Congratulations to Rachel Jean and Leela Menon, for being part of the two projects that have won a terrifyingly good opportunity.
The New Zealand Film Commission is pleased to announce the successful applicants for the Women's Horror Short Film Fund, who will each receive a grant of $60,000 to make their films. This was a one-off initiative aimed at giving women filmmakers the opportunity to make a genre short film.
Thirty-one applications were received, with six making a shortlist from which the final two films, Vaspy and The Rat King, were selected.
Vaspy, written and directed by Hweiling Ow and produced by Rachel Jean and Andrew Beattie, is about an expectant mother who suddenly develops strange food cravings after being 'stung' by her child's clickety clack wooden toy, Vaspy.
In The Rat King, written and directed by Hash Perambalam and produced by Leela Menon, a young musician is dealt an unearthly punishment after taking advantage of a young woman.
The two filmmakers will be mentored through the development process with the goal of having their films in production in 2018.