Producing an independent film in Australia requires a minor miracle. Securing a theatrical release demands another. Western Australian producer Kate Separovich understands this struggle intimately. She recently navigated a limited 20-screen national release for her debut feature, Proclivitas, while competing against massive studio blockbusters.
However, Separovich brings a wry pragmatism to the challenge. She knows that building audience awareness stands as the ultimate hurdle for local cinema.
That reality drove her straight to the stage at Screen Forever 40 to pitch her next project.
Separovich took out the top prize at the inaugural Simpsons Pitching Competition, securing vital development funding for her proposed psychosexual feature, Parrot.
Pitching a psychosexual nightmare
Screen Producers Australia launched the Simpsons Pitching Competition to inject crucial development capital into the local feature film market.
Sponsored by Simpsons Lawyers, the initiative gave four finalists exactly five minutes to pitch their boldest ideas to a live audience and a heavy-hitting industry jury.
Separovich faced off against Madeleine Hetherton-Miau, Maggie Miles, and Karen Radzyner. She stood before a panel featuring Roadshow distributor Edwina Waddy, Odin’s Eye Entertainment sales agent Michael Favelle, and Bankside sales agent Sophie Banks.
Simpsons Pitch winner, Kate Separovich and writer / director, Timothy Despina Marshall. Image: file
She presented Parrot, a script penned by writer and director Timothy Despina Marshall. The plot follows five gay men on a wilderness birthday trip who mutate into carnivorous doppelgängers of their group’s most desirable member.
Separovich describes the project as a brutal, entertaining exploration of the toxic pressure to achieve physical perfection.
“It is not an overt social commentary,” Separovich said. “It sits underneath everything, this reason that we tell the stories, in a way that really entertains an audience.”
Testing the audience response
While the prize package includes $10,000 in cash and $3,000 in legal services, Separovich viewed the competition primarily as a real-time focus group.
Independent producers rarely get the chance to pitch directly to a crowd and gauge their immediate visceral reactions.
“It was actually never about winning it, it was just about getting that audience response,” Separovich explained. “Even if I do not win it, I still learn something from the panellists. More importantly for me, I know what the audience thinks of the film and whether it is something people actually want to see.”
Separovich plans to dedicate the prize money to engaging a casting director and building a robust audience strategy. She knows that generating early momentum remains critical for independent films competing in a saturated market.
Below: Trailer for Separovich’s feature, ’Proclivitas’.
Funding the film addiction
Winning the pitch marks a significant milestone, but the reality of independent producing remains a gruelling hustle.
Separovich admits that she works on documentaries and acts as an accounts assistant on other sets just to fund her own slate of passion projects.
“My film addiction is supported by working on other people’s films,” Separovich joked. “I just dabble and do a bit of everything. It is nice because those contracts are for a set period of time, and there are periods in being a producer where the writer has to work on the script, and there is not a lot I can do right now.”
As she heads back to Perth, Separovich urges the local industry to make its voices heard regarding the future of theatrical funding. She encourages all practitioners to submit their thoughts to the ongoing national cultural policy review.
“If we want to keep seeing Australian films in Australian cinemas, then we have to let the government know that it is important,” Separovich said.
Feature Image- Edwina Waddy (Roadshow Films), Sophie Green (Bankside Films), Kate Separovich, Mark Bambord (Simpsons), Suzanne Ryan (SLR Productions), Michael Favelle (Odins Eye Entertainment): supplied