Australia’s Jump Street Films has unveiled its 2026 slate for the Jewish Australian Screen Fund, headlined by attachments including Shekhar Kapur, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Yael Abecassis and Shlomi Elkabetz, while simultaneously launching the inaugural Jewish Australian Screen Fellowship.
The five-project slate – unveiled in Melbourne by Jump Street director Jamie Bialkower – includes an untitled historical thriller limited series produced by seven-time Emmy-winning Northern Pictures, three debut feature films, and the first Jewish-themed feature supported through development by Screenwest.
Bialkower launched the fund in 2024 with a dual focus on authentic Jewish Australian storytelling and using screen representation as a tool against antisemitism, while creating pathways for emerging creatives. The fund has since backed 10 projects and produced four short films documenting post-Oct. 7 life in Australia for the Jewish International Film Festival, among them “Mezuzah Man,” written and directed by Jacob Melamed and shot in Bondi just six months before the terrorist attack.
Bialkower is currently in post-production on “Stand Up,” a documentary marking the 60th anniversary of the 1965 civil rights Freedom Ride that unites Jewish and First Nations youth, directed by Eliya Cohen. He is also developing a second documentary with director Danny Ben-Moshe examining antisemitism within Australia’s cultural sector. As a distributor, Jump Street’s most recent release was “Freud’s Last Session,” starring Anthony Hopkins, in association with Sharmill Films.
The inaugural Jewish Australian Screen Fellowship will provide $20,000 to one Jewish Australian filmmaker, along with a year of personalised mentorship from Jump Street Films. Candidates at any stage of their career – emerging or mid-career – may apply across film, television and digital, and must show how their work would deepen Jewish Australian identity on screen. Applications close April 17, with the recipient named on May 11.
The Northern Pictures limited series – created by Darren Ashton and Lally Katz – is an untitled historical thriller based on real events. Northern Pictures has earned seven Emmy Awards.
“Everyone’s Having a Good Time But You” marks the debut feature of writer-director Richard Vilensky, developed in association with Sandbox Productions with support from Screenwest and Lotterywest. The film centres on the owner of a failing furniture chain whose insurance scam unravels catastrophically on the eve of his daughter’s wedding, leaving him scrambling to keep his family oblivious, avoid prison and salvage the celebration.
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“Matchbox,” a limited series created by Josh Billig and Chris Martin, follows three sisters who have lost sight of what family means drawn back together by a confluence of an extraordinarily valuable Chagall painting, a protected Nazi scientist, an elderly Holocaust survivor and an audacious art heist.
“Song of Songs” is a debut feature from multidisciplinary artist Anita Lester, executive produced by Shekhar Kapur and starring Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Set across the week of shiva following a grandmother’s death, the film traces a young woman’s illicit bond with a rabbi that gradually pulls her family into a reckoning with who they are.
“Zahava,” produced by Plot Twist and developed with support from Screen Australia, is a debut feature from writer-director Justin Olstein. Starring Yael Abecassis and Shlomi Elkabetz, it centres on a Hasidic woman whose feelings for the hired carer of her ill husband force a confrontation with desire she has never allowed herself. The screenplay won the Australian Writers’ Guild Monte Miller Award for Best Feature Screenplay.
From Variety US