Photoplay returns to Canneseries short-film competition with Fell Swoop Pictures’ ‘Appetite’

For the second year in a row Australian-based production company Photoplay, in partnership with Fell Swoop Pictures, has a series in the official selection in-competition at Canneseries.

Comedy/mystery short-form series Appetite is the only Australian production to be in the official selection in-competition at Canneseries 2023. The series follows three penniless food delivery riders who are brought together after their housemate mysteriously vanishes on the same night as a rider has a fatal roadside accident. Forced to uncover the truth behind the accident, the unlikely group find themselves entangled in a mystery to uncover and expose the multinational food delivery behemoth, Appetite.

Appetite is created by the multi-disciplined Mohini Herse (Hair) who wrote, directed and produced the series under her Fell Swoop Pictures banner, alongside fellow writers Neilesh Verma (Letters Home) and Grace Tan (Lucky Peach), director Neil Sharma (Heartbreak High) and producer Karen Radzyner (Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo). The project was supported by executive producers Sleena Wilson (Chicken), Elise McCredie (Stateless) and Jomon Thomas (Monkey Man) with principal production funding from Screen Australia in association with SBS and support from Screen NSW.

Herse began writing Appetite in 2017, just as food delivery companies were beginning to pop onto the market, before bringing it to longtime collaborator and Fell Swoop Pictures’ co-founder, Wilson, who encouraged her to keep developing it. The series was selected for the Digital Originals initiative in 2020, which saw the wider creative team take part in exclusive development workshops held virtually, run by Screen Australia, SBS and NITV. In a bid to show workers on their own terms, Herse and her team spent hours interviewing riders, community leaders, international students, academics, lawyers and tech workers to better understand the often-invisible world of the gig economy and ensure that the delivery riders were seen for who they are, for the work they do and the extreme conditions they do it under – exploring the true cost of convenience.

The drama includes performances from talented rising stars including Shirong Wu (Neighbours), Gabriel Alvarado (The Winter’s Tale), Raj Labade (Back Of The Net) and Kabir Singh (The Tourist), with Marta Dusseldorp (Janet King) voicing Appetite.

The series will receive its world premiere at Canneseries during MIPTV 14-19 April, with its first season viewable on SBS as a 60-minute mini-feature or six ten-minute episodes.

Says Herse: “We are thrilled to be having our world premiere at Canneseries. For many of us in the creative team, Canneseries will mark the first time being In-Competition at an international film festival. It’s been a dream come true to do this alongside my long-time friends and collaborators and I’m so proud of how far we’ve all come. Appetite is a satirical look at the effects of the gig economy and we can only hope that it starts a conversation – Canneseries feels like a good place to start.”

Says Lee Naimo, head of online, Screen Australia: “We are immensely proud of this timely, clever and engaging series developed through our Digital Originals initiative with SBS and NITV, and it’s fantastic to see it recognised on a world stage. I can’t wait for them to share it with Australian audiences to help inspire the next wave of Digital Originals creators.”

Says Loani Arman, commissioning editor, SBS Scripted: “We’re thrilled to see APPETITE recognised at an international festival of this scale. It’s the work of a brilliant team creatively led by Mohini Herse, showcasing the incredible talent we have in Australia – a new and noisy wave of storytellers determined to tell their distinct stories on their own terms.”

Says Donna Chang, commissioning editor, SBS Scripted: “We can’t wait to bring the series to audiences later this year on SBS and congratulate all of those involved in its success. It’s fantastic to see another Digital Originals project acclaimed and celebrated in this way.”

Says Kyas Hepworth, head of screen, Screen NSW: “Screen NSW is thrilled to see APPETITE selected as the only Australian production at Canneseries and for NSW-based production company, Photoplay, in partnership with Fell Swoop Pictures, to have a project selected for the second year in a row. This represents an exciting opportunity for this talented creative team to attend and introduce the project to international audiences.”

Attending the festival to represent the project will be filmmakers Herse, Sharma, Verma, Tan, Radzyner and actors Wu and Singh.

Herse is a writer and director based in Sydney. She served as director’s assistant for Taika Waititi on Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder and directed Australia’s first ever Instagram series The Out There (2016), which went on to be commissioned and released by Adolescent Content to an audience of over 90,000 followers in its second season. In 2022, Herse was selected to attend the MIFF Directors’ Accelerator Lab as an Express participant through Screen NSW and is currently in development on her feature HAIR. She launched her production company Fell Swoop Pictures in 2022 with Wilson.

Sharma’s directing credits include the lauded reboot of Heartbreak High (Netflix), The Unlisted (Netflix), Born to Spy (ABC/Aquarius Films) and splinter unit for Lambs Of God (Foxtel/Showtime). Mentored by Oscar winning auteur Taika Waititi and AACTA Award winner Jeffrey Walker, he cut his teeth in the film industry as an assistant director on productions such as Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Mortal Kombat, Picnic At Hanging Rock and The Dressmaker to name a few.

Verma is a writer, director and former stand-up comedian. His award-winning short films and music videos have screened at both local and international film festivals. His series Machans saw him selected to attend the 2019 AFTRS Screen NSW and AWG Talent Camp Initiative alongside Herse, sparking a longtime friendship and collaboration between the pair. In the past, he has performed at both the Sydney Comedy and Sydney Fringe Festivals and recently finished writing his first feature film, a horror-thriller entitled Koan.

Tan is a Sydney based, Australian filmmaker and writer. With a distinct visual aesthetic, she has a keen interest in stories that explore themes of gender, identity and society. She first met Herse completing her Graduate Certificate of Directing at AFTRS in 2016, where the pair became long-time collaborators. Her latest short film “Lucky Peach” premiered at MIFF in 2022. She is currently developing her first long-form project having recently completed her Masters of Arts Screen at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Radzyner has produced two multi-award-winning TV mini-series – ABC’s Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo (with Southern Star in 2011) and Nine’s genre anthology Two Twisted (with Bryan Brown in 2006). She currently serves as Executive Producer and Head of Development at Photoplay.

Wu was born in Xi’an, China and immigrated to Australia at the age of seven. Best known for her role as Rachel Chen in Neighbours, she studied at 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne as well as at Shakespeare & Company in the USA. Her theatre credits include White Pearl for Sydney Theatre Company, Miss Peony and Cursed! at Belvoir, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World for the Javaad Alipoor Theatre Company and I, Cockroach at the Monash One Act Play Festival, the latter of which saw her win the festival’s award for Best Supporting Actress.

Singh was born in Delhi, India and immigrated to Australia at the age of ten. Having studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City, Singh has appeared in countless films, advertisements and off-Broadway productions in India, USA and Australia. He played the leading role in feature film One Less God which saw him shortlisted for the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2018. Singh also played the lead role in the psychological horror Aiyai – A Wrathful Soul directed by Ilanthirayan Alan Arumugam.

The Canneseries Short-Form competition was created to showcase new, promising and innovative formats, which reflect current and new ways of watching series. The Best Short Form Series award will be handed out during the festival’s closing ceremony.

Appetite will premiere at 9.30pm on 22 April, on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand.