KHOA DO
Writer, Director, Producer
In 2006, Khoa directed and co-wrote the feature film FOOTY LEGENDS, starring Anh Do and Claudia Karvan. In 2003, Khoa completed his feature film debut, THE FINISHED PEOPLE – a gritty and realistic story of street kids on the edge of survival. Khoa directed, produced and co-wrote the film.
THE FINISHED PEOPLE screened at the Montreal World Film Festival and was released by Dendy Cinemas in October 2003. It ran for nine weeks in Sydney, followed by Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, attracting sell-out audiences, extraordinary reviews and emotional audience responses.
Khoa was nominated for two AFI Awards (including Best Direction), three Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (including Best Film and Best Director), and an AWGIE Award. At 25, Khoa was one of the youngest directors to ever be nominated for an AFI Award for Best Direction.
In 2001, Khoa wrote the half-hour television drama DELIVERY DAY (directed by Jane Manning). For this film, Khoa was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film. For the same script he won Best Achievement in an original Screenplay at the St Kilda International Short Film Festival in Melbourne.
DELIVERY DAY screened at many international festivals and has won numerous awards, including Best Short Film at the Locarno International Film Festival, Best Australian Film at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, and a Special Mention at the Berlin International Film Festival.
In 2003, Khoa was awarded a Centenary Medal and the IF Independent Spirit Award for THE FINISHED PEOPLE. In 2008, Khoa received the Phillip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award.
In January 2005, Khoa was announced as YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR, the first ever film-maker to have been awarded the accolade.
MATTHEW REILLY
Executive Producer
MATTHEW REILLY is the international bestselling author of nine novels, ICE STATION, TEMPLE, CONTEST, AREA 7, SCARECROW, HOVER CAR RACER, SEVEN ANCIENT WONDERS, THE SIX SACRED STONES and the upcoming THE FIVE GREATEST WARRIORS. After self-publishing his first novel, CONTEST, his books are now published in over 20 languages and he has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
Walt Disney Pictures have bought the film rights to HOVER CAR RACER. In 2007, Matthew sold a television screenplay called LITERARY SUPERSTARS to Sony and the ABC Network in the United States.
In 2005, Matthew’s novel SEVEN ANCIENT WONDERS was the biggest-selling novel by an Australian in Australia. Matthew has three novels in the list of 100 favourite Australian novels for high school students of all time and five novels in Angus & Robertson’s list of the Top 100 books.
“MISSING WATER has the ability to change the way Australians think about refugees and seekers of asylum.”
“This film puts us right in the boat with some asylum seekers. We experience what they experience in the most immediate and harrowing way.”
“Mainstream Australia really only sees asylum seekers at the end of their journeys, when they arrive in Australia — and thus many Australians, not least our political leaders, wrongly associate refugees with the act of arriving, being captured and being taken away to detention centres. This movie shows us what refugees must go through before they arrive. It makes them real people, real human beings doing a very dangerous thing to escape genuine oppression. MISSING WATER could single-handedly transform the Australian national attitude to asylum seekers and put some of the rhetoric of the last few years where it belongs, in the garbage bin of history.”
- Matthew Reilly
PETER A. HOLLAND
Director of Photography
Peter started his career as a camera/lighting assistant working on major feature films including BABE 1 & 2, THE MATRIX TRILOGY, BIRTHDAY GIRL and MOULIN ROUGE. In 2002 Peter graduated with a Masters Degree in cinematography from AFTRS, the national Australian film school. Peter’s first feature film as D.P. was the highly acclaimed GABRIEL which earned him an ACS Gold Award. This film was shot on a miniscule budget of $200,000 and was purchased by Sony Pictures for International Theatrical distribution. Peter has been a leading proponent of digital cinematography and a pioneer of the Red 4K camera.
ALAN JOHN
Composer
Alan’s film and television credits include THREE DOLLARS and THE BANK (both directed by Robert Connolly); LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI (director Kate Woods); TRAVELLING NORTH; the ABC mini series THE FARM (director Kate Woods); ABC TV’s telemovies THE SHARK NET and LOOT; EDENS LOST (producer Margaret Fink, director Neil Armfield); CORAL ISLAND (part 1 of Jan Chapman’s NAKED series) and for Film Australia’s animation series HUMAN CONTRAPTIONS. In 2005 Alan worked on the Foxtel award winning TV series LOVE MY WAY. Alan has been awarded an APRA/Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award for THE BANK (Best Music in a Feature Film in 2002), HUMAN CONTRAPTIONS (Best Music for Short Film in 2003) and THE SHARK NET (Best Music for Mini Series or Telemovie, 2004).
ALISON MCSKIMMING CROFT
Editor
Alison McSkimming Croft has been editing drama and documentary since graduating from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 1998 with a BA in Film and Television. In 2007 she won an AFI Award for her work on the documentary feature FORBIDDEN LIES. Her film credits include: Son of a Lion, The Finished People, Forbidden Lies, Making Venus, Chrissy, and Yellow Fella, which screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.