Sunny Coast Showdown

By Jon Coghill, co-founder of the Sunny Coast Showdown 

Without the Bendigo Bank Community Bank (Cooroy,  Marcoola, Tewantin-Noosa) the Sunny Coast Showdown film incubator and festival 2023 may not have happened. We are hugely grateful that the team at Bendigo Bank believed in us and our goal of kickstarting a viable screen industry on the Sunshine Coast - that Bendigo Bank could see creating such an industry leads to a boost in local creative talent, the discovery of amazing storytelling and new jobs across the region. 

Let me explain: The Sunny Coast Showdown presented by the Bendigo Bank Community Bank is a not-for-profit screen incubator that provides successful applicants from the region with mentoring, support and funding to produce their film and TV projects. It was co-founded by Powderfinger’s Jon Coghill, former US Survivor producer Dan Munday, and the Sunshine Coast Screen Collective, with an aim to kickstart a local film and TV industry. 

The Sunny Coast Showdown is run primarily by a small group of volunteers. One of our aims of the 2023 event (2021 being out inaugural event) was to pay the majority of cast and crew industry rates - to stop asking favours so that local filmmakers can experience how a professional production is run and reap the rewards of hard work. To raise the required funds, the Showdown team approached a handful of large local businesses, who we believed would see the good in what we were trying to achieve. Alas, many of those meeting amounted to nothing. Instead we raised funds with the generous donations of individual patrons and sponsors like the Noosa and Sunshine Coast Councils. By February we barely had enough to run the event. That was until we approached the Bendigo Bank Community Bank. In the end, the Bank’s donation of more than $70,000 made the Sunny Coast Showdown 2023 possible. We will be eternally grateful and would love to continue a relationship that not only provides funding but support in the form of a committed and encouraging Bendigo Bank board. 

Hence this year, the Showdown developed, produced and delivered seven quality projects. It then showcased them to more than 500 local film lovers at the Sunny Coast Showdown Showcase festival at the MET in Maroochydore on June 24 (an outdoor cinema and red carpet event supported by the SC Mayor and Noosa Deputy Mayor). Those seven projects will now be used to showcase - to the nation and the world - that high quality film production is not only possible on the Sunshine Coast but is happening. That there is a team of creatives and screen professionals willing to turn quality screen productions into reality.

Sunny Coast Showdown presented by the Bendigo Bank Community Bank 2023 projects:

1. Bin Day, a zombie comedy short film by Ryan N Butler (writer/director)

2. Rockin’ Rocks, a Powderfinger video clip by Jessie Hughes (writer/director)

3. Slow Dating, a short drama by Adam Szudrich (writer/director)

4. The Stripper Trade Off, a short comedy film written by Stephen Walker and directed by Janneke Williamson

5. Skate or Cry, a documentary about Indigenous roller skater Tia Pitman created by Jacob Ledford

6. A Wake, a documentary about dance counsellor Abigail Wake written by Catherine Mack

7. My Dream Hideout, a lifestyle show written by Anita Poteri

The Sunny Coast Showdown team would like to commend the Bendigo Bank Community Bank for enriching (literally and figuratively) its local community with its generous commitment to donate its annual profits to local the community. 

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