
Bond University Film and Television Senior Teaching Fellow â and accomplished screenwriter, director and producer - Darren Paul Fisher was today named the 2018 recipient of the annual Greg Coote Scholarship.
Now in its third year, the $30,000 scholarship is awarded annually to a Queensland-based writer, producer, director or creative executive with a successful record of creating compelling drama for the screen.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk congratulated Mr Fisher on the one-of-a-kind Queensland prize.
âMy Government is committed to helping local screen industry creatives gain international experience and thatâs what the Greg Coote Scholarship is all about,â she said.
âSupported by Screen Queensland, Australians In Film, the Queensland Writers Centre and Entertainment One (eOne), the scholarship will allow Mr Fisher to travel in Canada to be part of the writing and development process for one of eOneâs Canadian-produced, long-form TV series.
âDarren will gain valuable industry experience working for eight weeks in an international writersâ room, bringing high-end content from script to screen and working towards a global audience.â
eOneâs Jocelyn Hamilton (President â Canada Television) said the company looked forward to welcoming Mr Fisher.
âWe are thrilled to be able to participate in this noble scholarship and work with Premier Palaszczuk to make this opportunity available,â Ms Hamilton said.
âWe look forward to having Darren in the trenches of one of our writersâ rooms on a series that will be seen across North America and all over the world.â
Mr Fisherâs previous film work includes Inbetweeners, Popcorn and Frequencies and he is currently developing two television series as writer/producer with Essential Media and Entertainment, with several feature film scripts in development.
Mr Fisher also served as a writer on the Australia-China co-production At Last, currently in post-production and supported by the Queensland Government.
Mr Fisher, who is a film and Television Senior Teaching Fellow for Bond Universityâs Faculty of Society and Design, said he was excited to learn from the âbest of the bestâ in the industry and bring new knowledge and experience back to Queensland.
"I'm incredibly grateful to everyone involved for such a unique opportunity,â Mr Fisher said.
âItâs especially valuable for filmmakers like myself who are looking to transfer success from the feature space into quality long-form television drama.â
The Premier made the scholarship announcement while touring Screen Queenslandâs hot desk space at âCharlieâsâ, a Los Angeles-based working and networking space for Australian filmmakers, run by Australians In Film.
President of Australians In Film Kate Marks congratulated Mr Fisher and thanked the Queensland Government for their continued investment to secure the future of Queenslandâs screen sector.
âIt is very fitting that we announce the Greg Coote Scholarship recipient, named after one of Australiaâs most prolific screen industry figures, here at Charlieâs in the heart of Hollywood,â Ms Marks said.
âGreg Coote ran LA-based Larrikin Entertainment with David Calvert-Jones, and worked tirelessly to open doors for Australians in international markets.â