It's been a really, really long tale. Yeah, well, didn't It it premiered at Sundance yes last year? Yes, last year's Sundance. yeah So it's it's, yeah, it's um last year's Sundance and then we had Adelaide Film Festival as our Australian premiere, which was in October.
00:27:49
Speaker
So, um yeah, we've been on a kind of a big festival journey with the film 2025 and Yeah, it came out in the US in the Netherlands. and yeah um And yes, opening night of Mardi Gras and Festival. Yeah, fantastic. And so, yeah you were saying filmed in 2024. So you traveled to Amsterdam for that, um as you mentioned, when you putting your enterprise application from Amsterdam. Yep. What do you feel like were some of your biggest learnings as a producer on this film? I know you mentioned the terrifying moment of doing the deal ah with Olivia Colman's agent, but um yeah what were some of the the big learnings as a producer, do you think?
International Collaboration Insights
00:28:33
Speaker
There were so many. i think I actually wrote them all down at the end of the process, which is something I tried to do just as a way of self-improvement. There's so much. I mean, i think it's the first Australian-Dutch co-production ever.
00:28:47
Speaker
I don't know for sure, but We couldn't really find any project that had come before us that was like a precedent. I would have loved that. would make things so much easier. I think there's like there were so many interesting learnings, like cultural differences and production methodology differences that were really small but like could be really significant if they were not addressed or acknowledged.
00:29:10
Speaker
There were some great things about the way that the film industry in the Netherlands works. Like they have 30 minutes less shooting time every day and like 15 minutes less lunch. So you actually lose almost an hour of your work day, which directors would hate. But I think in terms of producing the shoot time, the work-life balance is a little bit better over there in the film industry. I know that's something that A lot of crew in Australia and producers and everyone really are like trying to work out if there's a slightly different way to do things here that's not so exhausting.
00:29:46
Speaker
Sometimes they do four day shoot weeks, like not five, and they just spread the shoot out over a slightly longer period of time. there were some like subtle challenges, like I think the Dutch production team were all about breakdowns and knowing all of the information as early as possible to be able to plan. Whereas like Australians are so much more loose and flexible. And i think somewhere in the middle of those two approaches is probably the sweet spot. That was a really interesting thing for, I think both sides was for us to go
00:30:18
Speaker
We understand you do this particular part of the process at this stage, but we don't. And so we're going to have to find a way to meet in the middle somehow. And those are difficult conversations to have whilst you're actively trying to prep or or shoot a film.
00:30:35
Speaker
I think it's all it all came down to the people. like We had an amazing Dutch producer, Marlene Slott, who was extremely well regarded and loved by you know the the film fund over there. And the crew really respected her. And I wish that I had to spend more time with Marlene and our production team before we actually started pre-production.
00:30:56
Speaker
o Yeah. You mentioned, you know, we were talking about it being an international co-production. Is that something that you would want to do again to make a a co-production um overseas?
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah, I would love to make more co-productions. I think um and think they have to make sense at a script level. i don't know that forcing a co-production on a story that doesn't really have something to some international element is a very helpful thing. I'm sure it's possible, but Jim Power is a very easy project in a lot of ways to wrap our head around in terms of like making it as a co-production because It was partially set in Australia, partially set in the Netherlands. It was about an Australian family that were traveling to Europe. So that also helped us in terms of ensuring that it was going to pass the SAC test, the Significant Australian Content Test, which meant that we would get our rebates.
00:31:52
Speaker
International co-production is kind of amazing things. I think it's the way the industry is needing to move. think It's hard in Australia, like, because we have to be really protective of of how we make films here and what is an Australian film and what isn't, because we're sort of in this strange position ah as a film industry where we're competing with the other English speaking territories for eyeballs. And so think about like somewhere like France, where the French film industry, there's a lot of appetite for French language films in terms of seeing themselves on screen. That's something really important. We obviously, there are a lot of languages that are not English that are spoken in Australia, but I think we're just in the shadow a little bit of the US and the UK So we do have to be really careful, but as a film industry, about what kinds of co-productions I think we're doing. But, you know, the industry feels a bit more
00:32:49
Speaker
globalized than it was, like maybe pre-streaming services. i think Jimpar just immediately had a bit more international profile as a film because it was a co-production. i think it was really, really hard to finance Jimpar, like extremely hard. And that was, there were a number of reasons that that was the case that probably need a whole other podcast to talk about. I think, you know, it did naturally lend itself to like having great conversations with the Netherlands Film Fund about their sort of equivalent funding of our sort of like Screen Australia production finance and they have a tax incentive as well. And so you do start to, for the right film, you've got more financing avenues.
00:33:34
Speaker
And I think it's a, I don't know, I like the idea of the challenge, as I said before, like I think I think i would love to host ah inbound international co-production. I think really like there was so much wonderful hospitality that we were shown from the Dutch production team and from Marlene and so many things that I think we could really put into action if we had international team come to Australia. So I think that's something I'm definitely on the lookout for and think it just challenges you as a person.
00:34:05
Speaker
You're just faced with a different set of obstacles and little little challenges like that I think ah keep things interesting and fresh. Yeah, yeah, totally.
00:34:16
Speaker
And so then for any producers, you know, listening out there, do you have any advice? Yeah, advice. I have a lot of advice. i feel, I mean, I think...
Support Systems in Film Production
00:34:27
Speaker
producing is a really lonely job if you're doing it alone. So like I definitely, the reason that Mad Ones is myself and Kaina is because, is is exactly because of that. I think it's just, it's very, very difficult to do it without someone by your side. That doesn't need to be a business partner or necessarily, but I think having someone else there to sort of witness and provide an alternative perspective is really useful. I think like,
00:34:55
Speaker
Kyna and I are very different people in a lot of ways. We have a lot of shared morals and values and taste, but I think Kyna's strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa. And I think that's why we work well together.
00:35:08
Speaker
i think, yeah, having a support network is so important. I remember when Sue Maslin was an amazing, amazing person. producer she was a executive producer on Jimpar and i remember when we had our first kickoff she was sort of brought on to basically to support me and i remember her saying the first thing she said to me was what who's your support network what supports do you have in place and I was going oh well you know I've got my business partner Kaino we're also very very good friends and then ah and then I've got this person in the industry and she was like no no like
00:35:41
Speaker
I'm not talking about film industry, Liam. I'm talking about like who's going to keep you sane in this extremely difficult thing that you're about to undertake. And and so I think also having a support network outside of the industry is just so important and something that can be really hard to cultivate and maintain because our jobs are so all-consuming at times because it's a very competitive environment industry there's um you know there's this kind of feast or famine feeling that I think everyone kind of operates on and but I think that's really important um and I think just trying to identify who you admire why you admire them and try and learn from them like I think i like I mentioned Sue but I've also got really important and special relationships with Helen Bowden who I produced erotic stories with and Tony Ayres who's my mentor
00:36:34
Speaker
from ah the Once to Watch program when I did it, and Andrena Finlay, who was the head of producing it afters when Kynar and I went through. And so I think like really knowing what your North Star is in terms of like,
00:36:48
Speaker
producers who are good people who treat others with kindness and respect, but also um who are doing the kind of work that you want to do That's really important.
00:36:58
Speaker
And also just knowing what kind of producer you want to be and what kind of career you want to have. And of course, this can change. And I think it should change probably as well.
00:37:09
Speaker
But know your capacity to self-generate work, like I was saying before, versus the alternative which is, i guess, not having that responsibility because I do think that has the potential to be a real burden on someone if it's not what they're actually wanting to have to focus on on in the day-to-day.
00:37:30
Speaker
Whereas for other people, it's like it's just part of the job Yeah, that's all great advice. Thank you so much. And so we're into our last ah segment of the podcast, which is the Pay It Forward segment. so I have a question from a previous guest for you and um if you could come up with a question for our next guest. So the Pay It Forward question is from Michelle Law, writer Michelle Law. And Michelle's question for you was At this point in your career, what's been the biggest pinch me moment?
Personal Milestones at Sundance
00:38:05
Speaker
I think for me at this stage, I don't know, there's been so many, but I think i which i'm I've been so fortunate. But think for me, the biggest pinch me moment thus far was probably...
00:38:19
Speaker
My parents came to Sundance when Jimpa premiered and, you know, they, neither of them ah work in the film industry. They're they're big um lovers of film and TV, but they came to Sundance and I think just getting to see them experience this crazy thing that was happening, which was like I had made a movie and it was playing at this great film festival that was in Park City, you know, like that was really beautiful. I think, yeah,
00:38:47
Speaker
getting to introduce them to Olivia and John at Sundance and was really special. And i Olivia and John were generous with them and John took them in his car to the after party. And, you know, just like that was very special to me. And I think a real highlight of the experience of,
00:39:06
Speaker
making Jim pa and certainly something that I think if you had of asked that little 12-year-old who thought he was going to Fox Studios to watch Happy Feet, I don't think he would have really ever thought that that was possible. So I think that's probably my answer at this point.
00:39:24
Speaker
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for chatting on the podcast today. Really appreciate it. And um everyone, make sure you check out Jim Pa in cinemas. Yes, please go to the cinema, take your grandpa, take your grandma. It's a beautiful film to see on a big screen.
00:39:43
Speaker
That was Liam Heyen and a huge thanks to him for joining me on this podcast. And remember, you can catch Jimpa in Australian cinemas from Thursday, February 19th. This episode was produced and edited by myself with logo design by Shara Parsons and music by Seb Sebotaj Gavrilovic.
00:40:01
Speaker
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