About Us

James Scott-Mitchell has been called; “one of the architects of the Australian film industry.” And with good reason…

When James graduated from Knox Grammar, opportunities abounded for a young man with ambition. After watching ‘The Squatter’s Daughter’ a film that would leave a lasting impression, James came to idolise Captain Frank Hurley (whom he would later befriend) and more significantly, began a lifelong love affair with the silver screen.

James went on to study Commerce at the University of New South Wales, and this gave him a fiscal understanding that would serve him well in various boardrooms, as well as on the numerous committees he sat and the myriad of companies he would succor.

The genesis of Allanbank germinated with the words of Prime Minister John Gorton who during his tenure, committed the Federal Government to re-establishing a local motion picture industry capable of churning out high quality films and television programs that could be commercially viable on the world stage. His speech captivated young James when he said; “In this business, film-makers have to understand that it is a commercial enterprise. It is not ‘show-show’, it is called ‘show business’.” These words resonated loudly with James who would immediately embrace the concept that creative expression could, and should, be commercially viable.

Having worked for Hoyts Theatres Ltd (then a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox New York) James learnt the commercial side of film distribution and marketing. Whilst enjoying his ‘field tuition’ he continued to embrace academia, studying at both the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and the University of Western Australia.

The 80s would perhaps deliver James his greatest success. He met, whilst he was head of The Film Producers , the very beautiful and equally intelligent Jennifer Kretzschmar (a feisty redhead who shared his love of films) and who like James, was a champion of creative expression. And as though scripted in one of the classics from the Golden Age of cinema, just twelve months later, James proposed.

Jennifer’s values and opinions as to the importance of developing content that is both artistically meritorious and commercially viable aligned wonderfully with James’.

‘Allanbank’ (which pays homage to James’ family’s property of the same name) was incorporated in 1997 and was established primarily to become a conduit between the creative and financial communities. The co-founders were determined that it would become a unique and innovative example within the film & television and trans-media industries as to what could be, when commercial accountability was harnessed to exciting creative expression.

The company, by extension, was the embodiment of James’ vast commercial knowledge of, and expertise within, the film industry, along with Jennifer’s expertise in film & television project development & management, post production, music production, publishing and, business development within the entertainment industries. They were Australia’s Tracy and Hepburn such was their influence and reach. Please have a look at James’ and Jennifer’s respective biographies which are included separately on this website. There simply isn’t enough space to do them justice here.

Today Jennifer is the company’s CEO and James its Chairman. The company boasts a number of incredibly talented personnel across all facets of the film & television and trans-media industries including but not limited to; creative, administrative and legal, and it offers landmark services from production to financial structures and capital raising.

It would be remiss not to note here (in case you don’t read James’ biography) that he was responsible for conceptualising and leading a consortium which manifested the establishment of The Australia Network (formerly Television Australia) securing an initial AUD$39 million in funding from Hambros Bank whist garnering bi-partisan political support. He also led a consortium to establish Division 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act with then Federal Treasurer John Howard for the film and entertainment industry which created the biggest infusion of funding ever seen into the production of feature films in Australia. Total budgets for 10BA film projects between 1980 and 2007 stands at AUD$1.794 billion. Today it is estimated that an average of $122.7 million per year is invested under the instrument that James was a principal architect of.

Allanbank stands as both a pioneer and innovator; its experience, expertise and human capital are without peer in the Australian film and transmedia landscape.