MAYDAY HILL

Matthew Barker is an Australian screenwriter living in rural Victoria, Australia who has been writing for several years. While he enjoys writing in many genres, his favourite is horror, and hopes to develop elevated horror features and television with strong, complex characters within dynamic, innovative stories that stick in people’s minds long after viewing. As a trained counsellor in trauma, grief, and addiction, Matthew aspires to create authentic characters that reflect the real human struggle that brings an added reality to the escapism of horror and which ultimately makes the experience more rewarding to the audience. As a gay man, Matthew wants to reflect under-represented people and communities on the screen such as those from the LGBTIQA+ community, where their story isn’t solely about their difference. Where gay or transgender men and women get to save the day too, just as they do in the real world. Matthew won an Australian Writers’ Guild national screenwriting competition for unproduced screenplays and has had work win or place well in national and international competitions and programs, including being shortlisted in the Australians in Film Gateway LA Screenplay Program. He has had screenplays optioned in Australia and been hired by international producers to rewrite existing IP.

- 2022 - Quarter-finalist in the ScreenCraft Horror Screenwriting Competition for the screenplay MAYDAY HILL

- 2021 - Participated in stage one of Film Victoria, SBS, and ArenaMedia “Originate” program with TV series pilot script ECHOES (included masterclasses with story developer Angeli MacFarlane)

- 2021 - Participated in stage one of the Australians in Film “Untapped” program with the screenplay THEY WILL COME FOR YOU

- 2020 - Best Feature Screenplay - Unproduced - A Night of Horror International Film Festival for the screenplay THEY WILL COME FOR YOU

- 2020 - Selected as one of 8 regional Australian screenwriters to participate in the Write From Home International Mentorship Program for Regional Screenwriters through Screenworks Australia and the Australian International Screen Forum

- 2018 - hired by US production company Best Medicine Productions (BETTER WATCH OUT starring Ed Oxenbould and Dacre Montgomery) to rewrite an existing action/horror screenplay

- 2015 - shortlisted in the Australians in Film Gateway LA Screenplay Program with screenplay TROY TOWN

- 2015 - hired by Stu Levy at TokyoPop (executive producer of PRIEST starring Paul Bettany and Cam Gigandet) to write the big screen adaptation of the graphic novel series THE DREAMING by Queenie Chan

- 2013 - OUT OF NOWHERE rehearsed screenplay reading presented by Australian Writers Guild and Australian Directors Guild directed by Corrie Chen

- 2013 - won Australian Writers Guild’s 50th Anniversary “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” Screenplay Competition for OUT OF NOWHERE

- 2012 - Feature film screenplay MAYDAY HILL optioned by The Filmworks Company, Australia (producers of CREATION written by Ian Collee and starring Paul Bettany