One of the crucial roles of the lottery is to help fund community projects, and one recent project from Lottery West is seeing a great deal of mainstream success. Paper Planes, a film funded by Lottery West grants, has made its debut in theatres and is seeing a very positive response from critics.

Papers Planes is a family drama about a young boy from New South Wales who dreams of competing in the World Paper Plane Championships in Japan. It stars Sam Worthington (Avatar, Clash of the Titans), David Wenham (300, Van Helsing), Terry Norris and Ed Oxenbould. The film made its debut on January 15 2015, and made $1.7 million at the box office during its first weekend.

So far, the film has been well-received by critics and has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Lottery West officials are pleased with the performance of the film so far. The lottery provider offered funding for the production through ScreenWest, which distributes grant money to the screen industry in Western Australia. In 2013/14, Lottery West provided $7.6 million in funding for ScreenWest films.

“Paper Planes is clearly resonating with audiences, and it’s great to see a Western Australian film be such a hit,” says Ian Booth, Chief Executive of ScreenWest. In addition to being a testament to the filmmaking talent in WA, Paper Planes also showcases the state as an ideal filming location. In many scenes throughout Paper Plans, Perth actually doubled as Tokyo and Sydney.

Next month, Paper Planes will be screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. It has already made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, so it is getting quite a lot of attention worldwide. We are pleased to see a LotteryWest project experience global success.

About the Author

George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.