\u201cAt 16, I saw films that blew my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward several years later and Zak Hilditch is the one making the mind-blowing films. The Curtin graduate\u2019s latest fully funded feature film These Final Hours<\/em> just premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was borne out of a short film called Transmission<\/em> which just so happened to pick up the Best Screenplay Award last year at the Australian Academy Cinema and Television Arts (ACTAA) Awards.<\/p>\n These Final Hours <\/em>is an apocalyptic film. \u201cA 30-year-old man called James is on his way to the party of all parties on the day the world ends when he saves this little girl and has to help her find her father,\u201d Zak summarised over the phone from Melbourne where he was writing a speech and preparing for a Q & A session after the screening. \u201cIt\u2019s a film about doing the right thing before you die.\u201d<\/p>\n His first film Boxing Day<\/em> was made as part of his honours project and was rather dark, and many of his films are about intense situations and emotional experiences. \u201cThere is a sense of optimism though,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s to do with the kind of films that interested me when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n He rattled off a list, and Tarantino movies featured heavily on it. \u201cI was just really lucky as a kid \u2013 my mother let me watch anything on TV and I would stay up watching films. And at 16 or 17, I was just starting to think about what to do with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n It led to him enrolling at Curtin then after graduation returning to tutor. \u201cCurtin has been my career \u2013 without Curtin I would not have made my first film,\u201d he said honestly. \u201cI had a lot of support and it\u2019s great to go back and pass on my experience. Ken Miller and Ron Elliott were wonderful as lecturers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cZak was an exemplary Film and Television student who progressively developed his skills as a director and filmmaker throughout his undergraduate and honours years at Curtin,\u201d Dr Ken Miller said. \u201cOur students have been lucky enough to have him tutor in a number of units and it was fantastic to see him have this opportunity to direct his first fully funded feature film.\u201d<\/p>\n The premiere is not the only coup for Zak. Nathan Phillips of Wolf Creek<\/em> fame stars as James and fellow Curtin alumna Jess De Guow plays Zoe \u2013 only to have her star catapulted higher after getting a role in hit TV show Arrow<\/em> partway through filming. \u201cIt was great to bring her back for the film,\u201d Zak said.<\/p>\n Zak won\u2019t be venturing over East or Hollywood\u2019s way anytime soon though. \u201cI will go wherever the work is but right now there is a lot of money in Perth and a lot of people willing to invest in its film industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n