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CinefestOZ has unveiled the finalists for this year’s $100,000 film prize, with Sean McDonald’s Bromley: Light After Dark, Matt Vesely’s Monolith, Noora Niasari’s Shayda and Mark Leonard Winter’s The Rooster vying for the award.

Other newly-announced local fare include John Curran’s Mercy Road; Matt Vesely’s Monolith; Gabriel Carrubba’s Sunflower; Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s Birdeater, which recently won the audience award in Sydney; Soda Jerk’s Hello Dankness; Ricard Cussó and Tania Vincent’s animation Scarygirl; and Ben Joseph Andrews’ XR work, Turbulence: Jamais Vu.

With Monolith, director Matt Vesely delivers a gorgeous piece of lo-fi sci-fi that’ll creep in through your ears and nestle itself in the folds of your brain.

Lily Sullivan is about to see her horror profile rise exponentially—she stars in Evil Dead Rise, which releases in April—but today, io9 has the exclusive teaser premiere of another genre film she’ll soon appear in: Monolith, an Australian sci-fi thriller screening in the SXSW Film Festival’s “Midnighters” program.

Australian sci-fi thriller ‘Monolith’ starring rising star Lily Sullivan (“Evil Dead Rise,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock”) has been picked up for international sales by the U.K.’s Blue Finch Films.

Australian sci-fi thriller Monolith has secured North America and international sales deals ahead of its upcoming international premiere at SXSW.

"A debut South Australian filmmaking team has spun gold from straw, using one actor, one location and a shoestring budget to create a world-class sci-fi thriller." - Written by Rachael Mead

“The product of a collaboration between debut director Matt Vesely, writer Lucy Campbell, producer Bettina Hamilton, and cinematographer Michael Tessari (whose work is soon to be seen on Netflix's new series Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance), the indie film is being made on a shoestring budget of less than half a million Australian dollars. The movie is distributed by Bonsai Films and is supported by Film Lab: New Voices, a new initiative funded by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), Adelaide Film Festival (AFF), and Mercury CX designed to foster new film-making talent in South Australia. The film's most intriguing aspect is that it features a single character.”

Filming is now underway in Adelaide on Monolith, the first feature film to go into production as part of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and Adelaide Film Festival’s (AFF) Film Lab: New Voices initiative.

Production has commenced in Adelaide on the Netflix young adult drama series Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance!.

If you are living in South Australia and are interested in a career in the camera department then grab a ticket and head to the SAFC sat 17th of April to hear about all things working in the camera department!

Late last year I had the privilege of shooting one of three films funded by the SAFC and AFF. This initiative alongside support from Panavision Australia allowed us to create a wonderful little script called The Last Elephant on Earth. The film is currently in post and is aiming to be released early 2021.

Embarrassing little profile written for the ACS newsletter about how I got my start in the industry.