Impian Films was created with the guiding principals of "hopes and dreams". Stephen Van Mil founded the independent Australian film production company, which has offices in Perth and Sydney.

Impian Films' first feature film is based on the multi-award winning novel The Drowner by Robert Drewe. Development began in 2008 with production expected to begin 2011. West Australian filmmaker Stephen is producing the feature film with Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Productions, and has contracted renowned Australian-based screenwriter John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Creation) for the screen adaptation and Robert Jones (The Usual Suspects, Gosford Park and The Constant Gardener) as the UK Co Producer. Stephen Van Mil also founded Animal Media Australia after 20 years experience in television, print and film.

 
Previous productions include:

• White Lions - King of Kings (2006) for Discovery Network/Animal Planet International.
  
• Saving Orangutans for the Ten Network Australia.
  
• In conjunction with Fork Films, the award winning The Last Trimate (2008) is a world-released documentary narrated by Mel Gibson and featuring the amazing life work of Birute Mary Galdikas and orangutans in Indonesia.

Icon Productions LLC is an American independent production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey.

Icon started when Gibson was having trouble in financing the 1990 film Hamlet. According to Davey, "Mel wanted to make Hamlet and the (Hollywood) agent he had who was helping him with it lasted about five minutes. It's pretty hard to get someone to give you money to make Hamlet. I told him that if he wanted to make this happen, someone had to roll up their sleeves and find the (financing) and he asked me if I wanted to have a crack at it and I agreed."

Unlike most other independents, Icon internally funds most of its development and packaging costs, mainly by Gibson, allowing it to retain creative control of projects through production.

Furthermore, it owns a library of over 250 film titles. In 2008, Icon entered the exhibition business for the first time by purchasing Dendy Cinemas, Australia's largest independent film distributor and art house cinema chain. Icon Productions has also launched the label "Con Artists Productions."

After the financial success of The Passion of the Christ, there was frequent mention of the ability of Icon to function as a mini-studio. However, Bruce Davey has downplayed those expectations, saying, "The last thing we want is to become a studio. We don't want to become that top heavy. We want to be independent and passionate. We don't want to lose the magic."

Gibson has explained that the company’s name was chosen because icon means “image” in Greek, and that the inspiration came from a book on Russian icons in his den.