Sophie Hyde and Closer Productions win at SPAA!

Sophie Hyde and Closer Productions won the inaugural Nick McMahon Breakthrough Producer Award for feature documentary Shut Up Little Man! at the SPAA Independent Producer Awards last night.

Sophie said:

"This industry survives on the passion and generosity of people like Nick. I didn't  know him personally  but I am grateful for the work of Nick and others that have meant we have the chance to be working producers telling stories from an Australian POV.

We made Shut Up Little Man! and another feature doc, Life in Movement, at the same time and have enjoyed a great deal of success with them both. We are currently making our first feature drama 52 Tuesdays. Our ability to produce these unique films has in part been due to the wonderful support we enjoy from our local agency the SAFC. Who have backed us as a team and our work without traditional market attachment. (SULM was made through the innovative low-budget feature program FilmLab). This has meant we could work outside the boundaries of broadcast and be creativity rigorous with our treatments of the content. It's a brave course for a screen agency, and I believe it's paying off down south.

Alongside the SAFC the Adelaide film festival with its investment fund and a nose for talent has been instrumental in the advancement of our work, supporting our forays into unusual stories and unique production practices.
The team we have at Closer Productions is a wonderful one. We are all engaged in the work of producing and so I certainly can't take full credit for this recognition. My producing partners Rebecca Summerton. Matthew Bate and Bryan Mason as well of the Closer mob both in-house (Matthew Cormack, Corinna McLaine and Raynor Pettge) and those who come onboard on a project-specific basis carry the load and the joy of producing. I am always happy to have them in my life.

Thank you SPAA for this lovely honour."