AACTA Pitch 2018 Winner Announced

Congratulations to Darcy Prendergast and Seamus Spilsbury who’s series, MONSTER’S PLAYGROUND, was announced as the winner of AACTA PITCH 2018 on Wednesday 22 August in Sydney.

Held as part of AACTA Shorts Fest and hosted by writer and comedian Justin Hamilton, over 150 audience members joined us at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction to hear the eight finalists pitch their series. They were joined by our four AACTA PITCH judges:

• Princess Pictures Senior Producer Scripted and Unscripted Mike Cowap;
• Foxtel Drama Development Executive Carly Heaton;
• Screen Australia Online Investment Manager Lee Naimo; and
• Jungle Drama Development Manager Shay Spencer.

Read more about our 2018 judging panel here. 

MONSTER’S PLAYGROUND follows the adventures of fun-loving siblings Bro-Bro, Siswa and their pal MONSTER! With his rusty and unpredictable magic, a clap of Monster’s hands can conjure a bathtub rocketship, attract a flock of winged hedgehogs and, more often than not, place Bro-Bro and Siswa in sticky situations.

Real-life best friends Darcy and Seamus, who are founders of Melbourne production company Oh Yeah Wow, also received an AACTA nomination for Best Short Animation earlier this year for the pilot of MONSTER’S PLAYGROUND. Between them they’ve created Nickelodeon mini series SUPAPHRESH, amassed a whopping (and near-record breaking) 14 Vimeo staff picks for their work, and have worked with brands such as Coca Cola, Uber, Samsung and Uber as well as bands including Neil Young, Greenday, Gotye and Aloe Blacc.

Darcy and Seamus have won a $5,000 cash prize as well as invaluable feedback and mentorship opportunities. They will also receive post-production support from Spectrum Films to the value of $5,000, a year’s AFI | AACTA membership and tickets to the 8th AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel Industry Luncheon and Awards Ceremony.

On what’s next for them and MONSTER’S PLAYGROUND, Darcy and Seamus said: “We’ve got a few opportunities at Amazon, Hulu, Apple and Netflix in LA, so we’re going to leverage this win to strengthen our production bible…but also try and sell it over there [in LA] and get a few production partners. The chance to create it [MONSTER’S PLAYGROUND] is quite exciting. There’s so much more that we want to do with the franchise…the whole idea is to just have fun with it; sitting in the writing room, coming up with crazy stuff – that’s the dream!”

AACTA also congratulates all of our 2018 AACTA PITCH finalists, who joined us from around the country to pitch their series’ in Sydney: BULLDOG’S ALLEY, EMERALD WAY, GOOD GRIEF, THE MIRAGE, PIXEL RAIDERS, TRADIES and VIRGIN IN A SEX STORE. Read more about their series concepts here.