MUMBAI: Australian children‘s author and illustrator Graeme Base is to make his film directorial debut.
 
Base will co-direct The Gallant Captain, an adaptation of his book ‘The Legend of the Golden Snail‘ with Katrina Mathers.

Mathers and Daryl Munton of The Lampshade Collective were behind last year‘s The Nullabor that won Sydney Film Festival‘s Best Animated Short Film Award at both the Sydney Film Festival 2011 and the AACTA Awards 2012.
 
Incidentaly, the short film has received funding from Screen Australia through the agency‘s short animation production programme.

Base‘s work includes Animalia and The Eleventh Hour, is to make his film directorial debut.
 
Also to receive funding from Screen Australia is The Crossing, a stop-motion sand animation from writer/director/animator and visual artists Marieka Walsh. Sand animation is the use of sand on a lighted piece of glass to create each frame.

The film follows on from the success of Walsh‘s team with The Hunter, also using sand animation, which was selected for competition at the recent SXSW Film Festival.