Francisca Braithwaite’s powerful short film about adoption has been nominated for Best Short Film at the 2024 Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, aka ‘the Australian Oscars’.
“It’s just basically the first thing we entered,” says Francisca, who only wrapped up post-production three months ago. “It’s incredibly unexpected, but very welcomed.”
Led by themes of identity, acceptance and forgiveness, Finding Addison follows two best friends who share a life-changing secret, until a knock on the door three decades later reveals the truth.
“It’s [inspired by] a personal story of a friend of mine who found out that she was adopted and then went in search of her birth mother,” says Francisca, who wrote, produced, acted in and directed the 29-minute film.
“I knew it was special from the beginning.
“I didn’t understand how special it was until I actually got to start filming it and that’s when the magic started to happen. One of the most memorable things about this shoot was the day that we shot the birthing scene, there was not a dry eye in the room. Even grown men were just bawling.”
Finding Addison was filmed at her parents’ home in Balgownie and a Berkeley Airbnb in April. The film also features local landmarks, including a store where the teenage stars steal a pregnancy testing kit. “Balgownie Mini Mart, they were amazing, and the Balgownie junior soccer club as well – a huge shout-out to them for being so wonderful.”
It’s the second short film success for Francisca, who founded a women-led production company called Blue Sparrow Entertainment in 2020 and describes herself as “an actor by trade”. She first studied acting, then starred in TV shows, including Home and Away.
“That was a really wonderful experience,” she says. “Then Covid hit. I always had a knack for writing… and I decided to make a film.”
The result was Seven Stages, a deeply personal tale. “It’s a story about grief and the loss of my sister, but told through the lens of a couple, and it’s very much an experimental film. It’s a silent film, so there’s no dialogue within it.
“That little film ended up with 21 official selections around the world and won 14 awards, which was crazy, crazy for no budget.”
Francisca was born in Chile, her family left Pinochet’s regime and moved to Australia when she was six. Her sister passed away of leukaemia and, from early childhood, Francisca found storytelling a release. “I became very withdrawn within myself. So a coping mechanism for me with trauma was to go into all of these different worlds. I would play by myself and just create these huge worlds.”
Growing up in 1990s Australia, learning English and fitting in was a challenging time, she remembers. “It was difficult to accept that you were different. But now I celebrate that. My family is still very much traditional Chilean and we all speak Spanish. Culturally, being able to tell stories from my background, my mother’s background … I think it’s really important.”
Fluent Spanish is also handy on US business trips like her current one – Francisca is speaking via Zoom ahead of her first American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles, where she's busy getting "the lay of the land” and investigating pitching styles.
Her family remains her biggest influence, with her mother and sister Alex helping with costumes, set design and catering for Finding Addison. “My mum is an artist and she’s been a huge inspiration throughout my whole life."
To get the film off the ground, Francisca says she was also lucky to meet the Bulli couple behind Ten Alphas Films, husband and wife team, producer Nick Bolton and cinematographer Jess Milne.
“Nick really understood what it was like to try and get films up and going. He’d just had a lot of success with their film Mate, which was long-listed for an Oscar. He was someone that I really felt I could learn a lot from. I was looking for a DOP for Addison and it just so happened that Jess, his beautiful wife, is a director of photography. We were just on the same page visually, creatively.”
In a world where students often work for free, Francisca is proud to have paid everyone on set. Finding Addison had support from the Australian Cultural Fund, plus her own money, donations from family and friends, and crowdfunding.
“For me, collaboration is the most important thing,” she says, thanking Faith Martin (“a phenomenal casting director”), Cutting Edge post-production company (“Marcus Bolton went above and beyond”), Panavision and Screen Illawarra.
It’s her second year as a member of the fast-growing industry body, led by Nick Bolton. “We’ve got such a thriving industry in the Illawarra that’s very much underrated. I think it’s going to explode very quickly.”
Winners of the AACTA Awards – which count Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman as ambassadors – will be announced in February 2024.
Until then, Francisca will keep telling women’s stories.
“Between Jess, Nick and I, we have three or four projects that we’re working on as a collaborative together – three television series and one feature film.
“The feature film is something that’s very important to me.
“It’s a story about infertility and surrogacy very much focused on my sister’s story, because my sister has unexplained infertility.
“I love these really human, powerful female-centric stories that really make people think.”
Screen Illawarra plans to hold a members-only screening of Finding Addison at Headlands in Austinmer. Join www.screenillawarra.com for more information.
