Finding my voice

My Journey as an Emerging Australian Screenwriter

When I first started my career as a producer for film and television, I didn’t expect to end up where I am now. I wanted to tell stories and saw myself as someone whose organisational skills made me the perfect person to support others with a story to tell. Part of this was about playing to my strengths—I have a keen eye for detail and know my way around a spreadsheet—but there was also something deeper. Despite receiving awards for my writing during my schooling at Brisbane’s Clayfield College, it wasn’t until a decade after graduating that I found myself drawn to write from personal experience again.

Central to my career as a producer has been my desire to tell stories that are multicultural, inclusive, and often female-driven. An example of this is Adele, a short I produced in 2016. Centred around a 14-year-old African-Australian girl pregnant to her arranged husband, it was not a story I was in a position to tell, but it was certainly one I could use my skills to amplify. And I did: we raised a budget of $20k and were awarded the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short at the Sydney Film Festival, among many other accolades. Standing on that stage alongside the writer/director, passionately informing the audience about this real and very important issue, was the moment something shifted in me: I realised that maybe I had something of my own to say after all.

As a Hungarian-Australian daughter of a WWII refugee, a survivor of DV and SA, and a person living with disability, I am a female filmmaker with no shortage of stories to tell. For better or worse, along with PTSD, I’ve developed a sense of humour darker than Vantablack.

Writer/director Grace Julia on set in Sydney, Australia

Comedy Writer for Gold Coast-Based Show, A Series of Unfortunate Dates

2024 started strong with the opportunity to co-write A Series of Unfortunate Dates for White Bonnet Films. Having directed two short-form vertical comedy series, I had the necessary experience with short-form content to take actor Amy Raffe’s initial drafts and craft them into 2-minute scripts that would perform well on TikTok, while providing the female protagonist with a clear character arc across the six-episode series. Inspired by the likes of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Fleabag, it was a brilliant opportunity to channel all the appalling experiences I’ve had on dates and dating apps into a painfully relatable show that is sure to inspire more than a few #triggered men in the comments.

Scriptwriter Brisbane: Writing Stories Close to Home

Returning to Brisbane from Sydney and seeing the sunrise on the Brisbane River reminded me why I love this city. But something had changed: there was now a new wave of mass hysteria impacting a collective of narcissists. As I watched Newstead’s fitness elite gather in what could only be described as a nylon-clad cult, I knew I had to write Run Club. Co-written with Sydney comedy writer/producer Nikki Brown, the series was funded by Screen Queensland and produced by Motley Content, my production company.

Not Quite Narrative: An Exploration of Experimental Short Films

Since my path began with directing before writing, I often think about a project visually before the scripting stage. My unconventional journey to becoming a screenwriter has meant I don’t always think of shorts in a traditionally narrative sense. My background in commercials has made me adept at storytelling in formats as short as 30 seconds. Applying this to my own projects as a writer/director, I’ve been able to experiment with form and push the boundaries of storytelling.

My 1-minute visual poem Sun On My Back received over 13k views on Instagram and played as part of the 2024 Disability Employment Summit, thanks to Bus Stop Films. Meanwhile, my 4-minute short Contrition premiered at the Sydney Underground Film Festival in 2023. Both films feature voiceovers with minimal dialogue and are highly visually driven, exploring profoundly emotional themes like childhood SA and the oppression of the church.

Writing for Commercial Productions

During my time as a producer/director at Brisbane video production company Ride Free Media, I wrote several scripts for video content, including the Poolwerx ‘How To’ Series for YouTube and the Endeavour Foundation Educational suite. I went on to apply these skills, paired with my penchant for interviewing real people, in 2024 for Sydney agency Jack Nimble’s campaign for their client, ShopBack.

Still from Blue, a short film written by Grace Julia

A script in waiting…

The film I touched on in the beginning, the 2018 short that started it all, was called Blue. A coming-of-age film about a mixed-race girl living in drought-stricken regional Queensland, Blue was my first foray into writing a 15-minute narrative. I had already created the micro-budget short Picnic that same year, exploring a brother-sister relationship with similar themes. Picnic was an Official Selection at Big Skies Film Festival, and I was excited to film Blue. In 2020, we cast, crewed, and even catered! And then... COVID happened. And then floods. Between downpours and lockdowns, the small budget I raised to bring this deeply personal project to life dwindled, and the lead aged out of the role.

Although this particular film has not yet been realised, the production I’ve made since then have remained true to my storytelling aspirations, centring women and frequently amplify the voices of the disenfranchised. Blue is well and truly ready to be green lit, and I’m now more experienced as a writer, director and producer to do my script justice.

What the future holds as a writer/director/producer

As a film producer, I’ve had the privilege of bringing unique stories to life. Some of them have been others’ stories to tell, but increasingly, they have become my own. Using my production company Motley Content as my vessel, I’ve been able to write, produce, and direct a number of productions across multiple genres, and things are only ramping up, especially when it comes to writing for comedy.

Also on my slate is 81828, a short set in the outer suburbs of Brisbane that falls thematically somewhere between Shia LeBeouf’s Honey Boy and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank. If there are any angel investors out there… I’d love to send you the pitch!

If you’d like to see more of my work as a female writer, director and producer working in Brisbane and Sydney, check out my portfolio.