WHO ARE WE?
At Mazgo Productions we are interested in using every resource at our disposal to get young, energetic, and creative voices into Australian cinema. Based in Melbourne, Mazgo functions as a production company, distributor, and most importantly a filmmaking collaborative.
With the means of the internet and cheap accessibility to filmmaking, we now live in a time in which the gatekeeping of the industry is getting harder and those with original engaging ideas have the platform to be heard. We are focusing on storytelling, artistic film making and engaging with a local audience.
Our passion is for inventive, creative cinema not so much focused on realism but emphatically connecting and communicating with people through the visual medium. We want to create an alternative avenue for artists, filmmakers and film goers that is separate from large forign funded studio entertainment, and the hegemony of the screen funding bodies.
If you are intersted in working with Mazgo Productions as a story teller or an artist please contact us so we can try to involve you in one of our current or future projects.
OLIVER TOPP is an Australian filmmaker who first began making terrible films out of duct tape, a broken camera, plastic junk, and stolen editing software. Ten years later, he strives to make not terrible films using a fancier but still broken camera, plastic junk, duct tape and paid for editing software.
During the sweltering hot summer of 2017, he finalisted at Tropfest Jr. where he met Hugo Morgan and then Alessio Mazza shortly after. Over the years the three began to collaborate on one another’s work with increasing frequency amassing a plethora of short films eventually completing their first feature film “Collect Your Roadkill”, a musically driven road trip comedy which Oliver worked on as the cinematographer, producer and vfx artist.
Oliver now studies at AFTRS where he attempts to finish his greatly overdue and overly ambitious high school major work, a stop-motion animated sci-fi with a steadily increasing runtime. He is also developing his first feature film which he plans to shoot in the summer of 2024.
HUGO MORGAN discovered his passion for film at a young age and was encouraged in his path as a director being successfully selected for Trop Jr 2016 and Annual winning awards at the Blue Heeler Film Festival in his local area through high school.
Building from this his mixed-media stop motion artwork was exhibited in the Art Gallery of NSW as part of ARTEXPRESS 2020. Upon leaving school Hugo along with his Mazgo Co-founders undertook the making of an ambitious micro-budget music road trip film across Australia, in which he co-directed, co-edited, and scored. This feature has now garnered moderate indie film festival recognition across the world.
Hugo now studies Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts where he is developing his next feature project and independent directorial debut.
ALESSIO MAZZA At ten years old, Alessio’s hobbies consisted of watching 1950s and 60s films and making skits and short films with his friends. By 15, he had begun to take his passion for filmmaking seriously, winning short film awards at Knoxflix, Blue Heeler Film Festival, receiving an IMEB Associate diploma Speech and Drama award, while also being Onstage nominated for his acting performance of Butch Honeywell.
Co-founding MAZGO Productions alongside Hugo Morgan and Oliver Topp upon graduating highschool, Alessio co-directed, wrote and edited the ambitious microbudget indie Australiana road trip film Collect your Roadkill, which received numerous awards and praise globally. Currently majoring in screen and cultural studies to further learn about the history of cinema, Alessio plans to transition to the Victorian College of the Arts Film and Television course upon completion of his Arts degree, where he can further develop his visual storytelling and filmmaking abilities.
In the meantime, Alessio continues to seek success in landing small acting roles in award winning short films such as Imago, and will also be appearing in the ABC show Stories of Oz.