That Perfect Specimen, by The Hallway ECD & partners, Simon Lee, and Hixon Films’ Alex Weinress, has won two Hollywood Film Festival selections won’t surprise anyone who has seen the film. It really is quite wonderful. Satirical comedy isn’t easy. Perfect Specimen walks the tightrope with unwavering balance. The film’s observations are perfectly sharp and its humour has perfect timing and perfect restraint.

It’s a perfectly satirical look at the egotistical world of tech entrepreneurs and their often deluded conviction in less than convincing “world changing” ideas.

It wasn’t even fully scripted before it was made, so kudos to Lee, who also plays the film’s protagonist, Edward James, and to Weinress who navigates the plot. The film came into being when Weinress and Lee were supposed to be shooting a documentary about the founder of a Sydney tech accelerator company. 

“Our interview subject cancelled at the last minute,” Lee explained. “So it was just me, Alex, a Black Magic camera and a burning desire to make something. I asked Alex to jump in front of the camera but he told me to bugger off, so I had to step in. He pressed record and started asking questions and Edward James answered back.”

The thirteen-minute film is about Edward James, the proud founder, CEO and sole employee of Perfect Specimen, a digital platform via which he sells his sperm to want-to-be mothers looking to birth “exceptional quality offspring”. Though he enthusiastically describes his “disruptive repro-tech” company as “The Uber of the sperm donation industry”, Edward is approaching his mid-forties and facing some tough challenges. He’s struggling to scale the business, his seed will soon be past its prime and the need to conserve his sperm for his customer base has made it difficult for him to hold down a long term romantic relationship. Edward is alone and increasingly lonely, in turmoil and with an uncertain path ahead. He is sliding headfirst into a uniquely potent midlife crisis.

That the creative relationship between Weinress and Lee stretches back ten years is also an unsurprising fact given that the film is flawlessly smooth. The pair’s joint credit list includes two award winning Hallway web series, Sebastien International, for Servcorp and The Mane Event for Qantas.

Perfect Specimen can be viewed as part of The Hollywood Comedy Shorts Festival’s online program that runs from December 11-13. 

Read the full story of Perfect Specimen’s birth here.