The little Aussie film that is winning over US audiences

WHEN a sympathy card is passed around at work, it is probably best not to mistake it for a farewell card and write something crude.

A more colourful scene from Drawcard.

THE Aussie short film Drawcard has just won the People’s Choice Award at the LA Comedy Festival.

The short flick was written by Adam Dunn and Thomas Mitchell, with Dunn also playing the main character. It’s about an everyman who screws up at work and hilarity ensues, but it’s not all laughs.

The film looks at office worker Ed who draws something crude on what he thinks is a farewell card to a douchey colleague. But he later finds out it’s actually a sympathy card for his boss, whose mother died.

“When we were watching the audience and hearing them as they watched the movie there were silence and groans, which is exactly what the film was. We want the audience to laugh and die a little on the inside,” Dunn told news.com.au

Dunn and Mitchell have a self-confessed “sick and twisted” sense of humour and thought what better outlet than film for their jokes.

Dunn and Mitchell

“We were both looking for another outlet and we have a similar sense of humour and would often spend time talking sh*t and we thought why don’t we do something productive with this,” Mitchell said.

The film was also a finalist at Tropfest, this year. The boys attribute the US fandom around the film to its universal character and setting.

“It’s such a universal environment and people can relate to working in an office. It exists everywhere. The setting is quite familiar to everyone. The character is an underdog, an everyman who can’t catch a break,” Mitchell said.

Following the film screening in LA the pair had people coming up to them, relating the character to someone in their office.

The film was shot in a single day, at Dunn’s brother’s office. Not a bad feat by cast and crew, especially director Antonio Oreña-Barlin, who the boys credit with bringing their words to life.

“He did such a great job to create almost exactly what we had originally envisioned,” Dunn said.