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Spain’s Borja González Santaolalla, who co-penned Jaume Balagueró’s movie “Way Down,” and Ángel Agudo, a scribe on Atresmedia’s “Luimelia,” have boarded the family TV series project “Harrogate Detective Agency” as its director and co-scribe respectively.

Inspired by Agatha Christie novels, the TV series project has been created by C.J. Navas and Juan Galonce at Alicante-based outfit Fuera de Series Producciones.

“Harrogate” is a eight-episode, 25- minute series that narrates the summer mystery adventures of three little sisters at their widower grandfather’s house.

It features among five TV short-form series projects that will be pitched on Wednesday, Sept. 15 at Conecta Fiction, the international TV industry event whose fifth edition runs onsite in Pamplona Sept. 13-17. The event’s conference strand panels will also be available online.

Set in Cabezo de Oro, a town in Spain’s Valencia region, the series tells how the three sisters discover...

Anousha Zarkesh and Nathan Lloyd each took home two gongs from the Casting Guild of Australia (Cga) Awards on Saturday, leading the night’s winners.

Bert and Amanda LABONTé hosted the ceremony, virtual this year due to Covid-19.

Lloyd snared Achievement in Casting for the second season of children’s series The InBestigators, as well as Best Casting in a TV drama for Wentworth.

Yet again, Zarkesh won Best Casting in a TV Comedy for the fourth season Black Comedy (she won last year for the third innings of the show), as well as Best Casting in a TV Miniseries & Telemovie for Operation Buffalo.

Following on from their Aacta win on Friday night, the feature film award went to Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray for Babyteeth, which stars Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.

Best Casting in a Short Film went to Daniella Friedman for the Aacta nominated The Mirror.

The casting directors behind Babyteeth, Measure for Measure, Paper Champions and The True History of the Kelly Gang will square off in the feature film category at the upcoming Casting Guild of Australia (Cga) Awards.

Bert and Amanda LABONTé will host the virtual ceremony on Facebook November 28, recognising casting across all mediums including film, TV, advertising, theatre and online.

In TV drama, the casting directors behind Mystery Road (season 2), The Heights (season 2), Neighbours and Wentworth (Season 8) have each been recognised with nods, while in the running for the TV Miniseries & Telemovie category are those who worked on Deadhouse Dark, Halifax: Retribution, Operation Buffalo and The Secrets She Keeps.

In contention in the TV comedy race are Black Comedy (season 4), How to Stay Married (season 2), The Other Guy (season 2) and Upright.

Leading the nominees overall are Nathan Lloyd and Natalie Jane Harvie with four nods each, while Kirsty McGregor, Stevie Ray,...

Tim Franklin as Colby in and Maddy Jevic as Amber in ‘Home and Away.’

After playing a nurse in three seasons of Fremantle/Foxtel’s Wentworth, Maddy Jevic was delighted when she was offered the role of a carer in Home and Away.

The Seven Network soap was among her favourite shows when she grew up in Adelaide. As a huge fan of Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster, Maddy had wanted to be an actress since she was four or five.

Apart from the regular employment in Seven’s serial, another attraction for her was the chance to play a character who is very different from Wentworth’s nurse Lee Radcliffe.

On Thursday Jevic makes her debut as Amber, who helps wheelchair-bound John Palmer (Shane Withington) with his rehabilitation after he suffered a stroke.

Unlike Radcliffe, who hated her job in the prison, Amber is loyal, funny and tough. Viewers...

Hannah Gadsby.

Facing the prospect that the Federal Government will impose local content spending obligations on SVOD services, Netflix asserts it wants the right to negotiate how much it invests over the next three years.

In its submission to the government’s ‘Supporting Australian Stories on Our Screens’ options paper review, the streaming giant proposes a “flexible, reasonably-set voluntary investment model that meets cultural policy goals and incentivises wider investment.”

Netflix rejects option 3, which is favoured by Screen Producers Australia and all industry guilds and would require all delivery platforms to invest a minimum percentage of their Australian revenues into local scripted content, with annual sub-quotas for drama, documentary and children’s programs.

This model has “the potential to cause significant problems for the sector, including the reality that there is currently insufficient physical production capacity for this option to work meaningfully in practice,” it says, which arguably ignores the...

Asher Keddie and Darren Gilshenan in ‘Stateless’ (Photo: Lisa Tomasetti).

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights excluding Australia to Stateless, the six-part drama about four strangers whose lives collide in an immigration detention centre in the Australian desert, co-created by Cate Blanchett, Tony Ayres and Elise McCredie.

The series produced by Matchbox Pictures and Blanchett and Andrew Upton’s Dirty Films, which premieres on the ABC this Sunday, will roll out on the streamer later this year.

The first two episodes of the drama starring Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Fayssal Bazzi, Asher Keddie and Blanchett have their world premiere on Wednesday night at the sixth edition of the Berlin International Film Festival’s Berlinale Series.

Emma Freeman and Jocelyn Moorhouse directed the series scripted by the showrunner McCredie and Belinda Chayko and produced by Sheila Jayadev and Paul Ranford.

Strahovski plays Sofie Werner, an airline hostess on the run from her...

Jenny Buckland.

The options paper being drafted by Screen Australia and the Australian Communications and Media Authority should set out funding mechanisms to support film and TV content, particularly for the most vulnerable sector, children’s programming, while extending the kids quota to public broadcasters.

So hopes Jenny Buckland, CEO of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher asked the Screen Australia/Acma review to examine the Fta networks’ local content obligations; consider whether content quotas should be extended to streaming services; and to develop a uniform classification framework across all media platforms.

“Funding for children’s content should be designed in a way which incentivises commercial platforms to want to invest in it, but it is also vital that the fundamental role of the ABC and Nitv in commissioning Australian children’s content is front and centre,” Buckland tells If.

“They need to be resourced to do...

Netflix has confirmed that 56 new original series, movies and specials will be debuting on the streaming service in January. Leading off the lineup are the final seasons of some of the biggest shows on Netflix, including the Emmy-winning animated series “BoJack Horseman,” the family favorite “Anne With an E” and the Ashton Kutcher comedy series “The Ranch.”

Among those shows launching their first seasons in the first month of the year are the Tyler Perry family drama “A Fall From Grace,” the sly satire “Medical Police” and the crime thriller “The Stranger.”

Also look for the sophomore edition of the British import “Sex Education,” season 3 of “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and season 6 of “Grace & Frankie” with real-life pals Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

Below is the full schedule of everything that is coming and leaving Netflix in January 2020.

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What better way to celebrate the New Year than by settling into the couch with a Netflix marathon? Get nostalgic about the early ’00s with Hilary Duff in “A Cinderella Story,” or get inspired to cook with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in “Julie & Julia.” Both titles are headed to the streaming service early next month.

A few classics are also coming to the site, including two “Lord of the Rings” pics, the complete “Kill Bill” saga and “American Beauty.”

New seasons of several highly anticipated Netflix originals will also hit the streamer like “Sex Education,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” “Grace and Frankie” and the second half of “BoJack Horseman’s” final season, dropping at the end of the month.

See the full list of titles below:

Jan. 1

Ghost Stories

Messiah

Nisman: Death of a Prosecutor

Spinning Out

The Circle

21

A Cinderella Story

American Beauty

Catch Me If You...

Netflix has released its list of everything new coming to the streaming service in January, and everything that’s leaving at the end of the month.

Of all the Netflix originals to look forward to next month, “Messiah,” out Jan. 1, is not to be missed. It follows CIA officer Eva Geller (Michelle Monaghan), who uncovers information about a man (Mehdi Dehbi) who claims to be the son of God. As he gains followers who believe he is the Second Coming, Geller races find out whether he really is a divine entity — or just a con artist set on dismantling the world’s geopolitical order

Other Netflix originals to look out for include “Anne With an E: The Final Season,” a modern retelling of “Anne of Green Gables,” out Jan. 3, “Cheer,” out Jan. 8, a cheerleading documentary series from the director of “Last Chance U,” Season 6 of “Grace and Frankie,” out Jan.

Netflix has released their list of new titles coming in the month of August, as well as a last call for everything getting ready to leave the streaming service.

Highlights arriving this month include the second season of David Fincher’s crime drama “Mindhunter,” coming August 16, and the third season of the pro-wrestling dramedy “Glow” debuting August 9. New series like “Wu Assassins,” “Styling Hollywood” and “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” will also premiere on the platform this month.

This month is the last chance to watch David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” all three “Final Destination” movies, and both the 1988 and 2007 versions of “Hairspray.” See the full list of new and expiring titles, and start planning out your viewing calendar, here:

Also Read: 'The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance' - Look Behind the Gelfling Apocalypse in Comic-Con Clip (Video)

Comings

August 1 “Are We Done Yet?” “Boyka: Undisputed” “Four Weddings and a...

Libbie Doherty.

Confirmed as head of children’s production at the ABC earlier this month, Libbie Doherty is on the look-out for comedies and factual entertainment programs.

Overseeing a department of 65 people including 25 in Melbourne, she commissions around 380 hours of content annually across ABC Kids and ABC Me as well as overseeing ABC Kids Listen, children’s digital products and third party social media.

Her budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is unchanged, despite the $84 million funding cut over the next three years. “Our broad commissioning strategy is to present the best of Australian content and the best from the rest of the world,” she tells If in one of her first interviews since her appointment, after acting in the role for a year.

“We are always in the market for comedy. The Inbestigators is self-contained and won’t go to a second season so we definitely have room for comedies.