Floodland, a documentary about the Lismore floods, by Jordan Giusti

Showing all posts tagged: Australian film

Floodland, a documentary about the Lismore floods, by Jordan Giusti

15 May 2025

Lismore, a city located in northern NSW, Australia, suffered catastrophic flooding in 2017, and again in 2022. During the latter event, flood waters reached unprecedented levels, almost completely submerging some buildings in the process.

Floodlands, trailer, a documentary directed by Melbourne based filmmaker Jordan Giusti (Instagram page), is a up close look at the devastation caused by the flooding, and the impact on the residents of the local community.

Floodlands will premier at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, where it will screen on the evening of Saturday 14 June 2025. The film is also a finalist in the festival’s Documentary Australia Award.

The grim reality of filmmaking in Australia: the glam of Hollywood it is not

7 April 2025

Tangentially related to last Thursday’s post… Australian actor and filmmaker Matthew Holmes (The Biscuit Effect, Twin Rivers, The Legend of Ben Hall, and The Cost), speaks out in an open letter about the lamentable state of the Australian film industry:

All my films have won awards at film festivals and received fair to excellent critical praise. They have been sold and distributed worldwide to Showtime, HBO, Stan, Prime Video, Apple TV+, SBS, Vudu, Tubi, Peacock, 9GEM, and Foxtel and they’ve been released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Yet, the financial return I’ve seen personally from all four films combined would barely amount to $6,000.

Certainly there are successful, well-off, Australian filmmakers.

Yet it is defies belief that a director like Holmes, who’s made a number of award winning, and well received features, is in the predicament he finds himself in. Holmes isn’t alone. Other Australian directors, with quality work to their names, struggle to obtain funding, while other, far inferior offerings (names not being named) get the green light.

Wake in Fright, Ted Kotcheff’s Australian outback classic, restored by Mark Hartley

7 March 2025

Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 drama/thriller Wake in Fright, trailer, set in the Australian outback, is being re-released after being remastered by Australian film director Mark Hartley.

Wake in Fright may not be a horror film in the conventional sense, but to be trapped alone, in a mining town in the middle of no where, full of hard drinking, gun-totting men, who slaughter kangaroos for leisure, might make it seem that way.

But Wake in Fright was lucky to see the light day again.

The camera negatives were lost soon after the film’s 1971 theatrical run, and turned up in a rubbish bin in the US city of Pittsburgh in 2002. Hartley commenced work to restore the film several years ago, collaborating with Charlie Ellis, who did the colour correction.

That’s not a knife: iconic Australian film Crocodile Dundee gets recut

3 February 2025

The knife, the editing room knife, has recently been taken to ocker Australian film Crocodile Dundee.

Producers deemed the slapstick comedy — that swept the once Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger, and television personalty Paul Hogan, to big screen fame in 1986 — to be out of touch with the expectations of contemporary movie audiences. This necessitated a number of “considered edits”, says Garry Maddox, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald:

Updating classic films can sometimes upset fans — there was a ruckus when George Lucas had Han Solo defending himself from bounty hunter Greedo rather than firing the first shot in a 1997 special edition of Star Wars — but the long tradition of creating new versions includes Francis Ford Coppola with both Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part III and Ridley Scott with Blade Runner.

Scenes from the film — set between the Australian outback and New York City — where Mick Dundee, AKA Crocodile Dundee, gropes a cross-dresser in a bar, and later a woman at a party, have been removed, while others have been extended. The re-edited version of the film is to be called Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut, and will henceforth become the standard edition of the story.

Big Chef, Little Chef by Kerrod Cooper wins LUMIX 72-hour filmmaking challenge

19 September 2023

Sydney based Australian filmmaker and editor Kerrod Cooper has been named winner of the inaugural LUMIX seventy-two hour filmmaking challenge, with a short film titled Big Chef, Little Chef. Cooper’s production is a glimpse into the life of a troubled TV chef, portrayed by Sydney based actor Danny Kim, as he films one of his shows.

In Big Chef, Little Chef, a charismatic children’s show presenter — in an empathetic performance by Danny Kim — whisks young viewers into a culinary adventure filled with laughter and learning. But behind the cheerful facade, he must grapple with a simmering internal struggle as the hustle of the kitchen mirrors the intensity of his emotional past.

After opening for entries earlier this year, ten contenders were invited in July to make a short film of three to six minutes duration, within seventy-two hours. They also had to work to the theme of broken, and incorporate an egg into their work, surely no small ask on a tight time frame, but something Big Chef, Little Chef achieves without blinking it seems.

The works of all ten shortlisted filmmakers can be seen here.

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Australian film, film, filmmaking

The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter, with Hugo Weaving

8 August 2023

A scene from The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter.

The Rooster, trailer, is the debut feature of Australian actor turned filmmaker Mark Leonard Winter, starring veteran actor Hugo Weaving, and Phoenix Raei. The Rooster had its world premiere on Saturday 5 August 2023, at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). This sounds like a brooding, atmospheric, Australian feature not to be missed:

Dan (Raei, Below, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019; Clickbait) works in a remote police outpost in regional Victoria, but when a childhood friend is discovered dead following an incident at the local high school, his judgement and credentials are thrown into question. Consumed with guilt and suspended from the force, Dan decides to camp out in the forest, where he encounters a cranky jazz-listening, shotgun-toting, ping-pong-obsessed misanthrope (Weaving, Lone Wolf, MIFF Premiere Fund 2021; Measure for Measure, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019). At first transactional, this bond soon becomes transformative for the broken men. But, surrounded by trees, far away from any trace of civilisation, is everything really as it seems?

I’m still looking for details about a wider theatrical release for The Rooster, but it will screen several times during MIFF, between now and Sunday 13 August 2023.

Sigrid Thornton joins the Australian Film Walk of Fame

27 July 2023

Melbourne based Australian actor Sigrid Thornton was last night inducted onto the Australian Film Walk of Fame, at a ceremony at the Ritz Cinema, in Randwick, Sydney, where the Walk of Fame is located. Similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, in California, Australian actors are likewise honoured by a star embossed emblem on the footpath outside the Ritz Cinema.

Thorton’s prolific acting career, in film, television, and stage, spans five decades. Her film credits include The Getting of Wisdom, Snapshot, The Man From Snowy River, Face To Face (which I wrote about here), and Slant, the 2022 debut feature of Australian filmmaker James Vinson.

Thornton joins other acclaimed Australian actors who have a star on the Walk, including Deborah Mailman, Leah Purcell, Gary Sweet, Roy Billing, and Claudia Karvan.

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Australian film, film, Sigrid Thornton

The Australian LUMIX 72-hour short filmmaking challenge

14 June 2023

Applications are open until Monday 26 June 2023 for the inaugural Australian LUMIX seventy-two hour filmmaking challenge. To be in the running, aspiring entrants need to submit a film clip of thirty to sixty seconds duration. From there, ten selected filmmakers will be invited to make a short film three to six minutes long, and will have seventy-two hours to do so. Check the details here.

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Australian film, film, filmmaking

Acting is not a glamorous career says Russell Crowe

7 December 2022

New Zealand born Australian actor Russell Crowe, also president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, speaking at the AACTA Awards this evening:

“The perception of glamour is merely a marketing tool that we take advantage of when it suits us. The reality of a creative life is workdays that never finish, crippling imposter syndrome, and the juggling act of trying to find a way to make your living in the gig economy,” said Crowe.

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Australian film, film, Russell Crowe

Elvis directed by Baz Luhrmann wins eleven AACTA Awards

7 December 2022

Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has cleaned up at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, held at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion tonight, with his latest feature Elvis.

Among the eleven ACCTA Awards haul for the Elvis Presley biopic, were best director, best film, best lead actor, going to Austin Butler in the title role, and best supporting actress to Olivia DeJonge, for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley.

Other productions to be recognised included The Stranger, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, and River, which won the best documentary ACCTA. Full list of winners here.

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Australian film, Baz Luhrmann, film

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