The Escalate: Feature Focus Writers Initiative will give six Queensland screenwriters the opportunity to develop animated features for international family audiences.

Screen Queensland has partnered with Brisbane production company Like A Photon Creative to launch a new development program for Queensland screenwriters.

The Escalate: Feature Focus Writers Initiative will select six writers to develop animated feature films aimed at international family audiences.

Participants will work within Like A Photon Creative’s development process, taking part in a series of mentored writers’ rooms designed to advance their projects from initial treatments to polished, commercially viable first-draft screenplays.

Selected writers will be paid for their work and may have the opportunity to continue developing their scripts beyond the program. Writers whose projects proceed to production will receive screen credits in accordance with Australian Writers’ Guild guidelines.

Screen Queensland executive director of screen content Julie Eckersley said the initiative would strengthen an animation sector already competing internationally.

“Queensland is fast becoming a centre for excellence in animation,” Eckersley said. “This initiative builds that capability by giving six Queensland writers direct experience inside a working studio, developing scripts that are shaped for the market from day one.”

Like A Photon Creative’s credits include adaptations of bestselling stories such as The Pout-Pout Fish, voiced by Nick Offerman, and Scarygirl. The company is also behind the Tales from Sanctuary City franchise, which includes Combat Wombat, Daisy Quokka, The Lost Tiger and The Sloth Lane.

Eckersley also pointed to The Lost Tiger, directed and co-written by Chantelle Murray, as an example of the studio’s support for distinctive Australian voices. The film was the first Australian animated feature written and directed by an Indigenous woman.

“With the world’s attention turning to Queensland as we approach 2032, this is the moment to grow the writers who will tell our stories to a global audience,” Eckersley said.

Like A Photon Creative co-founder and CEO Kristen Souvlis said the company was establishing a studio-style writing cohort to develop a slate of six features.

“As a home-grown Queensland business, we are thrilled to be partnering with Screen Queensland to mentor the next generation of feature animation writers,” Souvlis said.

“As international demand for LAPC’s family-focused feature films grows, LAPC is forming a studio-style writers’ cohort to bring a slate of six features to life.”

Souvlis said the partnership would allow the company to continue investing in local creative and technical talent while bringing Queensland stories to international audiences.

Queensland’s wider animation sector includes Cosmic Dino Studio, Fade In Studio, Hooligan Animation, Ludo Studio, Pixel Zoo and Sad Man Studio. Screen Queensland provides funding across development, production and post-production.

Applications for the Escalate: Feature Focus Writers Initiative close on Thursday, October 29, with the writers’ room program scheduled to begin in mid-February 2027.

Further information is available at screenqueensland.com.au.