Cameras Roll On ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’

Production has started on the most heart-warming show of 2019.

Filming is currently underway on the heart-warming factual series Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds. Co-produced by ABC and Endemol Shine Australia, the series is based around a unique social experiment where a group of older retirement home residents are brought together with a group of pre-schoolers, to see if this inter-generational contact can improve the health and wellbeing of the older people, thus helping them to lead happier, and healthier lives.

Over a period of seven weeks, our two groups of ten elderly and ten pre-schoolers will be brought together for planned, mixed activities each day in a specially designed nursery built within a care/retirement home. Here they will share a structured timetable that encourages physical activity, social interaction, learning and happiness.

This social experiment will be run by a team of geriatric experts and a child education expert who will scientifically analyse and monitor the progress of both groups throughout, tracking quantifiable and measurable changes (both physical and mental) that results from the experiment to the health and wellbeing of the older group, and correspondingly, the developmental growth of the children (to chart the changes in language, cognition, movement, and emotional and social development).

Endemol Shine Australia CEO, Mark Fennessy says, “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds is a carefully crafted mix of Science, Heart & Humour. With its unique cast of characters from two fundamentally different worlds it has the potential to be the most insightful, uplifting and talked about show of 2019”.

“Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds is another fine example of what the ABC does best – asking questions and finding solutions to important issues in our society,” says Steve Bibb, ABC Head of Factual. “This clever and inspiring series does that with incredible warmth and great heart as it explores the increasing isolation and loneliness of older Australians.”

‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ is an Endemol Shine Australia production in association with the ABC which will be aired in 2019.

Endemol Shine Australia Receives Three AACTA Award Nominations

MasterChef Australia and Australian Survivor both nominated in the Best Reality Series category whilst Gogglebox goes up for Best Entertainment.

The 2018 AACTA nominations have been announced, with Endemol Shine Australia up for three awards. MasterChef Australia and Australian Survivor have both been nominated in the Best Reality Series category, whilst Gogglebox Australia is up for the AACTA Award for Best Entertainment Program.

It’s the eighth time MasterChef has been nominated, and the nomination follows four consecutive wins in the Best Reality Series category. Along with Australian Survivor, it will compete with My Kitchen Rules, The Real Housewives Of Melbourne and The Single Wives for this year’s award.

Gogglebox goes up against Little Big Shots, Hard Quiz, Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery and The Weekly With Charlie Pickering in the Best Entertainment Program category. 

The 2018 AACTAs mark the 60th anniversary of AFI | AACTA and see 395 individuals from 105 productions competing for a total of 54 Awards.

AFI | AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella, says, “We’re thrilled to see such a wealth of screen talent recognised at this year’s Awards – from some of the earliest AFI Award winners to many emerging and early-career practitioners – and we look forward to celebrating their fine achievements, as well as our 60th Anniversary as the longest standing national screen culture and industry development organisation at the 2018 AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel in Sydney.”

The winners of the 2018 AACTA Awards will be announced at an industry luncheon on Monday 3 December and The AACTA Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 5 December.

Building Begins On Lego Masters

Nine’s brand-new family entertainment series will be hosted by Hamish Blake and feature fanatical brick builders from all around Australia.

Production has commenced on Endemol Shine Australia’s brand-new family entertainment series, LEGO MASTERS®.

Bringing together the most fanatical brick builders from around Australia, the scene is set for a competition unlike any other where eight pairs of LEGO-loving characters surprise and delight with the funniest battle of the bricks ever staged.

Unashamed LEGO tragic and big kid at heart, Hamish Blake will be in his element as host and ringleader of the fun, ably assisted by judge and resident LEGO expert Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught. As the Southern Hemisphere’s only LEGO-certified professional – and one of only fourteen in the world – no one is better placed than The Brickman to put these talented amateur builders to the test.

We’re expecting nothing short of jaw-dropping, show-stopping models that must be seen to be believed from each of our eight teams taking part. There will be challenges to test the LEGO lovers’ design and engineering skills, their storytelling ability and adaptability when all is not as it seems. With many hours of intricate building ahead, stamina and a sense of humour will be key as they are pushed to their LEGO limits.

Michael Healy, Director of Television for Network Nine, says: “We are very excited about LEGO MASTERS. It will redefine family entertainment in 2019 because there’s no greater brand that resonates more with families than LEGO.”

With $100,000 in prize money up for grabs and 2.5 million LEGO bricks in play, the possibilities are mind-bogglingly big. The team who consistently impresses with the best use of bricks, plates, tiles, studs, knobs and tubes – that’s LEGO to the rest of us – will walk away victorious, LEGO trophy held aloft and bragging rights intact for the rest of their days.

Filled with passion, imagination and creativity, LEGO MASTERS® is a production for Nine set to air in 2019.

US Remake Of Endemol Shine Australia’s Drama Sisters Announced

Annie Weisman and Jason Katims will produce the one-hour drama for Fox under a competitive put pilot commitment.

Endemol Shine Australia-produced drama, Sisters, has been picked up by Fox in the US under a put pilot deal. The one-hour drama will be produced by co-executive producer Annie Weisman (Desperate Housewives, The Path) and executive producer Jason Katims (The Path, About A Boy, Parenthood).

Fox made the put pilot commitment “in a very competitive situation” and has Weisman and Katims producing in a team that also includes the original series’ co-creator, ESA Drama Producer Imogen Banks (Offspring, Puberty Blues), Jeni Mulein, Universal TV and Endemol Shine North America president Sharon Levy.

Imogen Banks co-created the original Sisters with Jonathan Gavin (Offspring, The Beautiful Lie) for Network TEN. Starring Maria Angelico, Antonia Prebble, and Lucy Durack, the show premiered on TEN in 2017 and launched in the US as a Netflix Original in September 2018.

Sisters follows the story of only child Julia Bechly who finds her life turned upside down when her father is forced to reveal that, over the course of his career as a fertility doctor, he used his own sperm to conceive dozens of children. As Julia determinedly begins to track down an increasingly large group of siblings, she discovers only two sisters among a veritable sea of brothers – both sisters quickly become a part of her redefined family.

The story has parallels with that of real-life US fertility doctor, Donald Cline, who was sued and given a 365-day suspended jail sentence in 2017 when it came to light that he supplemented his sperm for the fertilisation of around 50 unsuspecting women throughout his career.

Sisters will be a Fox co-production with Universal in association with Endemol Shine North America.

Endemol Shine Australia Honoured In An Array Of International Awards

MasterChef Australia picks up a national Asian Academy Creative Award for Best Non Scripted Entertainment whilst Family Food Fight wins the International Content Innovation Award for Factual Entertainment Program of the Year.

Endemol Shine Australia has been recognised in a raft of international awards and nominations, including in the Asian Academy Creative Awards and the International Content Innovation Awards, both held in Cannes, France this week. 

MasterChef Australia picked up the national Best Non Scripted Entertainment Award for Season 10 at the Asian Academy Creative Awards last night (Monday 15 October), whilst Family Food Fight scooped an International Content Innovation Award for Factual Entertainment Program of the Year in Cannes the night before.

Having been named one of the national winners in this year’s Asian Academy Creative Awards, Masterchef has been judged by industry professionals as “the very best in [its] own nation” and will represent Australia (one of sixteen countries) in the Gala Finals held at Capitol Theatre in Singapore this December.

Speaking about this year’s nominations, Asian Academy Creative Awards President Michael McKay says, “We gathered expert judges from right across the region to assess the work in each country and after the appointed panel had cast their votes, there were instances where a fraction of a point separated the shows”.

Australia has eighteen national wins under its belt, with MasterChef recognised alongside Method Studios’ work on Game of Thrones (Best Visual or Special FX), Network TEN’s The Project (Best News Programme) and ABC’s Hard Quiz (Best Game or Quiz Programme) among others.

Back at home, four of our talented editors – Melinda George (MasterChef, S10 Ep18), Federico Felixberto (Australian Ninja Warrior, S2 Ep1), Leanne Cole and Louise Massignat (Married At First Sight, S5 Ep31) – have been nominated in the Best Reality category at the Australian Screen Editors Guild Ellie Awards, which will be announced later this year. Congratulations to all!