ACTF News

L-R Jo Boag, Karen Forde, Kathryn Lefroy, Amanda Clarke, Dan Nixon, Alyssa Smedley, Suzanne Ryan, Emma Watkins 

Pirate Size Productions has won the inaugural $20,000 Exclusive Content Pitch Initiative at the Australian Children’s Content Summit to help bring their early childhood project Anna Antarctica to life.

The series, co-created by Dan Nixon and Alyssa Smedley of Melbourne-based Pirate Size Productions, was one of the early childhood projects pitched to the Minderoo Foundation by ACCS delegates in Coffs Harbour.

Anna Antarctica is an animated 26 x 11 minute series aimed at 4- 7-year-olds. It follows Anna and her best friend Skip, who live at a fictional Aurora station in Antarctica, the most advanced mobile scientific research facility in the world.

Anna Antarctica had previously received funding from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the ABC.

The project was one of 180 original ideas supporting early childhood development submitted to Minderoo Pictures as part of the initiative.

Minderoo Executive Director Malinda Wink told TV Tonight: “We were all impressed by the quality of the projects that came through the content pitch call out, and we are excited to announce Anna Antarctica as the winner of our Development Prize. The project strongly aligns with Minderoo’s work on both early childhood development principles, ocean health and climate action.”

Pirate Size Productions says: “At its heart, Anna Antarctica is an optimistic and playful story with a fun scientific edge for kids who love exploration, discovery and adventure. Anna is a seven-year-old girl with a huge imagination, the heart of an explorer and an endless curiosity for life and the world around her. For Anna, every day brings a new discovery just waiting to be explored.

“Together with her best friend Skip and her cheeky Antarctic pals Seal, Penguin and Snowbody, Anna explores the mysteries of the universe and the scientific wonders happening right under her nose.”