Sydney Film Festival announces first 22 films for 2022
6 April 2022
The Sydney Film Festival has unveiled the first twenty-two movies that will be featured at this year’s event. Among their number is The Passengers of the Night (Les passagers de la nuit), directed by French filmmaker Mikhaël Hers, and starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, as a woman trying to get her life back on track.
Election night, 1981. Socialist François Mitterrand has been declared president and there are hopeful celebrations across Paris. But it is not a happy night for Elisabeth (Gainsbourg, Antichrist), whose marriage has come to an unexpected end. She must find the means to support herself and two teenaged children. When she lucks upon a job on her favourite talkback radio show, she meets Talulah (Noée Abita, Slalom, SFF 2021), a charismatic young woman who is struggling, and invites her home. Free-spirit Talulah has a lasting impact, inspiring confidence in each of the family members.
I couldn’t find a trailer, but did locate a clip of this scene from the film.
RELATED CONTENT
film, Mikhaël Hers, Sydney Film Festival, trailer
Elon Musk pushes for Twitter free speech and edit button
6 April 2022
Space X, and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk recently bought a nine percent stock holding in social networking service Twitter, and has been given a seat on their board of directors. Concerns about free speech on the platform may have been behind the move:
On March 25, Musk posted a Twitter poll, writing, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
Musk is also keen to for users to have the ability to edit tweets, a feature many people have been repeatedly asking for. Twitter say they are currently testing an edit button, which will soon be available for all members.
RELATED CONTENT
Elon Musk, social media, Twitter
Little Tornadoes, screenplay co-written by Christos Tsiolkas
6 April 2022
Australian novelist Christos Tsiolkas, author of Seven and a Half, teamed up with Melbourne based filmmaker Aaron Wilson to write the screenplay for Little Tornadoes, trailer, which premiered at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival:
Introverted* Leo is a steelworker at his small town’s local plant. After his wife abandons him without explanation, leaving him to care for their two young children, he is bereft – barely able to cook a decent meal or keep the household running. So when a recently-arrived Italian colleague suggests that his sister, Maria, act as surrogate homemaker, Leo reluctantly accepts. But can one woman’s warm, nurturing presence fill the void left by another, and can Leo yield to the winds of change?
Little Tornadoes is set in 1971, and was filmed in Tocumwal, in New South Wales, where Wilson grew up. In a voiceover in the trailer, one of the characters utters the words “so long ago, it was a different country.” I’m not sure of the context of her words, but here the film somehow feels more like it was set in 1921 rather than 1971. Little Tornadoes arrives in Australian cinemas on Thursday 12 May 2022.
*Leo’s either an introvert, or he’s reserved. You cannot be introverted, just like you cannot be called blonded if you have blond hair, right? Pedantic I know…
RELATED CONTENT
Aaron Wilson, Christos Tsiolkas, film, trailer
Where the Crawdads Sing tops Dymocks Top 101 books 2022 poll
5 April 2022
Where the Crawdads Sing, by American novelist Delia Owens, has emerged as the winner of the Dymocks Top 101 books 2022 poll. A film adaptation, directed by Olivia Newman, will show in Australian cinemas from Thursday 14 July 2022, by the looks of things.
Also among the top ten titles voted for in the Australian bookshop’s poll, are The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and The Happiest Man on Earth, by Eddie Jaku.
RELATED CONTENT
The 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist
5 April 2022
The 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist was announced today, and sees fifty-eight works of writing, spread across ten categories, vie for prize money worth $285,000:
- Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000)
- Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction ($40,000)
- Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry ($30,000)
- Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature ($30,000)
- Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature ($30,000)
- Multicultural NSW Award ($20,000)
- Indigenous Writers’ Prize, presented biennially ($30,000)
- UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing ($5,000)
- Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting ($30,000)
- Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting ($30,000)
The Shut Ins by Katherine Brabon, TAKE CARE by Eunice Andrada, Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen, Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah, After Story by Larissa Behrendt, and Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss, are among contenders for the prizes.
Winners will be named on Monday 16 May 2022, being the commencement of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
RELATED CONTENT
RÜFÜS DU SOL win at the 2022 Grammy Awards
5 April 2022
Sydney based dance/electronic act RÜFÜS DU SOL won the Best Dance/Electronic Recording award for their track Alive at the 2022 Grammy Awards, held yesterday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vagas.
Other Australian musicians, and their work, nominated this year were The Kid LAROI for Best New Artist, Shot In The Dark by AC/DC for Best Rock Performance, Power Up by AC/DC for Best Rock Album, Mood Valiant by Hiatus Kaiyote for Best Progressive R&B Album, and Shot In the Dark by AC/DC for Best Music Video. Good to see AC/DC, who have been working for nearly fifty years, feature so prominently.
RELATED CONTENT
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson
5 April 2022
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, the new novel from Australian stand-up comedian and author Benjamin Stevenson, has a synopsis to match its eye-catching title, a veritable contender for novel title of the year award if there were such a thing:
I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder. Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up. The thing is, us Cunninghams don’t really get along. We’ve only got one thing in common — we’ve all killed someone. My brother. My step-sister. My wife. My father. My mother. My sister-in-law. My uncle. My stepfather. My aunt. Me.
The quirkiness doesn’t end with the premise and name though, even Stevenson’s way of story-telling deviates slightly from the norm, he tells us how the novel ends on the first page, as he explains to Australian critic Beejay Silcox, writing for The Guardian:
Benjamin Stevenson has a cinephile buddy who seeks out spoilers. Once an ending is good and ruined, he can focus on the film. Stevenson’s new novel was inspired by this back-to-front tactic. “I thought: ‘what if I spoiled the entire book on the first page,” the author explained in a recent interview, “can I build a crime novel out of it?”‘.
Maybe there’s something in taking such an approach… Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone has been optioned for a limited series adaptation by Home Box Office (HBO).
RELATED CONTENT
The Ukraine, an excerpt from the novel by Artem Chapeye
5 April 2022
An excerpt from The Ukraine, written by Ukrainian author Artem Chapeye, published in The New Yorker. Chapeye is currently serving in the Ukrainian army, fighting the Russian invasion. He also spoke with Deborah Treisman, fiction editor for The New Yorker, about defending Ukraine, and expresses a sentiment that may resonate with some:
What’s most amazing, I think, is that most of us didn’t even expect so much resistance and solidarity from ourselves.
The Ukraine will be published in English in 2023.
RELATED CONTENT
The flight of the drone, Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg
4 April 2022
Go to full screen and take-in this stunning drone fly-through at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, Tesla’s European manufacturing facility.
RELATED CONTENT
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes
4 April 2022
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, trailer, directed by Emma Cooper for Netflix, explores the circumstances surrounding the 1962 death of American actor Marilyn Monroe.
[The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes] explores the mystery surrounding the death of movie icon Marilyn Monroe through previously unheard interviews with her inner circle.
While Monroe’s death was ruled suicide through a barbiturate overdose, some people believe Monroe was murdered, despite a police investigation finding no evidence of foul play.
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes goes to air on Wednesday 27 April 2022.
RELATED CONTENT