Grace Wriggles.

Two South-East Queenslanders are swinging hard for next festival season after wrapping exciting new Aussie outback short film, Red River Cowboy.

Written and directed by emerging Gold Coast filmmaker Grace Wriggles and produced by Christian McCarty from Black Phoenix Productions, Red River Cowboy follows the story of vengeful mistress John, who is left to die in the blazing sun of the Aussie outback on the morning of her ex-lover’s wedding day.

John, played by Wriggles, must escape a local farmer, played by Joe vs Carol’s Mitchell Cox, in order to make it back in time for the wedding in a film which promises to deliver a chaotic Aussie western with plenty of twists and turns. Ensemble cast members include Dive Club’s Patch Harrison and emerging filmmaker and actor Bree Paige.

Patch Harrison.

They were not short of support by the local Jackson and Roma community – local farmer John Lethbridge generously offered his 12,000 acre property as a shoot location in Muckadilla in Queensland, which was also the inspiration for the book Origin: Wolf Creek by Greg Mclean.

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Wriggles, who is following up her debut short film and dark comedy, Podcasters, from last year, says: “Financially, emotionally, and physically – this is our biggest and riskiest swing at establishing ourselves in this industry.”

Mitchell Cox.

Following this highly anticipated film, Wriggles’ is also making her mark as a writer. Her first feature-length script Waterpark was recently being longlisted for the Emerging Writer Awards 2024 with the Australian Writers Guild.

McCarty has been producing in the industry for over twenty years, including his award winning film The Suicide Theory(2014) which took out the Grand Jury Award at Dances with Films festival in LA and the Dark Matters Audience award at the Austin Film Festival.

Red River Cowboy is expected to go into festivals for the 2025 season.

Bree Paige.