Storyd film Run Rabbit Run picked up by Netflix

Entrepreneur Olivia Humphrey has returned to Australia and is investing in films by women writers and directors, including new thriller Run Rabbit Run.

Australian film Run Rabbit Run has been picked up by Netflix.

Perth-based entrepreneur and investor Olivia Humphrey made her money in the US from her love of independent films, setting up a company called Kanopy that licensed films for streaming to universities and public libraries.

Since returning to Australia in 2020 after six years in San Francisco, and selling Kanopy to US private equity giant KKR in 2021, she has now become an investor in independent films, backing Australian women writers and directors.

Her company, Storyd, co-founded in November 2021 with Deanne Weir, who chairs the Sydney Film Festival, is celebrating the sale of one of its first films, horror-thriller Run Rabbit Run, to Netflix.

Written by Adelaide-based author Hannah Kent, Run Rabbit Run is directed by Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale) and stars Sarah Snook, famous for her role in Succession.

Olivia Humphrey. Picture: Juliette Scott

“It has just premiered at Sundance and sold to Netflix, which is really exciting,” says Humphrey.

“It’s a great win for the film and the team. We’re really happy with it.”

Humphrey is also celebrating this month’s release of Blueback, based on Tim Winton’s novel, starring Eric Bana and Mia Wasikowska.

She invested in the film before leaving San Francisco, the start of a personal quest to learn more about the movie-making business.

Set off the Western Australian coast, Blueback also screened at Sundance.

The film saw the lead character, originally a boy in Winton’s book, changed to a girl for the movie.

“I was looking for a new challenge,” Humphrey says.

“I understood a lot about the commercial side of a finished film and a lot about streaming and distribution, but I didn’t know anything about the filmmaking process, so I started investing in films.”

It was when she decided to put money into the film How to Please a Woman that she reconnected with Weir. They had met years before when they were both working at pay television company Austar.

Humphrey invested in Blueback, Robert Connolly’s film based on the novel by Tim Winton.

Both realised they were interested in backing films written and directed by women, and formed their company in 2021 after Humphrey had been released from non-compete conditions related to the sale of Kanopy.

“We realised we were both investing in the same films for the same reason – female-driven stories with a strong female lead, produced by women and directed and written by women,” Humphrey says of Weir.

“The majority of films are written and produced by men. But, as women (we understand) we live in a diverse world, and it is important to have different perspectives.”

Humphrey and Weir also backed last year’s Seriously Red, inspired by Dolly Parton and produced by Gracie Otto.

The two are backing more than a dozen new film projects now in train, all at different stages of production.

They include a film based on Kent’s book, Devotion, a murder-mystery drama based on a book called The Silent Listener by Melbourne writer Lyn Yeowart, which centres on events when she was growing up in rural Victoria; a film called Baby Cat produced by Bus Stop Films about a young woman with Down syndrome; and a documentary on body image in conjunction with the Butterfly Foundation, which helps people with eating disorders.

Humphrey says that film will focus on what can be done to prevent eating disorders and “the stigma associated with body image issues”.

“We are getting some big stars involved and some influencers to help get the message across,” she says.

Another project in its early stages is about a woman bushranger called Jessie, which is just about to start shooting.

Humphrey, who is also involved in philanthropic work and venture capital investing with her husband, Grant, using funds from the sale of their business, explains she is looking to become involved in projects at an earlier stage, including optioning books, so she can have a bigger input in creative decisions.

When she finally sold out of Kanopy in 2021 (having sold down a part interest earlier to a US private equity billionaire, Jahm Najafi, who became a mentor), the company had a catalogue of 30,000 films that were used by millions of students and library members around the world.

Humphrey believes she can use her unique insights from the US film industry – including rights negotiation and distribution on a pay-per-view basis – to develop films based on Australian stories that will appeal to global audiences.

“Having a mindset of what works in America is an advantage in the conversations I’m having with Australian producers, to get them to think about the US market and the UK market and how their films can resonate there without losing the essence of it being an Australian story,” she says.

Humphrey says the word is already out among women in the film industry in Australia who have deluged her and Weir with scripts.

“Deanne and I are having to work hard to manage the amount of scripts we are getting,” she says.

“We are being approached constantly, which is exciting, but we have to be quite careful with the producers and scripts we choose to work with. We don’t necessarily choose scripts where women are defined by their love interest.

“We want to have films where there are real women having interesting conversations with each other.

“They don’t necessarily have to be empowering in every way, but we want to show all sides of women in the characters we are investing in.”